What is Instant Messaging all About?

Instant Messaging is a collection of technologies to create a real-time text-based communication between two or more participants over the internet or some form of network. Instant Messaging actually began in the mid-1960’s but did not become popular until the early 1990’s which America Online created “AIM (America Online Instant- Messenger)”. Instant Messenger has expanded beyond the internet and beyond AOL. Within the past 5 years, Instant Messenger has gone from a source of entertainment to a vital piece of Corporate America's daily operations. Many employers are using many different forms instant messaging to communicate with each other instead of making phone calls or getting up from their desks to discuss issues. Instant Messaging is beyond AIM and many companies have created their own form of instant messaging to satisfy their customers. Some of these instant messaging types includes: AIM, G-Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Blackberry Messenger, MSN Messenger (Windows Live Messenger), Oracle Beehive, Microsoft Exchange, Skype, VZOchat, Xfire, Facebook, iChat, IBM Lotus Sametime, eBuddy and many more different types of ways to message. Although many of these instant messaging avenues can be used for entertainment, they are also used to conduct business and satisfy the needs of employees daily work efforts. It is a silent form of communication, which does not disturb surrounding employees. This blog will discuss many of the positive and negative aspects of using instant messaging in the work place. This blog will also educate you regarding the newly updated methods of instant messaging, the messaging affect on the progress of the company, and how it affects the performance of the employees. I hope you will find this blog insightful and that you will learn that updates in technology directly affects our lives in our workplace.