Instant Messaging

"Instant messaging" is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text messages. "Instant messages" are sent via computers that are simultaneously active and connected to the Internet, or within an organization, to a local network.
Photo credit: Andrew Fishbitt
Instant messaging differs from traditional e-mail in the fact that communications can be sent and received instantly.
It is also true - though most instant messaging uses today ignore this fact - that instant messaging does not require those very messages to be always exchanged in real-time, in each and every situation.
That means, that as instant messengers will gradually become more familiar tools to a greater number of users, it will become increasingly common to use IM also for non-instantaneous/asynchronous communications.
While until today most instant messaging application have required the download and use of a dedicated client program we are now seeing the emergence of instant messaging tools that allow access to major instant messaging networks directly from any Internet connected web browser, PDA or mobile phone.
"In early instant messaging programs, each letter appeared as it was typed, and when letters were deleted to correct typos this was also seen in real time. This made it more like a telephone conversation than exchanging letters.
These services owe many ideas to an older (and still popular) online chat medium known as Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
In early instant messaging programs each character appeared as it was typed. The UNIX "talk" command shown in these screenshots was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s."(Source: Wikipedia)
In modern instant messaging programs, the other party in the conversation generally only sees each line of text right after a new line is started.
Most instant messaging systems allow the user to set an online status or away message, so peers get notified whenever the user is available, busy, or away from the computer.
On the other hand, people are not forced to reply immediately to incoming messages. This way, communication via instant messaging can be less intrusive than communication via phone, which is partly a reason why instant messaging is becoming more and more important in every day business and academic use.
What really characterizes instant messaging from other forms of text messaging applications is in fact the use of an indicator of "presence", which enables the user of an instant messaging applications to rendez-vous with his/her counterparties and see their availability status.
Instant messaging typically boosts communication and allows easy collaboration. In contrast to e-mails or phone, the parties know whether the peer is available.
The fact that instant messages typically get logged in a local message history closes the gap to the persistent nature of e-mails, facilitating quick, safe, and persistent exchange of information such as URLs of web pages which cannot be easily exchanged when on a telephone communication.

"The Most Popular Instant Messengers"

Yahoo! Messenger is a popular instant messaging client and protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger is free of charge and can be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo! ID", which also allows access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail, where users can be automatically notified when they receive new email. Yahoo instant messenger also includes a security feature which allows the user to be "invisible" to whoever they choose.http://messenger.yahoo.com/

Qnext is a Java-based P2P client that provides instant messaging, audio chat, video conferencing, music streaming, file transfer and file sharing. It can interact with existing instant messaging networks such as Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger and ICQ or used privately. This universal instant messenger keeps you connected to all popular IM's, you can also talk online anywhere around the world for free, host a live video conference or transfer files of any size with complete security. Free download.http://www.qnext.com/

ICQ ("I Seek You") is a program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are also online on the Internet. The most updated ICQ version (5.1) features instant messaging, SMS, voice and video chat, as well as games, customizing tools and other ICQ extras. Windows only. Free download.http://www.icq.com/

Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free, anytime, anywhere in the world. Google Talk allows you to get in touch with an IM, email, or a call (only between Google Talk users) and supports files transfering. Google Talk requires Windows XP/2000 but Mac and Linux users can connect to Google Talk using other IM clients. Free download.http://www.google.com/talk/

Skype is a software that lets you make free PC to PC calls to anyone else on Skype, anywhere in the world. And even though the calls are free, they are really excellent quality. If you and your friends, family or business contacts are using webcams, you can also make free video calls. You can even call landlines and mobile phones at really cheap per minute rates (and there's no setup or subscription fee). Skype is available for Windows, Mac and Linux (video calls are currently available only to Windows and Mac users). Free download.http://www.skype.com/

'Government Website"

Government Website are consists of the different information about the circumtances of our community. Through this site we can able find out what are latest news of our society and also how politician and those persons assign in the different responsibility govern our country. its a good idea and having a government website. its sinificance for the us Filipinos.

Some Examples of Government Website

=Office of the Ombudsman=

The fundamental law of the land gives the Office of the Ombudsman the calling and badge of "Protector of the People". This constitutional appellation captures the nature of its various functions: The Ombudsman protects the people from abuse and misuse of governmental power for personal aggrandizement. It summarizes the role of the Ombudsman in the scheme of governance. The Office of the Ombudsman is clothed with corresponding authority to implement this constitutional mandate with the passage of Republic Act No. 6770, otherwise known as the Ombudsman Act of 1989.
The Office of the Ombudsman is charged with five major functions. These are Public Assistance, Graft Prevention, Investigation, Prosecution and Administrative Adjudication. The framers of the 1987 Constitution defined the role of the Office of the Ombudsman as a watchdog, to monitor the "general and specific performance of government officials and employees." It also serves as a mobilizer, to effectively "utilize the support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the youth sector and other major sectors of society" in the campaign against graft and corruption

"The Bureau of Cuctoms"

aims to provide a customs service more responsive to clients' needs and supportive of government goals, and adhering to world's best practices that every Filipino can be truly proud of.

To date, the BOC boasts of having fully computerized its core import processes. The BOC is starting to computerize its export processes, taking advantage of emerging technologies for more efficient and responsive services. The BOC vows to ensure that all customs offices in major ports all over the country will be linked into a seamless network that will transform the BOC into an agency that serves its clients through a modern technology-based structure complemented by competent, and dedicated personnel.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)

As mandated by the Philippine Constitution, is the country’s independent economic development and planning agency. It is headed by the President as chairman of the NEDA board, with the Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning, concurrently NEDA Director-General, as vice-chairman. Several Cabinet members, the Central Bank Governor, ARMM and ULAP are likewise members of the NEDA Board.

"NEDA BOARD"

The powers and functions of the NEDA reside in the NEDA Board. It is the country's premier social and economic development planning and policy coordinating body.
The Board is composed of the President as chairman, the Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning and NEDA Director-General as vice-chairman, and the following as members: the Executive Secretary and the Secretaries of Finance, Trade and Industry, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, Public Works and Highways, Budget and Management, Labor and Employment, and Interior and Local Government.
Pursuant to Sec. 4 of EO 230, empowering the President to modify the membership of the Board whenever deemed necessary, the following members have been added:
The Secretaries of Health, Foreign Affairs, and Agrarian Reform (per Memorandum Order No. 164, dated 21 March 1988); the Secretary of Science and Technology (per Memorandum Order No. 235, dated 19 May 1989); and the Secretary of Transportation and Communications (per Memorandum Order No. 321, dated 26 September 1990). In addition, the Secretary of Energy (per R.A. No. 7638, approved Dec. 9, 1992) and the Deputy Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (per Section 124 of R.A. No. 7653, approved June 14, 1993) have been added as members of the NEDA Board.

"Social Networking"

Social Networking has become very popular during the past few years, but it can still be very difficult to understand for someone new to social networking. The open-ended nature of social networks add to this. Once signed onto a social network, having answered a few basic profile questions, it is easy to sit back and wonder what you are supposed to do next.
The easiest way to understand social networking is to think of it like high school. You had friends in school, and you knew quite a few people even if you weren't friends with all of them, but it's likely that you didn't know everyone.
If you ever moved to a new school -- or if you can imagine moving to a new school -- you start out with no friends. After attending classes, you start meeting people, and as you meet them, you begin associating with those that have similar interests.
Getting started with social networking is much the same as starting at a new school. At first, you don't have any friends. But as you join groups, you begin to meet people, and you build a friends list of those with similar interests.

Social networking is based on a certain structure that allow people to both express their individuality and meet people with similar interests. This structure includes having profiles, friends, blog posts, widgets, and usually something unique to that particular social networking website -- such as the ability to 'poke' people on facebook or high-five someone.

Profile. This is where you tell the world about yourself. Profiles contain basic information, like where you live and how old you are, and personality questions, like who's your favorite actor and what's your favorite book. Social networks dedicated to a special theme like music or movies might ask questions related to that theme.
Friends. Friends are trusted members of the site that are allowed to post comments on your profile or send you private messages. You can also keep tabs on how your friends are using social networking, such as when they post a new picture or update their profile. Friends are the heart and soul of social networking. It should be noted that not all social networks refer to them as 'friends' -- Linkedin refers to them as 'connections -- but all social networks have a way to designate members as trusted.
Groups. Most social networks use groups to help you find people with similar interests or engage in discussions on certain topics. A group can be anything from "Johnson High Class of '98" to "People Who Like Books" to "Doors Fans". They are both a way to connect with like-minded people and a way to identify your interests. Sometimes, groups are called by other names, such as the 'networks' on Facebook.
Discussions. A primary focus of groups is to create interaction between users in the form of discussions. Most social networking websites support discussion boards for the groups, and many also allow members of the group to post pictures, music, video clips, and other tidbits related to the group.
Blogs. Another feature of some social networks is the ability to create your own blog entries. While not as feature-rich as blog hosts like Wordpress Blogger, blogging through a social network is perfect for keeping people informed on what you are up to.
Widgets. A popular way of letting your personality shine through is by gracing your social networking profile with web widgets. Many social networks allow a variety of widgets, and you can usually find interesting widgets located on widget galleries.

Social Networking is a nice form of entertainment, great for meeting people with similar interests, and can be a very effective business technique for entrepreneurs, writers, actors, musicians or artists.
Most of us have hobbies, or things that we are keenly interested in such as books, television, video games or movies. Social networks allow us to reach out to others that have the same interests.
For example, if you like movies, Flixter can help you decide if you might like a new movie just out at the theaters. If you like music, Last, FM can help you find new artists that are similar to your favorite bands.

'Kinds of Social Networking"

"LiveJournal"

(often abbreviated LJ) is a virtual community where internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source.server softwarethat was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community. LiveJournal's differences from other blogging sites include its well-like features of a self-contained community and some socia networking features similar to other socialnetworking site.
LiveJournal was started in March 1999 byBrad Fitzpatrick as a way of keeping his high school friends updated on his activities. In January 2005, blogging software company six part purchased Danga interactive, the company that operated LiveJournal, from Fitzpatrick.
On December 2,2007, Six Apart announced it was selling LiveJournal to SUP, a Russian media company that had been licensing the LiveJournal brand and software for use in Russia. The new owners unveiled a plan to upgrade the service, engage with the LiveJournal community and launch new products for advertisers. This work would be undertaken by the newly formed American-based company LiveJournal, Inc.On january 6,2009, it was announced that LiveJournal had laid off a majority of their San Francisco-based employees and moved product development and design functions to Russia.

The unit of social networking on LiveJournal is quatenary (with four possible states of connection between one user and another). Two users can have no relationship, they can list each other as friends mutually, or either can "friend" the other without reciprocation. On LiveJournal, "friend" is also used as a verb to describe listing someone as a friend.
The term "friend" on LiveJournal is mostly a technical term; however, because the term "friend" is emotionally loaded for many people, there have been discussions in such LiveJournal communities as lj dav and lj biz, as well as suggerstions about whether the term should be used in this way; this conflict is discussed in greater detail below.
A user's list of friends (friends list, often shortened to flist) will often include several communities and RSS feeds in addition to individual users. Generally, "friending" allows the friends of a user to read protected entries and causes the friends' entries to appear on the user's "friends page." Friends can also be grouped together in "friends groups," allowing for more complex behavior in both of these features.

As with most weblogs, people can comment on each other's journal entries and create a message board-style thread of comments – each comment can be replied to individually, starting a new thread. All users, including non-paying users, can set various options for comments: they can instruct the software to only accept comments from those on their friends list or block anonymous comments (meaning only LiveJournal users can comment on their posts). They can also screen various types of comments before they are displayed, or disable commenting entirely. Users can also have replies sent directly to their registered e-mail address.
In addition, LiveJournal acts as host to group journals, dubbed "communities" (frequently abbreviated as comms). Anyone who joins a community can make posts to it as they would on a regular journal; communities also have "maintainers", ordinary users who run the community and oversee membership and moderation.
Some areas of LiveJournal rely heavily on user contributions and volunteer efforts.[7] In particular, the LiveJournal Support area is run almost entirely by unpaid volunteers. Similarly, the website is translated into other languages by volunteers, although this effort is running down due to a perceived lack of involvement from the LiveJournal administration.
The development of the LiveJournal software has seen extensive volunteer involvement in the past. In Febuary and March 2003, there was even an effort, nicknamed the Bazaar, to boost volunteer performance by offering money in return for "wanted" enhancements or improvements. The Bazaar was intended to follow a regular monthly pay-out scheme, but it ended up paying out only once, after which it was neglected without a word from the management until about one year later when it was shut down.
Nowadays, voluntary contributions to the software are considered for inclusion less and less as the company has acquired more and more paid employees who focus on the organization's commercial interests. This has led to the formation of several forks, many of which introduce new features that users would like to see at LiveJournal, especially features that are brought up repeatedly in LiveJournal's own suggestions journal.
In some cases legal and administrative concerns have led LiveJournal to prohibit some people from volunteering.

"Broadcaster.com "

is a video entertainment community and live webcam social network. The site allows users to create personal profiles, post pictures, upload videos, and chat with the site's other users through a live webcam chat feature. User uploaded video clips can be rated, and the ratings and number of views are published. The site also allows users to embed their live webcam streams into other websites. In addition to the user provided content, Broadcaster.com produces their own video news clips, and provides 3rd party content such as full-length movies, movie trailers, music videos, musician database, and online flash games. Broadcaster News is broadcaster.com's very own pop culture news show. The daily show is hosted by actress Paffrath and features all the latest gossip, red carpet events, exclusive Hollywood parties, music news, and viral vids of the day. The show's review segment is hosted by Andrew Wollman. Broadcaster News recently aired its 200th episode. The crew consists of writer/producers Becky Bain and Seth Goldsmith, director Andy Ryz, and sound technical Michael Miller. Some of the site's video content is formatted to be downloaded to mobile devices such as Sony’s PSP or Apple’s iPod.

In June 2006, IMSI, a developer and publisher of precision design and consumer software solutions, made a strategic decision to become a "pure play” Internet company. The company began divesting its software publishing divisions, made certain key acquisitions, and began operations under the name Broadcaster, Inc. On November 22, 2006, the www.broadcaster.com website was officially launched. Broadcaster has reported rapid growth since its inception. The number of monthly unique visitors grew from 4.7 million in November to 13.5 million in December and reached 25.4 million for January 2007. However, as of January 2008, measurement service Quantcast showed just over 319,000 unique visitors. The Swedish version of the site called bilddagboken.se has already gained nearly six million users.

Broadcaster.com also offers software downloads for their community; the tools available are:
iGrab – A media search tool allowing users to find, download and organize videos and images directly onto their local hard drive. This tool not only works on the Broadcaster site, it also can be configured for any number of other popular new media sites.
StudioPRO – A video utility that enables users to capture any video that is playing on their screen, including live web streams or downloaded video clips. Users can then create new compilations which they can rebroadcast onto the web through their webcams.
Deskbar – A desktop tool that allows users to receive instant notifications of the availability of new videos, member messages and breaking news on the Broadcaster site.
Parental Control – This tool ensures that only authenticated users are able to access mature content while surfing the Internet.

College Tonight

"College Tonight"

is a social networking service for U.S. college-aged students, graduate students, and alumni. It focuses on nightlife events and social opportunities on and near college campuses. Students utilize the service to explore their communities and socially interact. The unique platform also allows the advertising sector to tap into active, outgoing, and socially motivated young people. Starting a profile requires an e-mail address with an ".edu" ending.

The site is the brainchild of Emory University alumnus, Zach Suchin, and Emory University student, Jason Schutzbank. The company launched a beta version in September 2006 and launched the official site to the public in September 2007, beginning with a nine-month nightlife tour at 192 campuses across the country.

On August 13, 2007, Simex Technologies, Inc. (OTC: SMXT) announced that it had submitted a Letter of Intent to acquire College Tonight, Inc. in a reverse merger.The reverse merger has now been completed making it a subsidiary of Simex. College Tonight was able to raise $1,639,500 in equity capital as part of the transaction.While an undergraduate at Emory University in Atlanta, Zach Suchin made money promoting events and realized there was nothing out there that offered students a chance to explore new nightlife opportunities. He conceptualized a website that not only informs people of the nightlife options in their direct area, but also helps them enjoy an interactive, networking experience that goes beyond the physical computer. Years later, Zach and current Emory undergraduate Jason Schutzbank made Zach’s dream a reality with the launch of collegetonight.com. Zach found angel investors for the initial startup capital. College Tonight is currently available at 194 campuses.

College Tonight is a privacy-protected, registered-users-only social network that encourages actual social interactivity. It establishes distinct networks for each U.S. college, where students can post information about parties, concerts, and social events, download contact lists to their mobile phones, and make plans to meet up. The site has many features, including The Entourage, My Hook-Ups, and My Drunk Dials.But, despite all the "party central" features, the company’s main concern is to keep users’ privacy intact and, to this end, has employed a former FBI profiler, Jonh Doglas, as its security advisor. College Tonight has also added him onto their board of advisers.

''A Search Engine''

A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Although search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Alta Vista and Excite that enable users to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET newsgroups.
Typically, a search engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each document. Each search engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each query.

A Web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in newsbooks, databases, or open directories. Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input

''Three Types of Search Engines ''

The term "search engine" is often used generically to describe crawler-based search engines, human-powered directories, and hybrid search engines. These types of search engines gather their listings in different ways, through crawler-based searches, human-powered directories, and hybrid searches.
Crawler-based search engines
Crawler-based search engines, such as Google (http://www.google.com), create their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web, then people search through what they have found. If web pages are changed, crawler-based search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how those pages are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.
The life span of a typical web query normally lasts less than half a second, yet involves a number of different steps that must be completed before results can be delivered to a person seeking information. The following graphic (Figure 1) illustrates this life span (from http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html):



1. The web server sends the query to the index servers. The content inside the index servers is similar to the index in the back of a book - it tells which pages contain the words that match the query.
2. The query travels to the doc servers, which actually retrieve the stored documents. Snippets are generated to describe each search result.

3.The search results are returned to the user in a fraction of a second.
Human-powered directories
A human-powered directory, such as the Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org/about.html) depends on humans for its listings. (Yahoo!, which used to be a directory, now gets its information from the use of crawlers.) A directory gets its information from submissions, which include a short description to the directory for the entire site, or from editors who write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted. Changing web pages, therefore, has no effect on how they are listed. Techniques that are useful for improving a listing with a search engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The only exception is that a good site, with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed for free than a poor site.
Hybrid search engines
Today, it is extremely common for crawler-type and human-powered results to be combined when conducting a search. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favor one type of listings over another. For example, MSN Search (http://www.imagine-msn.com/search/tour/moreprecise.aspx) is more likely to present human-powered listings from LookSmart (http://search.looksmart.com/). However, it also presents crawler-based results, especially for more obscure queries.

THE 3 SEARCH ENGINES..ALTAVISTA,HOTBOT AND DOGPILE..

==Altavista==

it was one of the three largest and most important search engines for many years, but it is no longer as popular as it used to be. It had two distinct search modes: Basic Search and Advanced Search. In August 2000, it introduced a third: the Power Search. In Feb. 2002, the Power Search features were added to the Advanced Search page and then in Nov. 2002 were also moved to the More Precision page. There are some significant differences between the Basic and Advanced search pages, as will be seen below. In Feb. 2003, AltaVista was brought by Overture. Overture expected to merge the AltaVista and AlltheWeb databases later in 2003, but once Yahoo! bought Overture, AltaVista's database was replaced by a Yahoo!/Inktomi on March 25, 2004. Use the table of contents on the left to navigate this review.Database:AltaVista has a variety of databases:Web database: AltaVista's own indexed Web pages including PDF filesDirectory: Open Directory (formerly LookSmart)News: AltaVista's own crawled pages (formerly from Moreover)Ads: from OvertureImages: AltaVista's own crawled image filesAudio and Video: AltaVista's own crawled multimedia filesAltaVista has experimented with a variety of databases in addition to their regular Web page database. In the past, they have served results from Ask Jeeves, their own Usenet database, RemarqUsenet, Overture (formerly GoTo) ads, RealNames Internet Keywords, and Look smart categories. As of Dec. 2002, most of these additional databases are gone, except for the Overture paid positioning results which may appear at the top and bottom of results, labeled as "Sponsored Matches." AltaVista does have other databases available, including images, MP3/audio, video, directory, and News databases. In addition, there are the Altavista Shortcut which may show up at the top of regular search results. These provide quick links to selected popular information.

=== Hotbot===

HotBot, owned by Terra/Lycos, is one of older Web search engines. Originally it just used the Inktomi database and then added Derict hit and the Open directory. Then in Dec. 2002, it relaunchedas a multiple search engine with Inktomi, Fast, Google, and Teoma. In July 2003, they stayed with the same four databases, but renamed them HotBot, Lycos, Google, and Ask Jeeves. Lycos was dropped in March 2004. This review covers HotBot using the Inktomi database, which they now call "HotBot." See the Google and Teoma (Ask Jeeves) reviews for more details on how their database and interface work, bearing in mind that not all features are available at HotBot. The basic search screen shows no options, but choose Advanced Search for the full range of search features. To see how HotBot used to work, see the old Search Engine Showdown Review. Use the table of contents on the left to navigate this review.HotBot offers the choice of three search engine databases:* HotBot (which is actually a Yahoo!/Inktomi database, and the version reviewed here)* Google* Ask Jeeves (the Teoma database)HotBot is one of the early Internet search engines and was launched in May 1996 as a service of Wired Magazine. It was launched using a "new links" strategy of marketing, claiming to update its search database more often than its competitors. It also offered free webpage hosting, but only for a short time, and it was taken down without any notice to its users. Though competitive when it was acquired by Lycos in 1998, HotBot has in recent years reduced its scope. Today the website is merely a front end for third-party search engines Yahoo.com, and MSN, as well as Lycos' own lyGo.com. It was one of the first search engines to offer the ability to search within search results. The site still exists, however it is run by Yahoo! mainly.

==Dogpile==

Dogpile is a meta-search engine that transmits a search simultaneously to several individual search engines and their databases of Web pages. The default list of search engines queried varies. You can also customize Dogpile to search specific search engines. Results are retrieved in lists of 10 hits from each engine queried. If more than 10 results are found, a link to the next list of hits is given. It is important to remember that meta-search engines only spend a short time in each database and may only retrieve a small percentage of any of the results in any of the databases queried.Dogpile also for me is a best example of search engines for the reason that Dogpile fetches and ranks results from multiple search engines, letting you search for key word, pictures, audio, video, news,or phone numbers