IM clients like Trillian have always been handy because they allow you to use one application to chat with users of all the most popular IM networks (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.). Trillian in particular is handy because, even though it’s a fairly bloaty bit of software, it’s still not nearly as invasive as the de facto chat apps provided by their network owners.
I’ve never bothered much with chat. It’s generally a distraction I can live without. But I started using it a bit once Google came out with Google Talk (and especially since they manage to embed Google Talk in Gmail). That was cool, but it only allowed me to chat with other Gmail users. But Google recently added the ability to chat with AIM users via the version of Google Talk that runs in Gmail (it’s in in the standalone version yet).
So, if you’re a regular here and are not yet on my buddy lists for either of these services, send me an email and we’ll get in touch synchronously as well as asynchronously. My email isn’t on the site, but my nickname is “wheat” and I run a site called “wheatdesign.com,” so you can probably do the math.
Since Yahoo! and Google are direct competitors, and since Microsoft hates to play nicely with anyone, I doubt we’ll see interoperability with Yahoo! Messenger or the various Windows IM tools, but who knows?