Instant Messaging when you can’t install software

Shhh! Don’t tell the IT guy!

Tip: Instant Messaging when you can’t install software. IM with your Web browser instead!

In recent years, company IT departments have cracked down on letting end users install software on company computers. It’s justified, since administrators are tasked to make sure the company complies with software licensing agreements. Also, giving employees too much freedom to install software eventually leads to computers that may experience decreased performance and lead to significant downtime for employee and administrator to fix. Not to mention the risk of introducing virus’ and other crap into the network.

If you really need AIM, and you can’t convince your company IT dept to install IM software, check out these apps that work in your Web browser:

• Meebo
  Platforms: AOL/AIM, ICQ, Jabber, GTalk (Google Talk), Yahoo!, MSN
• eMessenger
  Platforms: AOL/AIM, MSN, Yahoo!
• AIM Express
  Platforms: AOL/AIM

Please let me know if you have any suggestions that don’t require admin privileges to install. Thanks.
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at NewMediaSandbox.com and Chaos365.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.