ICQ: Where spammers & sickos come out to play!
Written: Jan 29 '02 (Updated Jan 29 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Everybody's using it.
Cons: Spam, frequent crashes.
The Bottom Line: Fight spam with auto replies containing links to your website.
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| Shampoo-Girl's Full Review: ICQ |
I was first introduced to online messengers back in 1996 having just recently discovered the internet. Online chat programs were relatively new back then, thus partly explaining their enormous popularity among us youngsters.It was such a phenomenon to the point that such programs had to be banned from computer labs to prevent excessive abuse. Since then, other more sophisticated & not so sophisticated online messengers have emerged, including the current favorite known as ICQ. ICQ may be the world's most popular messenger program but it's certainly far from being the best. In comparison, I find other messengers like AIM & MSN far better but I had to download ICQ anyway since everyone's already using it.
The program file itself is rather huge compared to other messengers, over twice the size of MIRC & far less stable to boot. While I have used others like AIM & MSN without much problems, ICQ has frequently caused my computer to freeze up & crash without warning. Just a couple of weeks ago, it had caused my PC to crash a total of 4 times over a period of only 3 hours. Other users on my watched list have also experienced similar problems, though not quite as frequent. Upon ICQ crashing, it was especially frustrating to reboot my computer from scratch since the alt+ctrl+del keys will not work on my PC.
On the plus side though, ICQ is currently the world most popular messenger program, boasting of over 118 million members. Somehow I get the feeling that the actual figure is really less than half that number due to a majority of users having multiple IDs. I have 3 IDs myself, 2 of which I rarely use, having become notorious spam magnets. Next to its instability, spamming seems to be the next biggest problem with ICQ. On a typical 3 hour weekend session, I would get between 5 to as many as 20 spam messages from unknown users, each asking me to visit their stupid porno sites.
For those of you with a website & ICQ installed on your PC, all that spam can be a good thing, and I'll tell you why. I call this the reflect concept. When I'm away from my PC, I would turn on my auto away reply message containing a link to my website. Anyone who spams my account is instantly greeted with an auto link to my site. See? Told ya! ICQ spam can be a good thing after all.
The ICQ program features 2 user modes – advanced & simple. Though I do not consider myself much of an expert, I prefer using advanced mode due to its better interface. Newbies are encouraged to go with simple mode, unless you happen to be an expert wannabe like me. ICQ can be a useful tool in searching for long lost acquaintences simply by keying in their names or e-mails in the search box. While entering real names may not be much help ( everyone uses an alias ), keying in one's e-mail usually increases your chances of actually finding the person you're looking for. To date, I have found 4 people ( old classmates & college hangout buddies ) on ICQ whom I haven't heard from in years. Like the program itself, ICQ's profile setup is a little more detailed ( not to mention complicated ) compared to others like AIM. You could fill details like your full address, phone number, languages spoken & even have a picture of yourself available online. Other useful features include an adjustable security level & an invisible mode to block out potential harrassers.
I'm only recommending ICQ because everyone else is already using it. It's a little like something out of the Microsoft factory – not exactly the best thing but since everyone is already using it, you might as well too. Overall grade: C
Recommended:
Yes
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