Digsby is a social networking and instant messaging tool for Windows that has does so many different things it's hard to describe them all. Arguably, it's not the best at any one thing. For instance in AOL Instant Messenger it doesn't support chat rooms, and the Twitter client is a bit simple compared to fuller featured applications like Twhirl or TweetDeck.

But you know what? That's part of what I like about Digsby. I can use it to chat with my friends and contacts, keep up with Twitter activity, and receive notifications when new email messages come in. But it doesn't absorb all of my attention the way fuller featured Twitter clients do. I don't have to pay attention to every single tweet from the 150 or so people that I follow. I can just glance at the last few messages when I have a free moment and move on. If I want to see @replies or direct messages, I can easily do that without missing any.

And that's why I'm a bit conflicted about the news that Digsby is amping up its Twitter client. The new client opens in a new window, unlike the current version which is integrated into Digsby. But that's one of the only things that the new Digsby will have in common with other Twitter clients. Here are a few things Digsby will do differently:

• Messages will be posted in chronological order, instead of reverse chronological order
• Digsby will keep track of unread message counts
• When you open the Twitter window Digsby will pick up where you left off reading
• Users will be able to filter users and groups
• You'll be able to reply and retweet directly from the notification pop up window
• Automatic URL shortening when you paste a URL into the message window

In other words, the new Digsby Twitter client will be designed to make it harder to miss messages, and let you treat Twitter almost like email. For Twitter junkies, it sounds awesome. For me, it sounds like information overload. I'll give it a try and see how I like the new client, but my guess is that I'll either start unfollowing Twitter users or I'll give up on Digsby and go back to using Pidgin and a desktop email notifier.

You can see a picture of Digsby's new Twitter timeline view after the break.

Digsby took a lot of heat recently after Lifehacker slammed them for "joining the dark side" -- something a commenter pointed out back in November 2008 when I vented about the adware-packed new installer.

Over on the Digsby blog today, they're trumpeting a new version - one which adds of new Facebook features (things like commenting, liking, and photos), Myspace IM support (stop chuckling), and achievements. Yes, at long last you can taunt your friends with your awesome Digsbying prowess!

As for ditching the adware, here's what the Digsby blog states about the new installer:

"..it will show one ad for the Digsby Ask Toolbar, which brings news, weather, sports, maps, and more right to you fingertips! We will work to improve the toolbar over time, adding some of the social network functionality you already love in Digsby.

The new installer also asks users explicitly during installation if they'd like to contribute their unused CPU power to sponsored grid computing projects."

Love your GMail account but want to do more with it? If you're a Windows user, there are plenty of great (and free) apps that take advantage of your massive inbox in the cloud!

GBridge sets up a Hamachi-like VPN and offers loads of cool features for your Windows desktop, including file sharing, backup and synchronization, and remote control via VNC. Since the developers added support for Google Apps domains, this has become a great way to keep your office team connected.

GMail Drive is an oldie but a goodie. I've got several of gigs available, and there's no chance I'm going to fill that up with actual email anytime soon. Plug GMail Drive into Windows, and you can drop files into your extra space just like any other folder on your system.

g2peer allows simple file sharing with your friends via your GMail account. Don't need the other features from GBridge? g2peer is a good option. Your pals at the other end don't even need to install the app to get files from you since it supports "command line" interaction via GMail - check the help page to see how it works.

After years of private testing, Trillian launched a public beta of its updated multi-protocol chat client earlier this summer. This week, the company took off the beta label, and Trillian Astra replaces the company's older chat client.

Trillian Astra lets users chat with contacts on a number of services, including AOL Intant Messenger, Windows live Mesenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Yahoo! Messenger.

It also lets you update your Facebook and Twitter status messages, which makes Trillian Astra a direct competitor to Digsby. So if you were annoyed with Digsby's heavy-handed revenue generating techniques, you might want to take a look at Trillian Astra. To Digsby's credit, the company did roll out an update that makes the "Support Digsby" section easier to spot and configure, along with a link to a Wiki entry explaining how the Digsby Research Module works.

Trillian Astra is available as a free download for Windows. Mac and iPhone versions are in the works. There's also a web client, which pits Trillian Astra against web-based chat service Meebo.

[via CNET]

Digsby is probably one of the best instant messaging/social networking applications I've ever used. I'll go ahead and put that bias on my sleeve. Not only does the application let you chat with contacts on AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, and Windows Live and Yahoo! Messengers, but it also acts as an email notifier and provides you with updates (and the ability to update your status) on social networks Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn.

But the company behind Digsby has done a few things to annoy users over the past half year or so. The most noticeable change is the installer. It's not unusual to install an application and see an offer to install a browser toolbar or other third party app. But in order to install Digsby for the first time, you have to click through "offers" to install about half a dozen different applications.

I was willing to put up with that, because it's a non-issue once you've installed the software, and hey, Digsby needs to make money, right? But yesterday, Lifehacker shone the light on a much shadier tactic: Hidden away deep in the licensing agreement is a line letting users know that Digsby will use your spare computer cycles to solve distributed computing problems. We first noted this issue back in November, but since it's making the rounds today (CNET's Download.com lowered the ratings score for Digsby as a response), let's take a closer look.

Distributed computing software allows hundreds or thousands of computers to work together to solve problems like finding cures for cancer or search for intelligent life in the universe. In Digsby's case, some of the problems may involve analyzing the stock market, searching the web, and other activities that can help Digsby make money.

Multi-protocol chat client Digsby launched an update today with a handful of new features. First up, there's a new Global Status dialog that lets you set your status on multiple social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace simultaneously. You can also update your IM status using this box.

Digsby has also revamped its MySpace newsfeed to include a full activities stream, status updates, and the ability to browser photos.

The company is also launching its own URL shortener, called digs.by. Because what the world really needs now is another URL shortener. On the bright side, this should make it even easier to reliably shorten links on the fly when sending messages from Digsby. And the company plans to offer link history and statistics in the future. You know, like bit.ly and su.pr already do.

The Digsby team plans to roll to roll out enhanced features for Twitter and Facebook next, and once that's done, the goal is to release the first versions of Digsby for OS X and Linux. There's no word on how long that will take.

Multi-protocol chat client Digsby received a major update today, with over 100 bug fixes and new features. At the top of the list, the new version should use about 50% less CPU cycles than previous builds.

Digsby is a chat client that lets you chat with contacts whether they're using AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, or Facebook Chat. It also lets you read and write updates for social networking sites including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.

Here are a few other new features:

• Search your buddy list by hitting Ctrl+F
• Improved file transfer reliability for AIM, ICQ, and MSN
• Support for entering your status on MySpace
• Added support for invisible mode on Gtalk
• New infobox based on WebKit

Some of these features have been available to Alpha testers for a while now, but the new build will allow all Digsby users to access them.

Digsby is a multi-protocol chat and social networking client that lets you update your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter status or chat with your AIM, Windows Live, Google Talk, or Yahoo! Messenger. Overall, it's a pretty awesome little utility if you'd rather use one application to track all of your accounts at once. But it's historically been a bit of a resource hog.

Now there's a new alpha version that reduces the CPU use by about 30 percent, improves file transfers for AIM and Windows Live users, and lets you set the status updates on MySpace accounts. There are also new emoticon boxes.

Probably the best part is that it just feels a bit faster. In the past, Digsby had a tendency to make my computer lock up for a second or two before displaying incoming IM messages. Now it doesn't.

You can find out how to join Digsby's group of Alpha testers at the Digsby blog. Bear in mind, once you become an Alpha tester you're signing up to receive less stable versions of the software and you could experience some bugs.

[via WebWare]

Carsten Knobloch - who previously put together the first portable version of Google Chrome - had created a portable version of Digsby several months ago. Updates, however, caused it to stop functioning, but it looks like he's managed to solve the problem with some help from a friend.

On Monday, he posted an updated version of the popular multi-protocol instant messaging app (for which he thanks Stephan) that you can take with you on your flash drive. Better yet, he's been testing Digsby's update feature on the portable version and it's now applying them without issue.

The link above is for the German-to-English translation via Google, which will mess with your download. To get the Portable Digsby self-extracting archive, view the original page and click the link.

Until about 15 minutes ago I was a big Digsby fan. When I fired up the installer on my clean Vista x64 machine today, I was greeted with an unpleasant sight.

First off, you don't even download the actual installer from Digsby.com anymore - it's a downloader application. While I'm not a fan of downloaders in general, this one in particular got me all riled up.

Apart from half a dozen crapware install offers, the final screen before anything actually happened asked to change my homepage and switch my default search provider to Yahoo. I'm all for supporting an app, but this was more than I'm willing to tolerate from an installer.

Are you kidding me? Digsby, tell me you're kidding. Looks like it's time for me to give Pidgin another try.

Update: interesting new comment from user Aaron.

If you think this is bad, you should check out their new 'help digsby do research' option that's buried in their menu structure and ENABLED BY DEFAULT. This allows your computer to join a computational botnet that does commercial work that the Digsby team gets paid for (think folding@home for money). Notice your laptop fan whirring away unexpectedly? You're probably doing protein analysis for some drug company. Totally shady. I'm dropping Digsby like a hot potato, I've lost all trust in the developers if they somehow think this is 'okay'.

What about you? Are you willing to put up with skipping over the crapware so that you can still install the latest version of Digsby? Sound off!

VoxOx is one of those applications that does so many things that the easiest way to describe it is by listing some of the tools it can replace: AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, whatever email and social networking notifiers you use. In other words, it's like Digsby. But with support for video chat and VoIP calls to telephones. Oh yeah, and VoxOx automatically assigns all new users a phone number which people can dial to reach you on your computer.

VoxOx is currently in beta, with clients available for Windows and OS X. Linux and mobile clients are coming soon. And right now some of the services listed in VoxOx are unavailable. For examle, you can link the client to your Yahoo! Mail account to receive a pop up message every time you get a new email. But when you click the button to do the same thing with Gmail, nothing happens.

One of the most interesting things about VoxOx is the company's business model. You can do text chats with anyone for free. You can make free voice or video calls to anyone using VoxOx. And when you sign up you get 120 minutes of free calls to telephones. You can purchase credit for additional calls, or pay a monthly fee fro unlimited access. But every time you refer a friend to the service you get another 2 hours. And VoxOx will also soon add the ability for users to gain points by watching video ads.

If you're one of the first 500 Download Squad to register using our signup page, you'll get 1200 VoxOx Points which are good for 1200 domestic phone calls minutes of domestic US phone calls. Keep reading to find out how to get your bonus minutes.

There's a new version of the free Windows chat/social messaging client Digsby today. Probably the biggest change in this release is a dramatic reduction in memory use. Like a 75% reduction.

One of the biggest complaints early Digsby users had was that the application was a memory hog. And while it still certainly uses a bit more memory than some IM clients, that's to be expected since Digsby isn't just an IM client. The program also provides email notifications and updates from social networking sites including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

The latest release also adds LinkedIn support. Once you register your LinkedIn account you'll be able to see the number of unattended alerts at a glance by looking at the icon in your system tray. You can also click on the icon to see the latest updates from your LinkedIn contacts.

There have also been some performance updates that should make the program more responsive. And each IM protocol will try several connection methods for getting around firewalls and proxy servers before giving up.

If you've been avoiding Digsby because of its high memory footprint, it might be time to give it another look. In my tests, I've found that it uses between 25MB and 40MB of memory. Now if only the Digsby team would hurry up and release Mac and Linux versions they've been promising.

Digsby is probably one of the coolest free Windows applications released in recent memory. The utility is like Pidgin mashed up with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, and it has email notifiers for Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail as well as other services thrown in for good measure. There's just one problem: Digsby is a major resource hog.

Early builds of Digsby have been known to eat over 100MB of memory. If you've got 4GB of RAM, that might not seem like much. But if you have an older PC with 1GB or less, there's no reason that a messenging program should eat up 10% or more of your memory.

A few days ago, Digsby pushed out a new alpha release that addresses the memory issue. I find that the alpha version tends to hover around 30MB of memory use, and according to the developers, it shouldn't go much higher than 50MB even if you register a ton of email and social networking accounts.

The new version also features other performance enhancements, and improvements that will attempt to help you get around firewalls and proxy servers if necessary. There's also a new crash reporter.

Keep in mind, the latest version of Digsby is still in alpha, which means there are likely plenty of bugs to be worked out. Normally I wouldn't recommend replacing stable software with an alpha. But if you've been frustrated with Digsby's high resource usage in the past, you should really check out the latest version. Just make sure to backup your settings first.

After checking out 10 slick new themes for NetNewsWire yesterday, we started going on a themes kick. Many of our favorite applications, from VLC to Firefox are skinnable. Today, let's take a look at chat and social networking application Digsby.

Digsby already ships with a decent looking set of skins. But if you'd prefer Digsby to look like Windows Live Messenger, or a native OS X application (even though Digsby doesn't currently run on OS X), you can install user-generated skins.

Digsbies.org has a list of skins available, plus a series of conversation themes and emoticon sets. The site is an unofficial Digsby community, don't expect to get tech support updates from the Digsby team at Digsbies. But you can find a wealth of information at the Digsbies wiki, IRC channel, and blog. There's also a Digsby wish list where you can vote for the features you'd most like to see in future releases. The actual developers may or may not ever actually read your comments or pay attention to your vote. But if you have something you really want to get off your chest, Digsbies could be the place to do it.

[via Techie Buzz]

Your co-workers use MSN Messenger, your family is partial to AOL Instant Messenger, and your friends use Google Talk. There are plenty of utilities that let you keep in touch with all of your contacts regardless of the IM platform they're using. But while we love Digsby, Trillian, Pidgin, and Adium most of the time, there are a few features missing from those apps:

• Support for voice and video chats
• The ability to invite friends from different IM networks into a single chat room

And that's where Instan-T comes in. This multi-protocol chat client for Windows supports AOL, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Messengers. It also supports voice and video chat across each network, although we've found that feature to be a bit finnicky. When we tested out a voice chat, we were able to the person speaking on the other end, but she couldn't hear us. We'll chalk that up to a hardware problem.

Probably the most interesting thing about Instan-T is that it lets you set up a chat room that you can invite contacts from any service to participate in. Just click on a contact name and select multi-person chat. They'll receive an invitation with a URL to click on that will open up a Flash-based chat room, which also features voice and video support.

We'll be honest. The Instan-T interface is a little cluttered and confusing when compared with other multi-protocol chat clients. But the application definitely shows promise. If you want to try the service without downloading and installing anything, you Instan-T also has a Meebo-like web based instant messenger. The web client supports Internet Explorer and Firefox, which means you should be able to access the service whether you're using Windows, Linux or OS X.

[via TechnoBuzz]