Instant Messengers – Odigo

Odigo version 3
http://www.odigo.com
= interesting, promising

Andy Wadsworth of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign introduced me to Tribal Voice PowWow over two years ago at the ITQ-2 (Improving Training Quality through Peer Learning and Distance Mentoring )workshop in Bangkok.
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/itq-2

Pow-Wow (another instant messenger, now defunct) developed first connections to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and MSN Messenger. But PowWow has now disappeared, and Odigo 3.0 has taken its place as the interconnected buddy list to beat.
Version 3.0 of this IM application connects with AIM, ICQ, and Yahoo Messenger; has improved e-mail notification; and it offers private chat rooms.

Another great feature of Odigo is the nice set of useful extras that are provided with the program and which are just as simple to use. One very fascinating feature is the one that allows you to meet and chat with fellow online surfers who happen to be on the same site you are visiting. It is like meeting other people in line outside a movie theatre or outside a shop window. It is nice because you get to ask and find out opinions and recommendations about the site information and services you are looking at, and you can precisely select to filter the type, gender, age, and other demographics of people you want to meet and chat with.

Like Excite Messenger the program is capable of notifying you when you have new email messages waiting and shows as well their subject lines.

Through Odigo 3.0 you can also utilise private chat rooms, and it has a new window that displays content from selected Web sites. Odigo also includes voice chat with other Odigo users (if you have a soundcard, microphone and speakers or a headset).

Co-surfing is an exciting new feature of Odigo in which users in a chat room can surf together to other sites. When you find an interesting site and want others to join you, browse to the site, open the "Co-Surf" box, select the site from the menu and click the Co-surf “Send” button. Users who have chosen to Co-surf will automatically browse to the site you suggested.
You can attach or detach yourself from the other co-surfers by clicking the attach/detach button, which is located to the right of the “History” button. You can view the icon on the button, or mouse-over the icon to know your current co-surfing status.

Note: Odigo 3 features a Smart Download installer tool. After downloading a 62k installer file, you will be prompted to choose the appropriate language and download plug-ins for ICQ, Yahoo, and AIM interoperability. The fully installed program is 4.1MB in size.

If you are having troubles with AIM interoperability, you may need to download the latest patch, available from the Odigo plug-ins page.

Odigo has shown great perseverance in fighting the closed and conservative attitude of AOL, which has not yet given up its resistance to open access to its network of IM users to other IMs like Odigo. And while AOL keeps shutting down access to Odigo users, as it has happened all the times during my testing, Odigo has nonetheless shown to have unique and unrelented initiative and desire to bring a unique and valuable product to the market.

Specific features to be found on Odigo:

Send flowers or other gifts to another user with only that person's email address or Odigo ID as the receiving address.

PhoneDate - Talk to your Odigo friends via an anonymous phone line without releasing your personal phone number.

Email Notification - Odigo will notify you when you receive a new email.

Animated Emotion - Send and receive animated emotion messages from Feelingz.

Audio/Video Message - Send Inspar recorded audio and video messages to your Odigo friends.

If you're looking to migrate away from AIM or ICQ or if you have buddies scattered across messenger clients, Odigo is indisputably the best alternative.

*PROS*: Connects you with users of compatible messengers;
integrates file sharing to allow others to access your hard disk.

Operates with ICQ, Yahoo Instant Messenger, and AIM buddy lists.

Finds other Odigo buddies on Web sites.

Offers voice chat with other Odigo users.

Once you import your buddies, Odigo shows which ones are online and displays which messenger program they're using. You can send them messages as if they, too, were using Odigo. Your buddies can also see you online in any of the supported instant messengers.

Lots of tech support via e-mail forms or through the extensive online help and FAQ center.

Odigo is available in 21 languages, including Chinese, Arabic, Thai, Russian, Japanese, Tagalog and many others.

Odigo exists in both versions for the PC and the Macintosh.

*CONS*: Lacks advanced privacy features; confusing, tabbed interface.

If your friends or colleagues are not using Odigo you can send them only instant messages or URLs. You can't conduct a voice chat or a multiparty conference or send files to AOL, Yahoo, or ICQ users. Only Odigo-to-Odigo contacts can utilise these advanced features.

Odigo does not have basic privacy features such as the ability of going into "invisible" mode in order not to be "seen" online by colleagues and friends, even if logged into Odigo.

No help files.

Unreliable connection with AIM and ICQ users.

File-sharing security provides no options. All or nothing. This should be improved.

To connect to my YM (Yahoo Messenger) account I needed to reinsert the data four times. The fourth time I got connected but the YM server dropped me after 10 seconds.

The connection to AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) went ok. But after 10 seconds the AOL servers sent me a message telling me that I was not using an original AIM client and then dropped the connection.

I was not able to retrieve my lost ID for my previous Odigo account and I was forced to create a new one.

EXPERT ADVICE: If you have friends utilizing different types of Instant Messengers like AOL, Yahoo, MSN Messenger and ICQ, Odigo is the must-have IM that can bring them all together on your PC or Mac desktop.

The interface has still great limitations, and cannot compare with the ones of the bigger brothers Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and ICQ, but the great bonuses and features make Odigo certainly worth a second chance.

Download your free copy of Odigo at:
http://www.odigo.com/frameset.html?/ homepage.html
http://www.odigo.com/frameset.html? http://www.odigo.com/download/