While in the search for the best IM client out there, I was tipped off on this new one, Imo. So new it is still in its alpha stage. But don’t let the blatant alpha tag fool you, this thing got potential. By the way you multi-service user will be happy to know this thing includes, yahoo, msn, and google talk. It also allows yahoo partners service (I.E SBCGlobal) unlike some client. Did I mention this web-app has video chatting??

The Interface

Starting off, they have a pretty clean interface. I would say it look very much like a Google product. Its baby bluish theme, rounded corners just reminds me of Google. It even has the Google styled “loading…” in the top corner when it’s loading, albeit this one is red. Which puzzles me because it’s the only red thing. And in my opinion doesn’t fit the color scheme. I’m not saying its bad by any means. Not my favorite, but it can be work on.

The Login

Usability wise, this thing works. You begin by typing in your user name and password and selecting the service it belongs to in the check box below. I think it’s nice, this way there is less clutter and boxes. The only downside is that you have to sign in one at a time, and you have to choose the check box with your mouse. Once you sign in another list comes up below. The list shows your screen name/login and another check box beside it. This thing sure loves check boxes. But this is a cool feature. By unticking it you can sign off and sign in. That way you don’t have to keep typing in your login. And if you want you can click sign off all so you don’t have to check it off one by one. You can then link all your accounts so you don’t need to type in every single one of your account the next time you return to Imo. But for some reason this didn’t work for me. Unlike meebo, Imo doesn’t have it’s own login system which will log you in to all your set uped accounts. This can prove to be a mess because for me the linking system didn’t work.

Chatting

Once you’ve signed in your buddy list will show up on the right side of the window. Things are pretty straight forward. You have a add buddy and delete buddy button on top. Below is my favorite thing. The search functions. Pretty useful when you have so many on your list. Especially because imo combines all your buddy list into this window. A minor detail that I personally didn’t like is that Imo only needs one click to open a new chat window. Sure it’s faster and easier, but it makes it to easy for me to open a new chat window by accident.

Things get even simpler in the chat window. All you get is the conversation box, the input box, and the oh so special, start webcam link! Yes even in its alpha stage it has a really unique feature. This web app, has a feature that some downloadable client doesn’t. Being in its alpha stage it message transfer lags quite a bit. Although it is missing a rich text feature, such as the basic bold and italic. So you can’t modify anything. I never use it so I don’t mind. One other thing I would like to note is, it doesn’t have any way of alerting you when you get a new message (other than the faux window being turning orange, but who can see that while being in another tab? unless you’re going to just stare at imo). Well there is a speaker icon that I’m guessing is to indicate the audio alert but, it didn’t make a difference for me. Maybe it’s just my computer but this thing just doesn’t make a sound for me.

It doesn’t actually blink

Did I mention, IMO has a really neat feature (if it is a feature) that lets you navigate away from the package and later come back. I don’t really see how this can be useful, but it’s worth pointing out. Sure you won’t be able to receive new messages, but unlike meebo, you have the option of coming back after navigating away without having to input all your logins again.

Sure it has some pretty advanced feature, but to me it’s missing some basic ones. For one this thing has yet to have a chat room function. The FAQ stated that it used to have it, but they took it down for improvements.  Another thing is that there’s no way to show buddy icons. It also doesn’t let you edit your profile. Sure it’s nit picking but, hey, we’re looking for the best right?

Other Forms

Imo also comes in other form. A downloadable (for windows) and an ejected window type of thing. To get the pop up version you click either the Surf Left or Surf Right. I have no Idea why it’s called surf, and why there is two of them The official explanation is that “Surf mode lets you IM and surf the web at the same time” and “Surf left will open imo.im on the left hand side of your screen, and surf right to the right”. Anyway, as far as I can see, these two forms are the same thing. They are both tabbed and contained in one window.  Well they do have minor eye candy (or lack off) difference. For one, the downloadable version uses more of your window theme setting. It doesn’t use a white background but your window’s setting’s background. It maybe good in some cases but bad in other. Like in my case it looks even worse, because I have a dark visual style which doesn’t match with their baby blue style. The only good thing I see with the downloadable version is that it pops up to show you alerts and you don’t need your web browser for it. Other than that, they’re basically the same thing.

 The Web pop-out version has a white background instead of gray

You need to download to get this kind of notification

Verdict

So what’s my verdict? It has potential, but I don’t see it serving as a a daily IM service yet. It’s very basic other than its ability for video chatting. So unless you need to video chat, I say stick with Meebo for now. But since this is still in its alpha stage, I guess we’ll just have to see where this baby goes.

*It’s gray because of my Visual Style.

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