6 ms·

I'm quite frankly amazed ICQ is still alive, I thought it was one of those things that had just died out some time ago.

digi_owl 10y ago
I think ICQ (along with non-technical IRC) took a gut punch when Microsoft bundled MSN Messenger with Windows XP. Almost over night people were switching to (or adopting) MSNM, often reproducing online the cliques already existing in the local communities.
- stormbrew 10y ago
  Are you Canadian by any chance? MSN only ever really seemed to take off in some specific regions, one of which was Canada. After ICQ, almost all my American contacts moved to AIM. Which was honestly pretty awful, since MSNM was much nicer.
  - haldean 10y ago
    Can confirm: everyone I knew in Belgium growing up used MSN, but no one I met at my American college had ever used it.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Norwegian actually.
  - pixelcloud 10y ago
    MSNm was very Canadian. AOL was never huge in Canada, maybe that is why?
  - kalleboo 10y ago
    Sweden went something like ICQ/IRC -> MSN -> Skype Chat -> WhatsApp. I think AIM was only ever popular in the US (America On Line after all). The interesting period was when IRC was still popular even among non-techies. The girls in school would sit on the PCs in mIRC.
    - digi_owl 10y ago
      Only other place i can think of that may have had AOL was UK, and then only because i noticed some AOL ads on satellite tv channels from there.
      - NTripleOne 10y ago
        Yeah we had AOL over here. I used AIM once, didn't like it and went back to using YIM and MSN.
  - ryanplant-au 10y ago
    I think MSN was much more popular globally, while AIM dominated in America for obvious reasons. In Australia, I only ever met people using ICQ or MSN, the only time you used AIM was to speak to an American.
    - bigger_cheese 10y ago
      Australian here as well. ICQ was really popular among my classmates when I was in year 7 to 9 at high school. This was right around Napster time as well I remember downloading mp3's (via dial up) and chatting with people all night. ICQ at school was really cliquey there was a lot of "I'm going to give you my ICQ number but you can't give it to X". Teenage me was really happy when I got the ICQ # of a girl at school I had a huge crush on (This was pre mobile phones so you couldn't exchange text messages back then or snap chats or whatever the kids use to flirt with each other these days). When I moved away from home and started university I stopped logging in lost touch with a heap of people as a result. I can't remember my ICQ no. nowadays...
  - wjoe 10y ago
    In the UK, everyone used MSN too. I ended up having MSN for my school friends, but AIM for all my internet friends from online games/communities. And then there were always a few using Yahoo.

I think ICQ (along with non-technical IRC) took a gut punch when Microsoft bundled MSN Messenger with Windows XP. Almost over night people were switching to (or adopting) MSNM, often reproducing online the cliques already existing in the local communities.

stormbrew 10y ago
Are you Canadian by any chance? MSN only ever really seemed to take off in some specific regions, one of which was Canada. After ICQ, almost all my American contacts moved to AIM. Which was honestly pretty awful, since MSNM was much nicer.
- haldean 10y ago
  Can confirm: everyone I knew in Belgium growing up used MSN, but no one I met at my American college had ever used it.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Norwegian actually.
- pixelcloud 10y ago
  MSNm was very Canadian. AOL was never huge in Canada, maybe that is why?
- kalleboo 10y ago
  Sweden went something like ICQ/IRC -> MSN -> Skype Chat -> WhatsApp. I think AIM was only ever popular in the US (America On Line after all). The interesting period was when IRC was still popular even among non-techies. The girls in school would sit on the PCs in mIRC.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Only other place i can think of that may have had AOL was UK, and then only because i noticed some AOL ads on satellite tv channels from there.
    - NTripleOne 10y ago
      Yeah we had AOL over here. I used AIM once, didn't like it and went back to using YIM and MSN.
- ryanplant-au 10y ago
  I think MSN was much more popular globally, while AIM dominated in America for obvious reasons. In Australia, I only ever met people using ICQ or MSN, the only time you used AIM was to speak to an American.
  - bigger_cheese 10y ago
    Australian here as well. ICQ was really popular among my classmates when I was in year 7 to 9 at high school. This was right around Napster time as well I remember downloading mp3's (via dial up) and chatting with people all night. ICQ at school was really cliquey there was a lot of "I'm going to give you my ICQ number but you can't give it to X". Teenage me was really happy when I got the ICQ # of a girl at school I had a huge crush on (This was pre mobile phones so you couldn't exchange text messages back then or snap chats or whatever the kids use to flirt with each other these days). When I moved away from home and started university I stopped logging in lost touch with a heap of people as a result. I can't remember my ICQ no. nowadays...
- wjoe 10y ago
  In the UK, everyone used MSN too. I ended up having MSN for my school friends, but AIM for all my internet friends from online games/communities. And then there were always a few using Yahoo.