[Lifehacker] Muli-Platform IM Client Instantbird

Digg is great for attracting attention to items of interest on the web but is also notorious for overwhelming servers and shutting websites down in what is know as the Digg or Slashdot effect. Perhaps more moderate in impact but certainly still significant in long-term effects is getting featured on Lifehacker, which is one of my favorite tech lifestyle blogs.

Instantbird was recently featured on Lifehacker and so far it seems pretty promising. They're positioning it as an open source multi-platform IM client, which translated means it's a chat program that is meant to connect to all networks and systems like Yahoo Messeger, MSN and even IRC. Take this it's only at version 0.1, so it's really early in terms of development and might be of more valuer to more tech-savvy users at this point.

What makes Instantbird so interesting is that they're trying to take the Firefox approach to development by opening it up to the community. Interested developers can create extensions and other add-ons much like how they're created for Firefox while it's core technology is similar to that of IM client Pidgin, which I currently use. With luck, there'll be enough interest in Instantbird to help it develop fairly quickly and address opportunities clients like Pidgin have not like audio and video chat interconnectivity.

Still, this is one project that remains more than worth keeping an eye on.