Introduction:
Finding new people to type to and keeping in contact with the ones you know in real life has changed a lot in the past 2 years. Originally, people used to keep in contact over the internet with one main program, ICQ. But now with the emergence of competition from Windows Messenger, Yahoo, and AOL, people are running more than one of these programs at the same time, trying to please everyone.

Running more than one program at the same time, does take up more harddrive space, more processing power etc. You either had a choice, either install more of these programs, to talk to people because of their program preference, or don't communicate and stick with the program you like.

I do admit, I was one of these people who ran both ICQ and Windows' Messenger at the same time to keep in contact with different people. There was a benefit though if one service is down and the person uses another one you got, you can still talk to them. Choosing the messenger was also based on what you liked, and the capabilities of the program too.

Now with people running more than one messenging program, why not have a program that has the capability of running all these programs under one program? Trillian does just that, runs the most popular messenging programs in one. You can import your contact lists from the other programs into Trillian, without difficulty.

Functionality:
Trillian allows you to connect to the messenging services you signed up for. You can very easily import your contact list when creating your account, so you won't have to add them one by one. You can send files over the internet like you could with your old service with Trillian.

Trillian distingushes which user is using what program by creating them into groups, and their icon. For example, ICQ contacts have a flower next to their name while Windows Messenger uses the butterfly. You can even go on IRC with Trillian, thus saving you another program from installing.

All the standard features come included in Trillian such as adding contacts, removing contacts, ignoring them etc. But there might be one slight problem is that companies don't want you to use Trillian instead of their own program. Companies will try to change servers so that you can not log into your account from Trillian. There were some instances with Trillian where a server from another company would block users.

Conclusion:
Trillian is a great program overall. It does take some time to getting used to, and to familiarize yourself with the options available to you. I did notice a downside to Trillian. If you use ICQ's advanced features, you do not have access to these features. You are being limited to normal uses as contacting people.

If you do not use the advanced features of these messenging programs, Trillian is a great way to maintain contact with users in one program, and also join other services without the need of installing more software. Trillian is also skinnable so if you don't like the colors or design, you could use a skin which can be downloaded at their site.