With one single application, you can consolidate IM, e-mail, and social networking. That one app, is Digsby. In the past, I have used Pidgin on Windows, and Adium on the Mac for all my instant messaging needs. I’ve been happy with how they handle all the protocols I use (or rather all my buddies use) pretty well. Along came Digsby late last month with a piece of software that does all that and more. Not only does it include just about every instant messaging protocol out there (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Chat, ICQ, Jabber), but it also notifies you when you receive new e-mail (from just about every popular webmail client + pop and IMAP). On top of that, it hooks into several social networks as well (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace) and lets you know when folks contact you via those protocols. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pidgin, and Adium, but Digsby adds those little extras that take it a step further. Plus, I like the skinning and theming that Digsby allows, making it a little nicer environment when compared to Pidgin.

It is missing a few things though. I’d like to be able to hook up to Skype with it, but there aren’t that many IM apps that do that now, so it isn’t that big of a deal. It is also missing message encryption which is built in for Adium, and available as a plugin for Pidgin. Digsby is still in beta though and at the frantic speed they’re adding features, I can only hope that those aren’t too far away. I haven’t totally uninstalled Pidgin or
Adium, but I find myself using Digsby for longer periods at a time. If those few extra features get thrown in, there isn’t much holding me back from going 100% Digsby.