From InformationWeek - The percentage of people who use instant messaging (IM) in North America significantly lags behind other parts of the world, according to a study released by comScore Networks. The study found that 37 percent of the North American online population used IM in February, compared to 64 percent in Latin America, and 49 percent in Europe.

The most popular IM client worldwide is MSN Messenger, according to the study, with 61 percent of worldwide IM users accessing the application in February, the study found. MSN Messenger is particularly dominant in Latin America, reaching more than 90 percent of IM users, and is also popular in Europe and Asia Pacific, with 70 percent of IM users respectively.

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From Ars-Technica, "What client do you use for instant messaging? According to a recent study by comScore Networks, there's a decent chance that it's MSN Messenger, which lassoed in 61 percent of worldwide instant messaging (IM) market share."

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You can beef up security by taking measures including using a hosted IM service, enabling content filtering and blocking, and logging and auditing IM conversations according to InformationWeek.

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According to CNet, Microsoft has launched a public beta of Windows Live Messenger, an instant-messaging program that features international PC-to-telephone calls with video capability.

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From the CNet Blog, "I use four instant-messaging programs, and in addition to getting tired of signing into each of them, I often need to send IMs from computers where my IM software–or some IM-unifying program like Trillian–isn't downloaded. Well, a start-up called Meebo has solved my problems."

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Skype has released Skype for Mac 1.4.0.49, which is the first Universal build of Skype. Universal means that Skype now runs natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac computers, boosting the performance of Skype running on Intel Macs.

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From CNet Bolg: Even as rumors swirl about AOL's planned MySpace killer the social network has launched a new battle with AOL: instant messaging….

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