Instant Messaging continues to be a very fast, very easy and very efficient way of communicating.  Either from your computer or another multimedia equipment with access to the web.

Instant Messaging or IM is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet.

You can see when your contacts are on-line. Then send them a message which they immediately get on their screen. And hopefully see. And reply to if necessary.

And if they are not on-line they will still get your message when they open their computer next time.



Read more:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging

There are several IM services at your disposal:

AIM  - AOL Instant Messenger:   http://www.aim.com/  (free)

Windows Live Messenger - Microsoft:  http://get.live.com/messenger/overview     (free)

Yahoo! Messenger:   http://messenger.yahoo.com/    (free)

ICQ:   http://www.icq.com/   (free)

SKYPE:   http://www.skype.com       (free)



So-called Chat-Rooms are often linked to these services. See the article behind the first link.