The attractions of instant messaging (news - web sites) (IM) are obvious: The software knows when others are online, enabling employees to avoid engaging in time-consuming "phone tag." Analysts call IM "real-time e-mail."
IM began as a teen tool for chat and became popular worldwide almost instantly. Currently, there are a number of free IM products available from well-known companies, such as AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.
But business use of IM has been comparatively slow to catch on, mainly because of security concerns. In the early days of IM's existence, corporate employees used it unofficially, with little or no security in place.
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