In this episode, we show you how you can

use Facebook chat

to

communicate with your Facebook groups

. We'll also show you how you can

appear invisible to certain groups

and give you a crash course on the

basics of Facebook chat

.

Cheryl finds CamTwist, a free Mac program that lets you turn your web cam output into just about anything you can imagine. Make it snow, trap yourself in a 3D box, mirror the image, squeeze, pinch, fisheye... even bullet-time and other movie effects are present and accounted for.

Eenie, meenie, miney, moe, catch a cougar by any means necessary online. Kate takes a look at ways to find women who are interested in younger men online and vice-versa. Social taboos toward older women hooking up with younger men are less pronounced, making this the perfect time to pounce.

Simply put,

Fring is the best free IM app for Android

. With Fring, you can easily have

IM chats on your Android phone

over ICQ, MSN, AIM, Google Talk and many many more. Manage all your IM contacts, get

push IM notifications

and more, all with this

free Android app

.

If you're anything like us, you have at least three or four handles across the different instant messaging (IM) servies. Google Talk, MSN, AIM, Facebook Chat, Jabber, etc., etc.. Trillian lets you keep all these IMs and more organized and in one place. No more firing up multiple messengers in order to track down that elusive IM contact.

There are so many instant messaging services around that it can be difficult connecting with everyone. Difficult, that is, unless you have a client that ties them together. A client like Palringo.

When you get into instant and text messaging, many people want to get as much in as possible so they use abbreviations or acronyms. Here are a few of the most common. RTM for more.

Google Talk integration with Gmail was our first hint that Google thinks IM and email go together like the cheese and rice... no, peanut butter and jelly, no... well. They go together well. In Google Wave, the next iteration of IM and email convergence is upon us. Introducing Ping in Google Wave.

Windows Live offers most of its services through a easy to use

Web interface

. You can even send messages to your friends via IM. You can install

Windows Live Messenger

on your PC and chat with all of your friends and family for free.

It's called "instant messaging," not "sometime in the not so distant future messaging" for a reason. The whole point of IM is to let you ping friends, family and co-workers with a quick question, a quick answer... or perhaps a witty bon mot, when an email is not required and a phone call might be too intrusive. IM seems tailor-made for the BlackBerry. Wherever you are, you can still be online on your favorite IM service and friends, family and co-workers can reach you with a quick question, a quick answer... or that witty bon mot.

Paltalk is not your standard instant messaging client. You can video, audio and text chat with up to 10 people in a single chat session, link up with other IM clients and much more. This screencast introduction was produced by butterscotch under commission from Paltalk to highlight the program's unique features.

With so many

instant messaging services

out there, how do you keep track of all your friends and associates across all the IM services on your Mac? With

Adium

you can connect to all your instant messaging friends, regardless of their preferred IM. Add friends from ICQ, Windows Live (MSN), AIM, Google Talk and many more. Michael "Doc" Callahan shows us how to keep track and provides some valuable power-user tips along the way.

In an earlier segment we talked about how you could make Adium look the way you want it to by modifying colors and the like. The Xtras Manager, however, helps you to take Adium to a new level of customization. Nearly every aspect of Adium can be customized and altered to be just the way you want.

Adium makes it easy to chat with family and friends across a wide range of instant messaging networks. You can talk back and forth, use emoticons to express your feelings, add hyperlinks to your messages, change the font, the font color and more. Adium makes it fun to chat with all of your contacts.

When you have contacts that all use different instant messaging networks it can be hard to stay in touch. Enter Adium. You can add all your contacts from a wide variety of messaging services and have everyone in one easy-to-use interface. Adium is a great way to manage multiple IM clients, all in one place.

Yahoo Messenger is a powerful chat tool that will allow you to chat with friends and family around the world. It's fun, free and with these tips, it's easy too. Whether you're on a computer with Yahoo Messenger installed or not, you can still access your instant messaging friends through a browser window. We'll show you how.

Windows Live Messenger

, formerly known as

MSN Messenger

, is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, whether they're around the corner or all around the world. You can

send and receive free instant messages

, even play a game together while chatting, share files,

voice and video chat

and so much more. Doc Callahan explains in this 10-part series on Windows Live Messenger

When you're online it's nice to be able to chat with family and friends. Windows Live Messenger makes it easy to do just that. Just find a friend, open a chat window and type up a quick "hello" message to start a conversation. Windows Live Messenger's program has a simple interface that makes chatting easy.

Over the years Messenger from Microsoft has evolved from MSN to Windows Messenger and finally into Windows Live Messenger; a program that really lets you do it all. You can access your Windows Live Hotmail account, share folders and files, chat with family and friends, make phone calls, send SMS messages and much more.

Skype has been a great way to make voice calls from PC to PC for quite some time. You can even call landlines and long distance. This new version of Skype for Windows, however, adds expanded video, top-drawer sound and lots more.

Building the cross-application integration that the iPhone so sorely needs, Pinger Phone connects instant messaging, Facebook, MySpace and more and allows you to call, chat with or message your contacts.

What's new with Windows Live? Tune and and Sue Borden of Microsoft Canada will let us know.

Pronounced "bee hive," not "bee jive," this iPhone app links you up with iChat users, lets you send and receive pictures, voice messages and more.

Webcam conversations can be so impersonal. Novo aims to change that with its Minoru 3D webcam. This little guy has two "eyes" that allow the Minoru 3D to see in stereo. Chatters on the other end who are willing to don the 3D glasses can see you popping out of their screens in 3D.

With so many instant messaging (IM) accounts, wouldn't it be nice to be able to manage them all in one place? From MSN / Windows Live Messenger to ICQ, AIM, Google Talk and more, Pidgin is the one-stop shop IM client. And it's free. We'll show you where to get it and how to set it up.

With so many instant messaging services out there, how do you keep track of all your friends and associates across all the IM services on your Mac? With Adium you can connect to all your instant messaging friends, regardless of their preferred IM. Add friends from ICQ, Windows Live (MSN), AIM, Google Talk and many more. Michael "Doc" Callahan shows us how to keep track and provides some valuable power-user tips along the way.

Windows Live Messenger, formerly known as MSN Messenger, is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, whether they're around the corner or all around the world. You can send and receive free instant messages, even play a game together while chatting, share files, voice and video chat and so much more. Doc Callahan explains in this 10-part series on Windows Live Messenger