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What is ICQ? - About Community

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• A Way to Communicate

• What Can I Do With ICQ Instant Messenger?

• What Is The ICQ Community?

• How Does It Work?

• How Do I Get Started?

A Way to Communicate
As the name implies, ICQ or 'I Seek You' is simply a way of getting in touch with people and friends.
ICQ makes it easy to find people with similar interests across the globe, to establish new friendships, to communicate with colleagues, family members and friends no matter when or where they are.
And once friendships and connections have been established you just need to go online to get in contact without the geographic and time related limitations of the offline world.

What Can I Do With ICQ Instant Messenger?
The most popular method of communication on ICQ is instant messaging, enabling you to send a message that immediately pops up on an online contact's screen. But there's a lot more to ICQ than that.

With ICQ Instant Messenger you can video/audio chat, send email, SMS and wireless-pager messages, as well as transfer files and URLs. If you're away from your personal computer you can still chat with friends and contacts, even where the ICQ client is not installed, by using the web-based ICQ2Go that works from any computer.
With ICQ 5 you can customize your ICQ to be exactly what you need and always up-to-date by adding shortcuts to your favorite features in order to launch them directly from your ICQ. This means that you can send your friends & contacts greeting cards and invitations to games, multi chats, video sessions, and more directly from your client and/or the message window. In the message window you can also choose to display your photo or one of ICQ's unique, animated devils.

ICQphone incorporates IP telephony functions enabling you to engage in PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone calls. Used in multiple-user mode, groups can conduct conferences or play games with ICQ. In fact, ICQ supports a variety of popular Internet applications and serves as a Universal Platform from which you can launch peer-to-peer applications.

Basically ICQ brings together the most widely used methods of communication in the simplest way.

What Is The ICQ Community?
There's a lot more to ICQ than instant messaging. ICQ is in fact a global community that puts you in touch with long lost friends and friends you haven't met yet.

ICQ has amassed over 180 million users in more than 245 countries since its launch in November 1996, so whatever the topic, or the time of day, you can pretty much guarantee that there are people discussing it on ICQ.
Just as a search engine helps you find information, ICQ helps you find people. The ICQ Community can connect you to people with similar interests, beliefs and passions whether you're looking for bankers, Buddhists or bachelors.
ICQ hosts an exciting range of community features including Message Boards, Chat Rooms, Interest Groups, ICQ Match, User Lists, ICQ Rings, Game Partners, Meet People (people search) and the ICQ Universe, a social network in a cool flash interface where you can actually see how you are connected to other ICQ users.

And of course, if by chance an ICQ Community doesn't exist for your interest, it can be your initiative to start one.

On the ICQ web site you can also find lots of funny Friendship Cards, Web Tools to build your own web site, and cool ICQ Goodies, such as sounds and skins to personalize your ICQ Client.

How Does It Work?
How Does It Work? It's simple. When you install ICQ, the program asks you to register at a server, which is connected to a broad network of servers spanning the Internet. At the time of registration, you receive a unique ICQ number. In addition, ICQ gives you the option of entering personal information along with your ICQ#. This allows other ICQ users to recognize you when you log on. Once you've registered, you can compile a selected list of friends and contacts.

Meanwhile, ICQ waits quietly in the background without interrupting any other applications in use. As soon as you log onto the Internet, ICQ automatically detects the Internet connection, announces your presence to the Internet community and alerts you when friends sign on or off.

How Do I Get Started?

Download - The ICQ software, is only about 4mb, it's free and compatible with Windows environments as well as Mac, UNIX , Pocket PC & Palm OS. Find the appropriate version for your operating system from the ICQ Download Directory and follow the simple instructions. If you are new to instant messaging it's recommended to download the ICQ 5, or switch to this version in the Main-menu of ICQ Pro.
Register - Get an ICQ number and fill in your details so that other ICQ users can recognize you and communicate with you.
Find Friends/Contacts - Find old friends on the ICQ Network by entering name, e-mail address or ICQ number. Plus find new friends by searching by interest, country, language, age, gender etc. Once you have a person's approval, add them to your ICQ Contact List and start communicating.
Start Using ICQ - ICQ will alert you when your contacts are online and you'll be able to send and receive instant messages in real time. If a contact is offline, or if another method of communication is preferable, ICQ also enables you to make contact by email, phone, sms or paging.