Overall, AOL Instant Messenger stacks up favorably with close rivals ICQ and Yahoo Messenger. To find out which of these three tools is the best option given your needs, we recommend downloading each of the Instant Messengers and trying them all out -- after all, all three are free!
Pros: Freeware, excellent feature-set, voice chat capabilities, integration with AOL
Cons: Must first register with an AOL server, inability to move/undock stock ticker, Netscape version lags behind AOL Instant Messenger and is now supported only under Windows 95
