ICQ
More info
- Creator
- Mirabilis
- Released
- Discontinued
- 26 June 2024
- Owner
- Mail.ru (formerly AOL)
- Type
- Instant messenger
- Wikipedia
- en.wikipedia.org
The first mass-popular instant messenger — released in 1996 by the Israeli company Mirabilis, name from "I Seek You", famous for its signature "uh-oh" sound.
UIN (Unique Identification Number) instead of screen names — and "low UINs" (five digits) became status symbols. Bought by AOL in 1998 for USD 407 million, then on to Russian Mail.ru in 2010. Finally shut down on 26 June 2024.
Defined the entire "status-as-presence" paradigm (online, away, do not disturb, invisible) that AIM, MSN, Skype and now Slack/Discord inherit. Reverse engineering was born as a hobby when open clients (Miranda, Pidgin) needed to speak the protocol.