Does your campus block Instant Messaging for security reasons, or lack access to the messaging client you normally use on public machines? Perhaps you travel frequently and find yourself in Internet cafes or libraries without access to your IM client. If any of these circumstances apply to you, you may find Meebo useful. Meebo is an ajax-powered, web-based instant messaging platform that supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and MSN. Free, simple to use, relatively bug free and a really nice interface that puts all other web-based IM tools to shame. Just make sure you're using a modern, standards compliant browser and you're good to go, as usual I'll recommend Firefox.