Nosce te ipsum

By way of MacMinute:

Defaultware has released Proteus 4.1.2, the latest version of its multi-service instant messaging client for Mac OS X. The application supports all major instant messaging services ( ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Yahoo Japan, Rendezvous, and Jabber). Version 4.12 adds the ability to know when users are logged in with a mobile device, brings back Status Floaters, the ability to send ICQ file transfers, and addresses numerous bugs. Proteus is priced at US$15 and requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later.

Personally, as IM starts continues to become the choice of communication mediums for tech savy people betweeen the ages of 12 - 30, I'm continually put off by the fact that in the year 2005, these gigantic companies have yet to get their act together and standardize on a single method of IM protocols instead of the current mismatch that we find ourselves in. Until that day arrives, fourtinately we have multi-protpcol products on such as Proteus, Adium X and the open source Fire client.

In addition to getting everyone on a shared network, my other main request is that the tools would natively support IRC (something that only Fire currently does natively).