For other uses, see. ICQ is an that was first developed and popularized by the company in 1996. Ownership of ICQ passed from Mirabilis to in 1998, and from AOL to in 2010. Users could register an account and would be assigned a number, like a phone number, for others to be able to contact them users could also provide handles. ICQ was among the first stand-alone and the first online instant messenger service — while real-time chat was not in itself new to the internet being the most common platform at the time , the concept of a fully centralized service with individual user accounts focused on one-on-one conversations set the blueprint for later instant messaging services like , and its influence is seen in modern social media applications. Whilst programs, like and , dominated the market for many years, their popularity began to fall in the face of mobile computing which had begun to take hold with and the fledgling. At its peak around 2001, ICQ had more than 100 million accounts registered. At the time of the Mail. Ru acquisition in 2010, there were around 42 million daily users. Since 2013, ICQ has 11 million monthly users. Users can use while chatting with other users. The software's sounds were created by the Israeli psychedelic trance duo. Available by clicking a button in the contact list. In this way, they can protect their privacy. ICQ users are identified and distinguished from one another by UIN, or User Identification Numbers, distributed in sequential order. The UIN was invented by , as the user name assigned to each user upon registration. Issued UINs started at '10,000' 5 digits and every user receives a UIN when first registering with ICQ. As of ICQ6 users are also able to log in using the specific address they associated with their UIN during the initial registration process. Unlike other instant messaging software or , on ICQ the only permanent user info is the UIN, although it is possible to search for other users using their associated e-mail address or any other detail they have made public by updating it in their account's public profile. In addition the user can change all of his or her personal information, including and e-mail address, without having to re-register. Since 2000 ICQ and users are able to add each other to their contact list without the need for any external clients. As a response to UIN theft or sale of attractive UINs, ICQ started to store email addresses previously associated with a UIN. As such UINs that are stolen can sometimes be reclaimed. This applies only if since 1999 onwards a valid primary email address was entered into the user profile. The founding company of ICQ, Mirabilis, was established in June 1996 by five Israelis: , , , , and Arik's father. They recognized that many people were accessing the internet through non- , such as , and those users were unfamiliar with established chat technologies, e. At the time this was the highest price ever paid to purchase an Israeli technology company. After the purchase the product was initially managed by Ariel Yarnitsky and Avi Shechter. ICQ's management changed at the end of 2003. Under the leadership of the new CEO, Orey Gilliam, who also assumed the responsibility for all of AOL's messaging business in 2007, ICQ resumed its growth; it was not only a highly profitable company, but one of AOL's most successful businesses. Eliav Moshe replaced Gilliam in 2009 and became ICQ's managing director. While ICQ was displaced by AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, and other competitors in the U. Popular demanded over 11,000 rubles in 2010. In September of that year, changed its name to Mail. Since the acquisition, Mail. In March 2016 the of the client was released under the released on. This provided synchronization between multiple computers and enforced obtaining consent before adding UINs to the contact list by preventing clients from modifying the local contact list directly. However, ICQ 5 and 5. ICQ 2002 and 2003a used version 8 of the ICQ protocol. Earlier versions ICQ 2001b and all ICQ clients before it used ICQ protocol version 7. One addition was Xtraz, which offers games and features intended to appeal to younger users of the Internet. ICQ Lite was originally an idea to offer the lighter users of instant messaging an alternative client which was a smaller download and less resource-hungry for relatively slow computers. There are few official available for the current ICQ 5. The has been redesigned using , the same rendering engine used in. This change adds new features such as the ability to send IMs directly from the client's contact list. ICQ has recently started forcing users of v5. Those who do not upgrade will find their older version of ICQ does not start up. Although the upgrade to version 6 should be seen as a positive thing, some users may find that useful features such as sending multiple files at one time is no longer supported in the new version. At the beginning of July 2008, a network upgrade forced users to stop using ICQ 5. There seems to be no alternative for users other than using a different IM program or patching ICQ 5. This update includes integration with and other websites. It also allows custom personal status similar to. This has made its adoption difficult with the established user base from Hong Kong and Taiwan where traditional Chinese is the official language. This implies that ICQ Inc. Therefore carefully consider whether you wish such information to be accessible. Public areas may include your user profile depending on the level of your privacy settings any blogs, message boards, forums or similar services made available through the ICQ Services. The clients that were sending Client IDs not matching ICQ 5. Скачайте бесплатную авторизованную версию ICQ с официального web-сайта ICQ. System Message The version you are using is not supported by ICQ. Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. Retrieved 25 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014. Archived from on April 30, 2010. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
