It all started with PowWow.

My recollection of Internet Messaging/Chat!

Long before FaceBook and Google's founders even existed, messaging had already become popular. Text based Chat systems were commonly in use within the PLATO community ("notes") in the 70's, as well as by Unix users in the 80's (with the "talk" command line program). 

Although sometimes known as “Instant Messaging”, or before that “Internet Chat”, pretty much all the features we know today about Windows based Internet Messaging, can be traced to the PowWow program back in the mid 1990’s. It became well known for its “Buddy List”, a real innovation at the time.

But PowWow was not to maintain its leadership for very long as a powerful competitor was to enter the stage. That was to be the AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). It was to become the market leader and in many ways the company that brought "messaging" to the masses.

But technology was advancing quickly, and ICQ Messenger started to become the popular choice in the late 1990’s. AOL needed to up their game, so they bought out ICQ in 1998. It was to become one of AOL’s most successful businesses. At its peak in the early 2000’s, it had more than 100 million registered users.

In 2003, Skype was to appear, and this again was to lead to the demise of almost everything that came before. Voice & Video features now became the new normal! Skype would later be sold to eBay before finally finding its current home at Microsoft.

Later still, products such as Viber and WhatsApp would bring a new technological leap, mostly due to the huge migration of users onto mobile platforms. Today, as we are all aware, WhatsApp pretty much rules the nest!
It is now owned by FaceBook.

 

 

Edit: If you wish to experience the REAL 1st generation of this technology, visit www.cyber1.org and apply for a "PLATO" account (it's called Cyber1 now) . It has the full "notes" functionality running on a simulated CDC (Control Data Corporation) mainframe system. It even runs on the same original NOS Operating System. You will need to download a Terminal Emulator to access the system though, this as it still runs as a mainframe based connection, just as it was back in it's day!