Instant Messaging is different from chatting.
Chatting in a chat room and the ability to send a private message is great. Most chat components do that.
What Instant Messaging would be, by my definition, is when you see a user listed in the Who's Online CB module, you could create a popup live chat box for that member directly. THey have the choice to accept or decline.
www.PlentyofFish.com has this feature. I believe on the profile, there is a link that appears when a member is online.
At that point, you can instigate the popup private, one on one chat box.
MSN, AOL, YAHOO all those require separate memberships. The example at plenty of fish DOES NOT.
DOes that help clarify the purpose for this topic? ANy ideas?