As the holidays approach, staying in touch with friends and family can be as convenient as clicking a mouse. Here are some Web sites that offer easy ways to keep up with significant others from home or the office. A free service from AOL, AIM allows users to exchange real-time messages with others who are registered and online. In addition to sending text, the service provides various features that allow the transmission of photographs, images, sounds and animation. Another capability alerts the business user to changes in the stock market.
Icons designate single stocks so that the stock holder can determine the source of a market shift.
Yahoo provides a feature that offers users the option to build correspondence lists with the people they contact most often. The ability to create personalized mailbox themes is one way users can be distinguished from each other. Additionally, the program offers a selection of different languages that can be used for composing messages. A voice chat option gives a user the ability to hold a two-way audible conversation with another person. Messenger also alerts the user to incoming messages, stock quotes and calendar appointments.