A few weeks ago, the folks at About launched a voting session in order to find out the consumers' opinion concerning the market's instant messaging solutions, including here Yahoo Messenger, Adium for Mac OS X and Meebo. There were several categories available, each of them having its own favorites. Because the contest is now over, let me present you the winners.

As expected, Yahoo Messenger 9 won the grand prize for the "Best IM Experience" section with no less than 5,590 votes which represent 60 percent of the total number of votes. Digsby came the second with 35 percent (3,317 votes) while Meebo gained the third position with two percent, representing 208 votes of the total number of hits.

The "Most Improved IM" category was won by Digsby, which was by far the users' favorite application as it recorded a total number of 1734 votes in comparison with Coccinella, which came the second with 297. Pidgin, previously known as Gaim, recorded 278 hits, representing 11 percent of the total number of votes.

The "Best Mac Instant Messenger" had a clear favorite and nobody can deny that Adium, which won the category with 59 percent of the votes, is one of the best IM applications for Mac OS X. However, the Sunnyvale-based company Yahoo had an important role here too, as it lured 710 votes, which means 35 percent of the votes.

In an era in when social networks become more and more popular, it was obvious that a feature related to this matter would win the "Best IM Feature" section. And this is exactly what happened as Digsby was placed on the first position with 1481 votes thanks to its social network integration. However, Yahoo Messenger is again an important presence as it came the second with 1129 votes because of the in-line media player integrated into the software.