AOL has at last sold ICQ instant messenger company to Russian investors for $187.5 million. The transaction was reported by Digital Sky Technologies, an investment group backed by Yuri Milner, a media baron, and Alisher Usmanov, Uzbek commodities tycoon who owns a large stake in Arsenal FC. While the popularity of the instant messenger has declined in the Western countries it remained strong and even increased in Israel, where it was developed, and former Soviet countries.

An online instant messenger ICQ, owned by AOL and widely used outside the United States, has added the support of Facebook Chat. Earlier AIM, which is also owned by AOL, also added Facebook Chat support to its services. In January ICQ launched its 7 version with Facebook support but that included only status updates while the Chat has gone live on March 25 yesterday.

A bidding war over the ICQ instant messaging division of AOL, popular amid 33 million users worldwide and number 1 instant messaging provider in Russia, currently involves a number of North American companies.    Amid the companies interested in acquiring ICQ there are Google, DST, and Nasper.  Google’s interest in ICQ is most likely because of the widest Russian connection, while the service died off for the most part in North America.    So, Russian marke

Russian businesses have teamed up for lobby against VoIP services such as Skype, saying that the technology constitutes a threat to national security, as well as their business. The lobby, called the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, is working with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's political party to draft "legal safeguards" against VoIP services. Besides, it reckons 40 % of telephone calls could be completed using VoIP services by 2012.

What, you don’t know where to find a good man for marriage? Are you kidding? The Internet can solve this problem. It provides a lot of excellent and highly effective ways to meet someone you'll want to see over and over again. The Internet could bring you love, friendship or romance sooner than you expect. Do you think it’s just a marketing trick? Well, ask your coworkers, friends and relatives where they met their spouse. You will be surprised to learn how many people found each other online. 

"There is Russian spirit here, it smells like Russia," – today this phrase can be heard not only in Russian fairytales but also in a tangled multi-level structures of the modern Internet. From the time the Internet came to Russia, one of the leading world powers has staked a claim to its segment of the Internet which does not only impress by its scale but also makes you think about the special, new beginning of Internet.

That was just 5 years after the Internet was originated when a small group of Israelis recognized a necessity of connecting people from different parts of the world in a real time – so ICQ, the first on-line messenger, was created. That was an impact for the further development of the Internet and on-line communication particularly. Today there are a lot of on-line messengers being used in different countries.

Google, ICQ, YouTube, Facebook, e-gold, Wikipedia…. Everyone knows these words. Today Internet covers most spheres of our life. We can not imagine what our world would look like if there was not Internet… People created Internet and perfected it, who are they? Who are those heroes who have changed our world and our consciousness completely? Who will remain on the pages of the world history? Here are some facts regarding people whose significant work lets us use all the conveniences and achievements of the World Wide Web today. 

Yesterday Russian sources reported that at 13:00, Moscow time (10:00 GMT) users of all unofficial messenger clients that provide connection to ICQ were receiving the message that their client version is not used and unauthorized. On the official site of ICQ online subscribers could see the post that advised of that the service supports only official applications that can be downloaded from the website of ICQ.