Because we like to talk to our callers using the webcam whenever possible, we’ve been looking for a nice easy way to be able to video chat with people on different messaging clients, but it’s been pretty much impossible to find a one-size fits all solution for the problem. You can certainly use the iChat client to connect with AIM users, but video compatibility between the two can sometimes be iffy. And if you want to chat with MSN users from the Mac, you can’t do it with Microsoft’s MSN client for Mac, because it doesn’t support video. Ultimately, we’ve made the decision to go with Skype, because it blasts past firewall problems, and has support on all of the platforms…but the downside is that the person at the other end also has to be using Skype.

It’s worth noting that there are some programs like Adium (http://adiumx.com) that will work for text chat with multiple clients, including MSN Messenger, but they don’t support video.