When you meet someone for the first time, do you ask their ASL? Do you LOL if they come out with something funny, and say CU L8er when you finish the conversation? If you know what I'm talking about, then you are probably already a user of 1_____ messaging, or IM. The idea behind IM is simple. A program on your computer tells you when a friend is online. You can then send a message to your friend, who can type a 2_____ instantly. To do this, you need an IM program. Worldwide, AIM, the instant messaging 3______ provided by AOL , is by far the most popular. It has 195 million users who send about 1. 6 billion messages every day. ICQ, which is owned by AOL, has about 140 million messengers, and MSN and Windows IM 4_____ about 75 million users. The 5______ over e-mail is that with instant messaging you know you're likely to get a reply. IM is already hugely popular in the USA , where people spend five times more time online than in Europe. However, IM is starting to take off in the UK, with over 3, 000 people signing up to MSN Messenger alone every day. While the 6______ of IM are obvious, there is one very important disadvantage: you can only 7______ someone on the same network as you. If your friend is using AIM, and you are using MSN, you cannot talk to each other. This makes IM less useful than it should be. 8______ if you couldn't send an e-mail from hotmail to yahoo. However, things look like they'll change soon. 9_____, the future looks bright for IM. Lots of programs also allow you to have voice conversations, video conferencing — this means you can see the other person using a webcam — and also let you swap pictures, music and other files. So, perhaps we'll all soon be asking someone's age, sex and 10______ ( ASL) , and laughing out loud ( LOL) when they say something funny. See you later! (CU L8er)