IM Use Diversifying
News.com reports on a new study that takes a look at the use of IM outside of the home space, specifically in business and mobile environments. Some interesting findings:
Nearly 27 percent of all IM users surveyed said they use instant messaging at work. This represents an increase of 71 percent over last year, AOL said.
Seventy percent of those who use IM at work do so to communicate with colleagues, while 34 percent use it to interact with clients or customers. Eleven percent of office IM users said they have used instant messaging at work to avoid a potentially difficult in-person conversation, and 62 percent send occasional instant messages during their workday to check in with family and friends.
Researchers that found mobile usage is up as well, with 19 percent of IM users sending instant messages or SMS (Short Message System) messages from mobile phones and PDAs. That's up from 10 percent last year.
It is interesting to see that while IM is used largely as a quick way to communicate information and receive input, it's also used as a social forcefield of sorts that provides a "comfortable distance". Looking back at my use, I can recount many situations where I've used IM for this purpose. Of course, usually it escalates into a phone call when things are really bad.
One interesting last observation is that "The most important IM features are photo sharing, customization and file sharing". Unfortuantely, I've never had great success really using IM as a file-sharing gateway when it comes to firewalls, network latency and other IM gremlins.