The latest release of ICQ recently emerged from beta release under the name of ICQ 99 as ICQ 2000. New features that originally made their debut in the ICQ 99 beta releases include ICQ White Pages, E-ICQ, integrated e-mail capabilities, an enhanced e-mail checker, a random chat feature, ICQ Home Page Factory, message archive and find utilities, LDAP support, and new plug-ins for voice messages and greeting cards.
ICQ 2000 delivers several new additions of its own, including integrated ICQmail tools, an ICQ Shortcut bar, ICQ Answering Service, ICQ Channels and Newsletter menus, IP Address privacy feature, simple and advanced modes of operation, and a redesigned Preferences menu. A complete list of What's New in ICQ 2000 is available from the ICQ Web Site.
Additional ICQ features designed to make life easier for you include FileDirect (a powerful module for transferring files), Message Direct (saves and stores messages for you when you're offline), ChatDirect (a built-in conference chat system), URLDirect (for exchanging Web bookmarks with others), firewall support, an online search engine (the ICQ Yellow Pages), support for popular Web browsers and e-mail clients, and integrated support for FileDirect servers (personal file servers that you can set up so others can freely browse and download files).
