There are many IRC networks, but only one ICQ network

Well, there are actually several instant message networks, thus prompting me to change over to Trillian. Lets see, theres ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, and Oldigo I believe right offhand. There definitly needs to be some work in this area before it becomes even more fragmented. But with AOL and Microsoft being behind 3 of the above, thats doubtful.

And my small comment on the subject, I do like IRC better for chatting, but I rarley do that anymore. I use ICQ for it's origional purpose, Instant Messaging. (Also the reason I don't like the other clients that much. Their setup turns them into IC programs (Instant Chatting)).

Why not set up a Java IRC client somewhere keyed to connect to the empeg channel? Would solve a few problems at once.