[bencollier49]

I reckon you're right. This was peak Yahoo Instant Messenger time, and it launched in 1998, just before the graph starts moving downwards.

[cortesoft]

Really? I feel like peak instant messenger time was around 2001 or so... I wonder if it has to do with how old we are?

[gowld]

Peak for you was likely when you were a teen.

But overall? In 2001 computers weren't ubiquitous nor portable. Middle-class kids were on IM on their desktops and maybe laptops for max a few hours per day.

Now kids have phones for IM all day and night.

[cortesoft]

The grandparent comment was saying that 2006-2008 was peak instant messenger, and people using messengers on phones were certainly not common during those years.

[tdurden]

It is a shame YIM is gone now; I lost contact with a lot of people where that was our main form of communication.