Trillian (software)

Infobox Software
name = Trillian



caption = Trillian main screen
collapsible = yes
developer = Cerulean Studios
released = initial release|2000|7|1
frequently_updated = yes
programming language = C++
operating system = Microsoft Windows
Mac OS X (Astra only)
iPhone (Astra only)
Internet (Astra only)
language = ?
genre = Instant messaging client
license = Proprietary EULA
website = [http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ www.ceruleanstudios.com]

Trillian is a proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application for Windows created by Cerulean Studios that can connect to multiple IM services, such as AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Bonjour, Jabber, and Skype networks (the latter four with Trillian Pro which allows for additional plugins).

Initially released July 1 2000, as a freeware IRC client, the first commercial version "(Trillian Pro 1.0)" was published on September 10 2002. The program was named after Trillian, a fictional character in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. The [http://web.archive.org/web/20030602003647/www.ceruleanstudios.com/trillian/index.html old version] of the official web site even used to have a shrine to Douglas Adams on its front page. There are currently two types of Trillian available, the original and free "Trillian Basic 3" and the commercial "Trillian Pro 3". An upcoming product called "Trillian Astra (4.0)" has been announced and is currently in alpha testing.

Features

Connection to multiple IM services

Trillian connects to multiple instant messaging services without the need of running multiple clients. Users can create multiple connections to the same service, and can also group connections under separate identities to prevent confusion. All contacts are gathered under the same contact list. Contacts are not bound to their own IM service groups, and can be dragged and dropped freely.

Trillian represents each service with a different-colored sphere. Prior versions used the corporate logos for each service, but these were removed to avoid copyright issues, although some skins still use the original icons. The Trillian designers chose a color-coding scheme based on the subway maps used by the London Underground that uses different colors to differentiate between different lines. [ [http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com/2004/09/thinking-london-underground-and.html Subway lines colors] item on Cerulean Studios blog]

tandard IM services

* Blue for Windows Live Messenger
* Red for Yahoo! Messenger
* Green for ICQ
* Yellow for AIM
* Blue-Gray for IRCAlso there is a new one out for MySpace IM. Trillian Astra now supports MySpace IM.

Plugin IM services (Trillian Pro only)

* Electric Purple for Jabber (including Google Talk)
* Pink for Skype (via the [http://www.trillian-messenger.net/en/plugin/skyllian SkyLlian] plugin)
* Orange and Dark Gray for Bonjour (Rendezvous)
* Cyan for Microsoft Exchange
* Lime Green for Lotus Sametime
* Red and Black for Novell GroupWise Messenger
* Dark blue and Black for Xfire

Metacontact

To eliminate duplicates and simplify the structure of the contact list, users of Trillian Pro can bundle multiple contacts of the same person into one entry in the contact list, using the Metacontact feature (cf. Ayttm#Fallback_messaging feature). Subcontacts will appear under the metacontact as small icons aligned in a manner of a tree.

Activity history

Trillian Basic and Pro both come with Activity History, and both log the history as both plain text files and as XML files. Pro has a History Manager that shows the chat history and allows the user to add bookmarks for revision later on. XML-based history makes the log easy to manipulate, searchable and extendable for future functions. [cite web|url=http://www.trillian.cc/features/index.php?select=5|title=Trillian Features: Activity History|accessdate=2007-03-05]

Time travel

Trillian Pro also has a time traveling feature, which allows the user to record, and subsequently review, pause, rewind, and fast forward live video and audio sessions. [cite web|url=http://www.trillian.cc/features/index.php?select=4|title=Trillian Features: Time Travel|accessdate=2007-03-05] According to the application, "Time travel to the future is not currently available."

Instant lookup

. The tooltips displayed within Trillian are often shorter, more condensed versions of the articles on the Web site itself.

Emotiblips

Emotiblips are the video equivalent of an emoticon. During video sessions, the user may stream a song or video to the other user in real time. One can send MP3s, WAVs, WMVs, and MPGs with this feature. QuickTime MOV files as Emotiblips are not currently supported.

Hidden smileys

In version 2.0 to the current, the default emoticon set contains emoticons that don't appear in the menu but can be used in conversations. Some of these are animations that can only be viewed in Trillian Pro, but all of them can be used regardless. [ [http://computer-ease.com/emotposi.htm Blake's IM emoticons quick reference] from computer-ease.com] [ [http://trillian.jiqnet.com/?pgload=emot_pack&pack=jiquera All Trillian Pro Emoticons] from JiqNet.com]

kins and interfaces

Trillian has its own unique skinning engine known as "SkinXML". Many skins have been developed for Trillian and they can be downloaded from the official skins gallery or deviantArt. [ [http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/skins Trillian's official skins gallery] from Cerulean Studio's website]

Trillian also came with an easier skinning language, "Stixe", which is essentially a set of XML Entities that simplifies repetitive codes and allows skinners to share XML and graphics in the form of emoticon packs, sound packs and interfaces.

The default skins of Trillian are designed by designHazard. Trillian Cordillera was used in "Trillian 0.7x", while Trillian Whistler has been the default skin for Trillian since Pro 1.0. Slight cosmetic changes were noticeable in each major release.

The upcoming "Trillian Astra" will feature a brand new design for the front-end UI, to be called Trillian Cordonata.

Plugins

Trillian is a closed-source application, but the Pro version can be extended by plugins. Plugins by Cerulean Studios itself include spell-check, weather monitor, a mini-browser (for viewing AIM profiles), Winamp song title scroller, stock exchange monitor, RSS feedreader, and conversation capabilities for the Logitech G15 keyboard, as well as a plugin for the Jabber and Bonjour networks. Others have developed various plugins, such as a "games" plugin which can be used to play chess and checkers, a protocol plugin to send NetBIOS messages through Trillian, a plugin to interact with Lotus Sametime clients, a plugin to interact with Microsoft Exchange, a POP3 and IMAP email checker, or an automatic translator for many European languages to and from English. There is a plugin to interact with Skype, SkyLlian, but it needs Skype to be installed in order to be used.

Plugins are available for free and are hosted on [http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/plugins the official web site] . Most, however, require Trillian Pro 2+ to run.

History

Early beginnings

After several internal builds, the first ever public release of Trillian, version "0.50", was available on July 1 2000, and was designed to be an IRC client. The release was deemed 'too buggy' and was immediately pulled off the shelf and replaced by a new version "0.51" on the same day. It featured a simple Connection Manager and skinned windows.

A month later, two minor builds were released with additional IRC features and bug fixes. Despite these efforts, Trillian was not popular, as reflected in the number of downloads from CNET's Download.com.Fact|date=July 2007

Trillian was a donateware at that time. They used PayPal for receiving donations through their web site.

Introduction of interoperability

Version "0.6", released November 29 2000, represented a major change in the direction of development, when the client became capable of connecting to AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and MSN Messenger simultaneously in one window.

Although similar products, such as Jabber, Odigo and Imici, already existed, Trillian was novel in the way that it distinguished contacts from different IM services clearly on the contact list, and it did not require registration of a proprietary account. It also did not lose connection easily like the other clients.Fact|date=February 2007

A month later, Yahoo! Messenger support was introduced in Trillian "0.61", and it also featured a holiday skin for Christmas. Meanwhile, the Trillian community forums were opened to the public.

During this period, new versions were released frequently, attracting many enthusiasts to the community. Skinning activity boomed and fan sites were created. A skinning contest was held on deviantArt in Summer, and the winner was selected to design the default skin for the next version of Trillian. Trillian hit 100,000 downloads on August 14 2001.

Entry into mainstream and the "IM Wars"

Contrary to the anticipation for version "0.64" in the community, the next version of Trillian was numbered "0.70". It was released December 5 2001. Development took 5 months, considerably longer than previous builds.

The new version implemented file transfer in all IM services, a feature most requested by the community at the time. It also represented a number of skin language changes. It used the contact list as the main window (as opposed to a status window 'container' in previous versions) and featured a brand new default skin, "Trillian Cordillera", and an emoticon set boasting over 100 emoticons, setting a record apart from other messengers available at that time.

Version "0.71" was released on December 18 2001. It supported AIM group chats and was the first major IM client which included the ability to encrypt messages with SecureIM.

In the following months, the number of downloads of Trillian surged, reaching 1 million on 27 January 2002, and 5 million within 6 months. Trillian received coverage and favorable reviews from mainstream media worldwide, particularly by CNET, Wired Magazine and BetaNews. The lead developer and co-founder, Scott Werndorfer, was also interviewed on TechTV.

Trillian remained the center of attention in IM in the media for the rest of year. AOL became aware that Trillian users were able to chat with their AIM buddies without having to download the AIM client. Version "0.72" was released on January 29 2002, and it began to suffer connection problems to AIM. [ [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/31/aol_blocks_trillian_im_access/ "AOL blocks Trillian IM Access"] article in The Register]

AOL blocked SecureIM access from Trillian clients. Cerulean appeared to have circumvented the block with version "0.721" of its client software, released one day later. The "AOL War" continued for the next couple weeks, with Cerulean releasing subsequent patches "0.722", "0.723" and "0.724". Trillian garnered a lot of media attention as a result, and its developers were praised by its community for their efficiency. However, SecureIM encryption is extremely insecure, so AOL efforts could be seen as an attempt to protect its users from weak cryptography.

Trillian appeared in the Jupiter Media Metrix Internet audience ratings in February 2002 with 344,000 unique users, and grew to 610,000 by April 2002. While those numbers are very small compared to the major IM networks, Jupiter said Trillian consistently ranks highest according to the number of average minutes spent per month. [ [http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/1432611 Internet News article] on Trillian usage]

Trillian also created a special version for Iomega ActiveDisk.

Commercialization with Trillian Pro

On September 9 2002 a commercial version, "Trillian Pro 1.0", was released concurrently with "Trillian Basic 0.74". The commercial version was sold for $25 USD for a year of subscription, but all those who donated to the development of Trillian before were eligible to a year of subscription at no cost.

The new version had added SMS and mobile messaging capabilities, Yahoo! Messenger webcam support, pop-up e-mail alerts and new plug-ins to shuttle news, weather and stock quotes directly to buddy lists.

It appeared Trillian Pro would be marketed to corporate clients looking to keep in touch with suppliers or customers via a secured, interoperable IM network, and a relatively stern user interface. The company had no venture capital backing, and had depended entirely on donations from users to stay alive.

Trillian Pro 1.0 was nominated and picked among three other nominees as the Best Internet Communication shareware in its debut year of being a "try before you buy" shareware. [ [http://www.sic.org/2003nominees.asp Trillian nomination] for Best Internet Communication Software, 2003]

On April 26 2003, total downloads of Trillian reached ten million. [ [http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36021&perpage=30&highlight=trillian%20hits%20downloads&pagenumber=3 Cerulean Studios] announcement of 10 millionth download]

Blockages from Yahoo! and cooperation with Gaim

A few weeks after "Trillian Pro 2.0" was released, Yahoo! attempted to block Trillian from connecting to its service [ [http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5245821.html ZDnet article] on Yahoo blocking Trillian access] in their "efforts to implement preventative measures to protect our users from potential spammers." A few patches were released by the makers of Trillian, which resolved the issue.

In a surprising move, the Trillian developers assisted its open-source cross-platform rival Gaim in solving the Yahoo! connection issues. Sean Egan, the developer of Gaim, posted in its site, "Our friends over at Cerulean Studios managed to break my speed record at cracking Yahoo! authentication schemes with an impressive feat of hackery. They sent it over and here it is in Gaim 0.70." (what exactly was sent over isn't clear). It was later revealed that the developers were friends and had helped each other on past occasions. [ [http://internet.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/09/29/211247 Newsforge article] on cooperation between Cerulean and Gaim]

Meanwhile, as Microsoft forced its users to upgrade to MSN Messenger 5.0 for upgrades in their servers for security issues, [ [http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5066412.html?tag=techdirt Microsoft upgrades to MSN Messenger 5.0] ] October 15 2003 also would mark the deadline for Trillian support for MSN Messenger. However, it appeared that Cerulean Studios worked with Microsoft [ [http://forums.ceruleanstudios.com/showthread.php?t=41209?tag=Cerulean Studios released patch on forums before server changes happened in MSN Messenger] ] to resolve the issue on August 2 2003, long before the deadline.

On March 7 2004 and June 23 2004, Yahoo! changed its instant messaging language again to prevent third-party services, such as Trillian, from accessing its service. Like previous statements, the company said the block is meant as a preemptive measure against spammers. [ [http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5245821.html ZDnet article] on Yahoo! Messenger language change] Cerulean Studios released a few patches to fix the issues within a day or two.

Trillian 3 Series

In August 2004, a new official blog was created in attempt to rebuild connections between the Studios and its customers. Trillian 3 was announced in the blog, and a sneak preview was made available to a small group of testers.

After months of beta-testing, the final build of Trillian 3 was released on December 18 2004, with features such as new video and audio chat capabilities throughout AIM, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, an enhanced logging manager and integration with the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. It also featured a clean and re-organized user interface and a brand new official web site.

The release also updated the long-abandoned "Trillian Basic .74" to match the new user interface and functionalities as "Trillian Basic 3.0". The number of accumulated downloads of Trillian Basic in Download.com hit 20 million within a matter of weeks.

"Trillian 3.1" was released February 23 2005. It included new features such as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and multiple identities support.

U3 and Google Pack

Trillian was made available for U3 USB flash drives on October 21 2005, despite Trillian Anywhere making Trillian portable long before, through slight file modifications. [ [http://trilliananywhere.com/ Trillian Anywhere web site] ] There is also a U3 version of Trillian Astra posted on the official Cerulean Studios forum.

On January 6 2006, Larry Page, President of Products at Google, announced Google Pack, a bundle of various applications including "Trillian Basic 3.0" as "a free collection of safe, useful software from Google and other companies that improves the user experience online and on the desktop".

"We're very excited for Trillian to be included in Google Pack, as we at Cerulean Studios have always been very focused on giving end-users the highest quality experience possible," said Scott Werndorfer, Co-founder, Cerulean Studios. "We believe this goal aligns Trillian perfectly with Google Pack." [ [http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pack.html Google Pack press release] ]

The inclusion of Trillian in Google Pack was perplexing to some media analysts as Google has its own Google Talk service, which touts the benefits of an open IM system and the free Trillian Basic client cannot be used with Google Talk. Trillian Pro is also included as one of the "client choices" in Google Talk's client choices list. [ [http://www.google.com/talk/otherclients.html List of Google Talk client choices] ]

According to the Cerulean Studios blog, Trillian was discontinued from Google Pack on 19 May 2006. [ [http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com/?p=47 Cerulean blog] entry on Trillian discontinuation from Google Pack]

Trillian Astra (Trillian 4)

More than a year after the release of "Trillian 3.1", the Cerulean Studios blog began spreading news again and announced the next version of Trillian, which is to be called "Trillian Astra". The name for version 4, "Astra", is the nickname used by the same fictional character that is the namesake of the software. The new release claimed to be faster and include a new login screen. A new domain, www.trillianastra.com, was disclosed to the public, with only the logo and blue background.

On 21 November 2006, Cerulean Studios launched a [http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ap/ preview web site] . Within half a day the site had received a lot of attention on the Web site Digg. [ [http://digg.com/software/Trillian_Astra_OFFICIAL_Preview_Site Diggs for Astra preview Web site] ]

Trillian Astra touts many improvements. According to the [http://trillian.im/preview/index.html preview Web site] improvements were made in the following areas:
* [http://trillian.im/preview/page-interop.html Interoperability:] Enhanced file transfer ability, support for more IM clients, status messaging support, and IMCore technology, which can compile natively on Win32, Linux, and Mac OS X.
* [http://trillian.im/preview/page-mobility.html Mobility:] Web-based instant messaging, real-time status, iPhone support, online Trillian Astra profile.
* [http://trillian.im/preview/page-profile.html Profile:] Better data control and privacy, downloadable contact list, Social Widgets, a new login screen, strong encryption and identification verification, and open protocol.
* [http://trillian.im/preview/page-cl.html Contact List:] Tile view, Spotlight search, Drag-and-drop avatars, faster status changes, simple access to display name, dynamic list height.
* [http://trillian.im/preview/page-mw.html Message Windows:] Easy image sharing, handwriting mode, knowledge of local time, RSS, 'Buzz', saved font styles.
* [http://trillian.im/preview/page-skins.html Skins:] On the fly skin changes, Themes and colors, improved transparency support, Control layering, skin build time.
* [http://trillian.im/preview/page-performance.html Performance:] Skin loading time, redrawing times, network connections, memory usage, and skin variety.

Although Trillian Astra is currently in alpha stage development it has already begun to gain widespread attention and its sign-up for alpha testers was quickly flooded.

On December 1st, 2006, Cerulean Studios made community edited language packs available to work on. Packs are to be translated by the community and will then be made available to Trillian Astra users. On January 5, 2007, Cerulean Studios launched a web version of Trillian Astra. They also updated the web site with a login page for alpha testers to sign in the new web service. On July 6, 2007, Cerulean Studios announced on their blog a new custom-designed interface of Trillian Astra for the iPhone. [ [http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com/?p=162 Trillian for iPhone announcement] ]

On October 5, 2007, Cerulean Studios announced Trillian Astra for Mac OS X. [ [http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com/?p=205 Trillian Astra Mac version announcement] ] The Mac version, currently available to select existing Alpha testers, utilizes the same core as the Windows version but with a new UI designed specifically for OS X. The Mac version and the Windows version have different build numbers. Cerulean Studios have stated in their testing Bugzilla that a Linux version may be considered after the public release of Trillian Astra.

On July 19, 2008, Cerulean Studios added Facebook and re-introduced IRC integration into Trillian Astra. [ [http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com/?p=373 Cerulean Studios’ Blog » Blog Archive » Build 83: Return of IRC, New Facebook support, and more ] ]

Trillian Version history

*July 1 2000: Initial Release Version 0.50
*August 11 2000: Version 0.52
*November 29 2000: Version 0.60
*December 23 2000: Version 0.61
*January 28 2001: Version 0.62
*March 23 2001: Version 0.63
*June 04 2001: Version 0.635
*June 20 2001: Version 0.6351
*December 05 2001: Version 0.70
*December 18 2001: Version 0.71
*February 20 2002: Version 0.72
*June 7 2002: Version 0.73
*September 9 2002: Version 0.74 and Trillian Pro Version 1.0
*September 9 2003: Trillian Pro Version 2.0
*December 17 2004: Trillian Basic and Pro Version 3.0
*February 24 2005: Trillian Basic and Pro Version 3.1
*January 5 2007: Trillian Astra Alpha Build 24 and Trillian Astra for Web Alpha 1 [ [http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com/?p=61 Trillian Astra for Web announcement] ]
*August 3 2007: Trillian Astra for iPhone Alpha and Trillian Astra for Web Alpha 2
*October 5 2007: Trillian Astra Mac Alpha Build 1 is released.

ee also

*List of Jabber client software
*Comparison of instant messaging clients
*Comparison of IRC clients
*Comparison of instant messaging protocols

References

External links and resources

* [http://www.ceruleanstudios.com Cerulean Studios’ main Web site]
* [http://www.trillianastra.com/preview/index.html Trillian Astra Sneak Preview]
* [http://www.trillianastra.com Trillian Astra Website and Web Login]
* [http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com Cerulean Studios Blog]
* [http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=42 Plugin forum] - Members only, updated more frequently
* [http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/downloads/downloads.php Plugin Gallery] - updated less often
* [http://developer.ceruleanstudios.com/index.php Trillian Developer Reference Wiki] - up-to-date documentation of the Trillian API for plugin developers, references of SkinXML for skinners, and also language pack translation.
* [http://www.trilliananywhere.com Trillian Anywhere] - Concerning use of Trillian on portable media, such as keydrives
* [http://www.gotrillian.com GoTrillian.com] - A promotional website for Trillian
* [http://blog.arkidect.com Ar"kid"ect] - The blog of the head designer of Trillian Astra on its UI (Kid, Pak-Kei Mak)
* [http://www.trillian-messenger.net Trillian Resource Center] - Site with various Trillian resources