Explain what an IM is, and what the technology shown in the accompanying figure is.

What will be an ideal response?

Student responses will vary, but should be drawn from the following information from the text.?Internet messagingservices, which often occur in real-time, are communications services that notify you when one or more of your established contacts are online and then allows you to exchange messages or files or join a private chat room with them.Real timemeans that you and the people with whom you are conversing are online at the same time. Some Internet messaging services support voice and video conversations, allow you to send photos or other documents to a recipient, listen to streaming music, and play games with another online contact. For real-time Internet messaging to work, both parties must be online at the same time. Also, the receiver of a message must be willing to accept messages. To use an Internet messaging service, you may have to install messenger software or an app on the computer or mobile device, such as a smartphone, you plan to use.?Many online social networks include a messaging feature. To ensure successful communications, all individuals on the friend list need to use the same or a compatible messenger.?Achatis a real-time typed conversation that takes place on a computer or mobile device with many other online users. Achat roomis a website or application that permits users to chat with others who are online at the same time. A server echoes the user's message to everyone in the chat room. Anyone in the chat room can participate in the conversation, which usually is specific to a particular topic. Businesses sometimes use chat rooms to communicate with customers. As you type on your keyboard, others connected to the same chat room server also see what you have typed. Some chat rooms support voice chats and video chats, in which people hear or see each other as they chat. Most browsers today include the capability to connect to a chat server. ?