ICQ
The pioneering instant messenger with the green-flower icon, the random UIN number, and the unmistakable "Uh oh!" message alert. Launched in 1996, ICQ basically invented consumer IM before AIM and MSN took over.
ICQ — a play on 'I Seek You' — was launched in November 1996 by the Israeli company Mirabilis, founded by four developers — Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, and Arik Vardi — with seed backing from investor Yossi Vardi. It was one of the first standalone internet instant-messaging clients for the general public, assigning each user a unique identifying number (a UIN) rather than a username, and it predated AOL's own AIM, which arrived in 1997.
ICQ's flower icon, contact-request system, and distinctive 'Uh oh!' notification made it a defining piece of late-1990s online life. AOL acquired Mirabilis in June 1998 for $287 million upfront plus up to $120 million in later performance-based payments, and the service peaked around 2001 with more than 100 million registered accounts.
AOL sold ICQ to the Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies — soon renamed Mail.Ru Group — in 2010 for $187.5 million. Usage dwindled over the following years as newer messengers dominated, and ICQ was finally shut down in June 2024, nearly 28 years after launch.
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