Lately it has skyrocketed up Hong Kong's app charts, with downloads jumping 35-fold in the week ending Jan. It's been modernized over the years, and now is an app for smartphones.

It was a precursor to AOL Instant Messenger, and was last in vogue when the TV show 'Friends' was in its prime and PalmPilots were cutting edge.

ICQ was a pioneering, mid-1990s internet messaging service then used on bulky PCs on dial-up. By default, ICQ lets others know that you're online, too, but you can make yourself invisible to others or tell ICQ to accept messages only from users you specify.Here's an interesting tidbit from The Wall Street Journal: ICQ's directory lets you search for registered users by name or e-mail address and the program will tell you whether they're online. By clicking on any user's name, you can send him an instant message that will pop up on his screen, request a chat session, transfer a file or send e-mail. Once you're logged on and ICQ is running, it displays a list of users you've selected. But you don't have to provide the information, and with the privacy issues that have been raised around the Internet in recent months, you may want to be careful about this. This has been a major part of ICQ's success - it gives users the opportunity to find others with similar interests. ICQ will also ask questions about your location, occupation and interests, which it uses as part of its extensive directory service. When you install ICQ for the first time, you'll be asked to register with ICQ's chat server, using your e-mail address as an identifier.

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