Digsby - Unifying IM, Email and Social Networking

First of all, Pidgin is an excellent IM client. So is Digsby, but it goes a few steps further than simple instant messaging.

Manage you emails from Digsby

Digsby is an IM client, an email manager, and a social network 'client', all rolled into one application. Its IM behaviour is similar to pidgin with combined buddy list for all AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and Jabber protocols. But one added bonus is the ability to chat with facebook buddies right from the digsby window, without logging into the site separately. Once you set up your email accounts, you are notified of new messages, and can take all the usual actions on them like, 'Mark as Read' or 'Report Spam'. There are numerous other features you can check out here. Grab the windows version from here (Linux and Mac versions are also available).

Keep track of social networks and get alerts on new events