New services, such as ICQ, or "I Seek You," as well as Netscape's AOL Instant Messenger, which have caught on with some Xenites, remedy this situation by creating user-compiled lists of friends and tracking their online activities, allowing a synchronous immediacy and potential tandem surfing, with the option of opening a separate chat window for when friends are online at the same time. There are privacy issues raised by this sort of free service, unfortunately. And because these interactions are spontaneous and somewhat private, it is difficult for me to observe such groups in action.