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AOL Opening Up AIM Community to Third Parties

Posted by timothy on Mon Feb 28, 2005 03:03 PM
from the uh-sure-fellas-uhh-sure-c'mon-in dept.
Communications America Online The Internet
DaffyD writes "Refocusing its vision for AOL Instant Messenger, America Online is endeavoring to revitalize the service by opening up its community and presence to third parties. In addition to partners such as CareerBuilder, AOL is seeking to enlist independent developers to build extended AIM services and hopes to offer a plug-in architecture by the end of the year. ICQ recently added such functionality through its open XML-based Xtras feature. Maybe AOL is feeling the heat from alternatives such as Gaim and Adium."
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  • <AOL>Me, too!</AOL> (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fembots (753724) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:04PM (#11805833) Homepage
    Next up is presence integration with CareerBuilder's online recruiting Web site. Job seekers can now register their AIM Screen Name with their resume to provide prospective employers with a real-time connection. A user's online status will be indicated by the Running Man icon.

    Whatever you do, just make sure you change your screen name once you got the job, your new boss may be checking out your running man while you're supposed to be working.

  • Cleary a response (Score:4, Interesting)

    by w.p.richardson (218394) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:05PM (#11805846) Homepage
    To being ditched by Time Warner.

    Opening these formats for development will cause more innovation, which can't be bad for the bottom line.

    • The bottom line has already been taken care of by canning their IT Development Department.

      Now they have to figure out some way to get the coding done. Now let's see...

      1. Outsource overseas.
      2. Contractor in US.
      3. Open source.
      4. Profit!

      Finally we see that Step #3 is.

      • Re:Cleary a response (Score:5, Informative)

        by geoffspear (692508) * on Monday February 28 2005, @04:04PM (#11806535) Homepage
        They didn't.

        They did, however, drop "AOL" from their name and changed their stock ticker symbol from "AOL" to "TWX" when they realized that a major media corporation being bought up by an internet provider that spent more money sending CDs to every person on the planet than it will ever make selling internet services was really, really, stupid.

        • Re:Cleary a response (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Disoculated (534967) <rob@@@scylla...org> on Monday February 28 2005, @08:45PM (#11808997) Homepage Journal
          Informative? AOL may be a lot of things, but it made almost a BILLION dollars in profit last year. The declining stock price is the result of the bubble and a shrinking member base, but they're getting better and better at squeezing green out of the stones they have left.


          More like the merger completed right at the time the bubble burst, and Time Warner was really pissed off that the 'money' they'd been bought with was suddenly worthless. Couple that with AOL's haughty attitude in trying to unify the technology of the company, and you get a blind hatred of the AOL unit by the rest of TW. That hatred, more than anything else, is what's sabotaged AOL from becoming anything better in the past five years.


          I mean, c'mon. AOL can't even get the rest of TWX to put any syndicated content other than People and a snippet or two of CNN in it's bowels, when the whole point of merging was to do just that. Time Warner hasn't given it any of the cable access promised, no real content except movie trailers, no access to it's music holdings, and no respect in it's press. I think they WANT it to die rather than realize they were as gullible as everyone else back in 1999.


          Hopefully this'll help turn them around. I mean, yeah, it's AOL. Not very exciting of a tech company. But they've done a lot of open source work (yes, seriously. Mozilla, TCL Aim, AOLServer) and they're one of the most powerful litigants against spam and for online privacy. They've also been a good stepping stone for millions of people before heading out to the 'real' internet. Having them around has probably done more good than harm to the geek community.

  • Please god let them do it right (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hsmith (818216) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:05PM (#11805855)
    And not let spyware type stuff get added to it. Lets hope their "addon" framework is a bit better than IE's "addon" framework.
    • Uh, didnt they already do this?
      I believe some programs such as naim (not to be confused with gaim) take advantage of this fact. I belive their system is open, but not all features (such as seeing an away message before IMing a person) are available...but i could be wrong

    • Re:Please god let them do it right (Score:5, Informative)

      by RM6f9 (825298) <rwmurker@yahoo.com> on Monday February 28 2005, @03:14PM (#11805979) Homepage Journal
      Oops, too late: a default install currently includes viewpoint, weatherbug, and ezula.
    • you mean like they already try to do when you install AIM's official Windows client?

      They want to know if you want to install WeatherBug.

      Cute.

    • Re:Please god let them do it right (Score:5, Informative)

      by juberti (128850) on Monday February 28 2005, @04:19PM (#11806689)
      Man oh man, I hear you. I've been in charge of the design of the AIM plugin framework, and while I think we are going to have some real good stuff there, I'm also really trying to get us to dial back on the bundled crap - I think it really turns off developers to install something that drops lots of other stuff on your machine.

      But we're going to have a nice platform, with web services, SIP gateways, client plug-ins, and a client SDK; there's different levels of intergration depending on what you're trying to do. I just hope that the clever developers out there look at this as an opportunity to build something that millions of people could be using, and aren't put off by prejudice against AIM/AOL.

      Anyway - if you want us to "do it right", I'd appreciate it if you would let us know what you would like to see! Email me at juberti [aol.com], or post to my [new] blog on this topic. http://journals.aol.com/juberti/runningman [aol.com]

  • Competition (Score:4, Funny)

    by dcarey (321183) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:06PM (#11805861) Homepage
    Yup, nothing like good old competition to make a company become more innovative.

    Oh, wait ...

  • YES! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Leroy_Brown242 (683141) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:06PM (#11805862) Homepage Journal
    I hope this is a sign of great things to come. I know that the GAIM, Bitlbee [bitlbee.org], and other crowds will hear this as music to our ears.

  • Smart move, but... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TripMaster Monkey (862126) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:06PM (#11805864)
    I don't really think it'll save them....they need to bring something new to the table, and all they're doing here is bringing more of what everyone else has already brought.

    Too little too late, IMHO.

    • They bring servers (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nurb432 (527695) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:10PM (#11805913) Homepage Journal
      Dont forget they IM type services require servers to function..

      AOL is brining that to the table.. Without those servers, clients will be all dressed up with nowhere to go..
          • This is entirely incorrect. When you connect to an XMPP server, you have a username@thatserver.tld. If you want to talk to foo@bar.net, thatserver.tld queries bar.net for presence information. It works just like email does.

            I don't believe that Jabber has ever not had that feature.

  • What an about-face! (Score:4, Informative)

    by bigtallmofo (695287) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:08PM (#11805883)
    This is one of the larger episodes of back-pedaling that I've seen in a while.

    Example 1 [theregister.co.uk]
    Example 2 [strom.com]

    AOL has been fighting for years to keep other IM cilent makers off their network. Amazing what a shrinking user base will do for a company.
    • Shrinking user base? Where?
      Everyone I know seems to use AIM now and the number seems to keep growing. I keep trying to get them to quit and switch to something else, but none of them will since AIM is the one everyone else they know uses.

    • Re:What an about-face! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by caryw (131578) <carywiedemann.gmail@com> on Monday February 28 2005, @03:31PM (#11806155) Homepage
      Hilarious that a couple of years ago a judge ruled that they have to open up their network before offering advanced features such as Video IM. [geek.com] They stubbornly stayed their ground and the FCC finally lifted the ruling once they lost some market share to Yahoo/MSN IM clients. And now they're opening it up anyway, shows how times have changed. I remember there being a slashdot article about this ages ago but I couldn't find it. Easy karma for anyone who does.
      - Cary
      --Fairfax Underground [fairfaxunderground.com]: Where Fairfax County comes out to play

    • Not at all (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Spy Hunter (317220) on Monday February 28 2005, @04:05PM (#11806545) Journal
      Nothing in the article says they're opening up to alternative AIM clients. They are allowing companies to "partner" with them, probably involving large licensing fees, to add AIM "presence" (on/offline information) into their products and produce approved plugins for the advertising-riddled official client. That doesn't help GAIM or Adium or Jabber or any other open-source project. It probably doesn't help Trillian either.

  • Don't Forget Trillian (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's not Open Source and it is Windows only, but the freeware version supports lots of things (like AIM file transfers) that kept my friends with AIM instead of gaim long after I had switched.
  • From the retroactive good choice department...

  • Why No Standard? (Score:5, Funny)

    by moofdaddy (570503) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:10PM (#11805912) Homepage
    Why haven't they come up with a real and competitive standard yet? There are a number of different instant messaging networks out there, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc. and while I understand they want to keep their networks closed so they can force people to use their player, why not establish one standard and let people choose which client to use.

    • Re:Why No Standard? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Jerf (17166) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:21PM (#11806055) Journal
      There is an IETF standard, XMPP [xmpp.org]. And as it is rather extensible, I'm sure it can do whatever AOL thinks they want to make their protocol do.

      The problem is, other than Jabber, nobody (AFAIK) has implemented it. Ever so slowly, but ever so surely, it is sinking in that there is no longer any point to having your own "gated community" when everybody just has an account on all of the services and uses a multi-network IM client that still doesn't show your commercials.

      If AOL chooses to release something other than XMPP that tries to solve the same problems, only in AOL's way, developers should shun the new protocol and insist that AOL implement the standard instead of creating their own. Things that can connect to XMPP exist today. Nothing today exists that can use Tomorrow's Yet Another Proprietary AOL Protocol.

      Until this occurs, it still won't have fully sunk in. IM is commoditizing. Actually, it's already a commodity, and only by artificially locking up the market have the large networks made it even this far, and that is an unnatural, unstable accomplishment that will inevitably break down, not something to build a business on.

      • XMPP? Yes please! (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Trejkaz (615352)

        Imagining for a second that AIM does decide to implement XMPP such that Server-to-Server connections work properly from the hundreds of existing Jabber servers directly to AIM.

        That would bump the number of users on XMPP from an estimated 10 million (old figure from a year ago) to an estimated 45 million (AIM's fiugre from the same time period.) If their other services AOLIM and ICQ switched over at the same time, the total would be more like 80 million.

        These sort of numbers would be about enough interope

      • Re:Why No Standard? (Score:5, Informative)

        by cuijian (110696) * on Monday February 28 2005, @04:42PM (#11806954)
        There is an IETF standard, XMPP. And as it is rather extensible, I'm sure it can do whatever AOL thinks they want to make their protocol do.

        The problem is, other than Jabber, nobody (AFAIK) has implemented it.


        The next version of iChat AV, Apple's IM/Video Conferencing Application will feature XMPP/Jabber Interoperability. They have been using it for iChat to iChat communications for a while and now have fully implemented the standard and are opening up to 3rd party implementations.

        http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/ichat.html [apple.com]

        The upcoming iChat AV server also supports 3rd party XMPP/Jabber clients:

        http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/tiger/ [apple.com]

    • Re:Why No Standard? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Cthefuture (665326) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:22PM (#11806066)
      You mean like Jabber [jabber.org]? ;)

      I've been trying to get to their development stuff for the last several weeks. Many of their source projects are currently shut off due to a break-in. I'm especially interested in documentation for libjabberoo.

    • Re:Why No Standard? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dago (25724) on Monday February 28 2005, @04:32PM (#11806840)
      In fact, that's part of the problem ... they are 3 different standards now :

      * SIMPLE (RFC3428, based on SIP)
      * XMPP (RFC3920, based on jabber work)
      * WirelessVillage (from the OpenMobileAlliance)

      Fun, eh, there are as many open standards as proprietary networks.

  • Here's a Clue (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 28 2005, @03:10PM (#11805914)

    "America Online is endeavoring to revitalize the service by opening up its community and presence to third parties."

    You want to revitalize the service? Don't install a bunch of extra crap (like "get AOL Broadband NOW!" icons) on my computer when I grab your messenger. Ad-generated revenue is acceptable in a "free" service, but keep it in the buddy list window, please, instead of popping up a bunch of other windows. Don't make me go buy DeadAIM or whatever just to use your messenger without the kind of problems that make me think of spyware and adware.

    That would go a long way to "revitalizing."

    Free Sony PSPs [tinyurl.com] from Gratis

  • Or maybe feel heat from Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. I don't use the programs but have been impressed by the features and quality they offer when I see friends using them. Too bad YM also installs all that other shite that comes with it such as the Yahoo! Tollbar.

    That and fr1st ps0t??

  • here's an idea for 'revitalization' (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Doktor Memory (237313) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:11PM (#11805924) Journal
    How about releasing a version of the AIM client that is actually more enjoyable to use than the previous one, instead of more annoying?!

    Weirdly enough, when people install an instant messenger client on their computers, their first thought doesn't tend to be "Oh boy, I hope this thing gives me a stock ticker and a dozen popup advertisement windows!"

  • Hmm... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoeLinux (20366) <joelinux&gmail,com> on Monday February 28 2005, @03:11PM (#11805932) Homepage
    If I were them, I'd find about USING gaim...its existing plug-in system has been tried and true, and can be used in many different OSs already. It can even plug into alternate IM systems while keeping the "AIM" name (G-AIM!) It could be like google: "Get on GAIM and talk to so-and-so...he's on MSN Messenger I think" The ads would still go to GAIM/AOL. Just a thought.

    But hey...what do I know?

  • Smart Move, AOL (Score:4, Interesting)

    by randyest (589159) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:12PM (#11805939) Homepage
    Instant messaging is big, and it's only going to get bigger. We even use it at work to hold beind-the-scenes asynchronous internal-only discussions between team members at different sites as we attend teleconferences with customers.

    We used to use our cellphones for this, but the annoying rings and need to mute the main conference phone to talk with colleagues to establish strategies or get our stories consistent was a hassle.

    Whoever has the easiest to use and most features in messenger clients is going to have an opportunity to make some money out of it in the neear future, especially as such clients get integrated into other devices (PDAs, cellphones, MP3 players? Network appliances? Toaster? :)

    The interesting parts include the gist:

    Major partners aren't the only focus for the company's new AIM vision. AOL is seeking to enlist independent developers to build extended services and points to ICQ's Xtras functionally as an example of its growing success with ISVs. AOL is working to provide a plug-in architecture by the end of this year.

    "Our goal is to offer instant access to the AOL Instant Messenger service and the familiar AIM Buddy List feature everywhere consumers are and want to be, from their email application to their favorite online communities," said Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president and general manager for AIM and ICQ.

    "As the real time communications service of choice for tens of millions of Americans, the AIM service brings dynamic interactivity to the sites and services that people use everyday."

    Overall, AIM will play an important role in AOL's newfound portal strategy. In telephone interview, an AOL spokesperson told BetaNews that the company is at, "Just a beginning of where we intend to take the product," and promised deeper integration with other AOL Web properties.
      • That used to be the main purpose, and it was good.

        But now it seems I'm using it more and more to shut up some colleague who is mis- or un-informed and running off at the mouth.

        It's also really handy for passing off a less-experienced person as lead for a picky project manager. I type what to say, he reads the text, he seems capable, we put him "in charge" of the project-that-requires-less-capability-than-the-ma n ager-thinks (under my supervision, of course) and everyone is happy.

        So yeah, I'm sory

  • The AmericaOLn Way (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Doc Ruby (173196) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:27PM (#11806111) Homepage Journal
    How about AOL just opens up their "community" to outside clients, instead changing their protocol every few weeks just to lockout non-AOL Internetters from AIM? They want their Internet access to be a one-way street, but they want fresh new blood to reinvigorate their stagnant, isolated community. So, thinking like a corporation, they sign up new partners to bring inside AOL, rather than ride the innovation power of all the people who could connect if they opened their protocols and formats. It's supply-side community economics, and it won't work as well as defining the community by its members.

  • Nice Dilbert tagline (Score:4, Funny)

    by Weaselmancer (533834) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:31PM (#11806152)

    Refocusing its vision for AOL Instant Messenger, America Online is endeavoring to revitalize the service by opening up its community and presence to third parties.

    Refocusing its vision? Endeavoring to revitalize??

    I could feel my hair starting to get pointy just reading that much.

  • not open protocols (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymouse Cownerd (754174) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:36PM (#11806190) Homepage
    This does not mean that AOL is releasing specs on their OSCAR protocol, which would have been great. AIM, iChat, and ICQ run on OSCAR. OSCAR is proprietary and will continue to be proprietary. If AOL can extend OSCAR for Apple for the purpose of video chatting, they can easily extend OSCAR for other features. TOC is AOL's string based open source protocol - a subset of OSCAR. TOC is free but is limited in features.

    What would have been great is if AOL released the specs for OSCAR, AND provided hooks to the protocol to allow various feature extensions. This will never happen, as once OSCAR is opened, there will be a barrage of third party AIM clients that do not show ads.

    Even now, is very easy to develope an application to track the online status of AIM/iChat users, using, for example Net::AIM, NET::TOC and other modules.

    Big deal.

  • Trillian Rocks! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Ranger (1783) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:48PM (#11806335) Homepage
    I only use AIM when those I want to chat with can't or won't use ICQ, which unfortunately is most of them. Thankfully, I don't have to use AIM to do it anymore. I use Trillian and it works just fine w/ AIM. And I can use my ICQ and Yahoo Messenger accounts.

  • Look to skype, not GAIM or MSN (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Matt Clare (692178) on Monday February 28 2005, @03:56PM (#11806442) Homepage
    I don't think AOL are too concerned about having an open standard, blah blah.... I think they see VoIP and Skype as the next bet thing and want to get people like Vonage to use AIM IDs to call people.

    You can do this now with 3rd party systyems like iChat and Macromedia Flash's lattest derivative Breeze [macromedia.com].

    Think MS Passport, only useful.

  • Feeling the heat? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Pedrito (94783) on Monday February 28 2005, @04:20PM (#11806702) Homepage
    Maybe AOL is feeling the heat from alternatives such as Gaim and Adium.

    You must be kidding! I mean Gaim is great and all, but AOL and AIM have at least 4 orders of magnitude more users than Gaim and Adium combined. I doubt they're feeling a great deal of heat.

  • Key to interoperability: server to server protocol (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 28 2005, @04:55PM (#11807087)
    AIM is only a non-propreitary system when they have released a fully documented server to server protocol which any foreign server can use to allow its users to communicate with AOL users, and does not require any special prior arrangement for the connection to be made or interface to be used, and does not restrict the protocol from being implemented and used without restriction in open source software.

    The key to an IM system being open I believe is a completely documented fully functional server to server interface which allows any foreign IM system with its own user namespace, run by anyone to interface with it and to communicate with its users. It works like this, lets you have seperate systems at servicea.com, and serviceb.com, each service has its own user namespace, meaning each manages its own database of usernames and username registration, so each server can have a user named, for instance, joeuser. joeuser@servicea.com would send an IM to joeuser@serviceb.com, and servicea.com would open a server to server connection to serviceb.com and the message would be sent between the services. Unlike IRC, the connection is made without prior arrangement, any server can connect to any other server when the user tries to send a message between the two.

  • deleting accounts (Score:3, Insightful)

    by clymere (605769) on Monday February 28 2005, @08:17PM (#11808797) Homepage
    maybe they can open up their servers so that other, more responsible people can run their own.

    AIM has been plagued with accidental account deletions over the past several months. The official line is that while cleaning up old, unused accounts, they have deleted some good ones. But this issue has been ongoing for several months now.

    Personally, i had AIM reset my password daily for two weeks, then suddenly cancel my account..for no reason whatsoever. More infuriating, is that there is no support contact information on aim.com, at all.

    Do some googling and you'll find this is a widespread problem. There was even a /. story at one point.

    If AOL doesn't get their act together, they are going to really lose some ground in an area they have traditonally dominated.

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