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AOL Trying To Unify AIM And ICQ Services
Nerftoe writes: "CBS Marketwatch is reporting that AOL has been quietly integrating its AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ products. This would create a combined user base of about 146 million." That's a lotta people.
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Sure, maybe it will take up more RAM, too!
I am "forced" to use both due to friends and co-workers who either. In any regard, I'm under the impression the reason why people use AIM instead of ICQ is because they like AIM functionality and the reason why they use ICQ instead of AIM is because they like IC functionality.
ICQ has better developed features for moving files and other "advanced functionality". AIM on the other hand is geared to simplicity and simple chatting. In recent versions, this has started to blur but the roots are still there and there is still a clear division.
I'm leary of any consoldiation like this if it sacrafices functionality of either AIM or ICQ. If they do, I can easily see a bunch of unhappy users who will be trying to resurrect, probably in an Open Source manner, the old client and server functionality. Then where will AOL be? Back where they were before they acquired Marbilis.
Instead, I'm betting there will be some simple gateway within AOL's network borders that allows messages to jump back and forth between the two given the proper addressing.
If 146 million AIM/ICQ users typed on 146 million Packard Bells for 146 million years, would eventually one of them produce the entire works of Jon Katz?
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The truth is out th- oh, wait, here it is...
I tried it and AIM let me on okay with my ICQ, but then kicked me off for already being online. Guess it detected my ICQ session, but I wonder why they go through the trouble?
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You can use ODIGO . It speaks ICQ and AIM, runs on windows though. (Unix/linux has Everybuddy, what an easy thing to install on my BSD box :> )
Don't be fooled!
And we already unify support for AIM and ICQ (and Yahoo!, and MSN, and IRC), with our server-based "transports." Your client speaks one protocol--the Jabber XML protocol--and the server handles the translation. This can make Jabber clients much smaller than so-called "universal" clients; we're working on Java applet clients that'll be small enough to download over dialup connections without great pain.
And Jabber can definitely be used for more than just instant messaging; we've been experimenting with a Jabber-controlled MP3 jukebox program recently. In conjunction with another Jabber-based "remote control," you can control the songs that are played on another computer across the room, or across the continent. You can even have two or more remotes controlling the same jukebox. All the specialized messages required for controlling the jukebox and getting its status are just XML extensions to standard Jabber messages. (It's just a little demo we whopped up, written in Perl; it's not too sophisticated, but it does act as a proof-of-principle.)
Check out Jabber.org, JabberCentral, and, of course, Jabber.com.
Eric
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Be who you are...and be it in style!
http://www.somethingawful.com/spam/
- Amon CMB
Men believe what they want. - Caesar
ok - I see how laughable that comment of mine was. here's what I MEANT. my email CLIENT is spam-free. meaning: I don't need to look at banner ads, etc, etc. ELM or PINE, etc don't force banners down my throat.
yes, you can get spam in your inbox. that's fixable. what is NOT fixable is when you're forced to use client apps that come with policy (ads) built-in.
aol is a carrier. they should NOT be in the apps business. I never trust carriers to provide apps just like I don't trust app companies (micros~1 anyone?) to be carriers.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Its 146 Usernames. 50% of them are mostlikely people who use both services, have multiple screen names, or don't use either of them at all anymore.
If AIM and ICQ merge, college students won't be able to argue about which is superior any more! We'll just have to stick to the never-ending "soda vs. pop" debate!!
Actually, ICQ 2000 uses the OSCAR protocol, just like AIM. It's uses some custom packets to support the features ICQ has that AIM doesn't, but other than that, it's the same.
I don't think it's a PayPal deal, but AIMPhone may be on-target. The "AIM Pay" icon is a service icon - the kind that shows up next to your buddy, indicating what service they're using (AOL, AIM, ICQ, etc). So it would seem that "AIM Pay" is meant to be a distinct kind of service, not just a client feature. It seems reasonable that people who sign up for AIMPhone might be considered "AIM Pay" users, but I dunno. I still wouldn't put it past AOL to start charging a monthly fee to keep your AIM name active.
For what it's worth, the "AIM Pay" cicn resources have been present since the 3.0 generation of Mac AIM clients. But if they don't plan on charging for AIM, you'd think they'd have removed the icons.
BTW, if you think PayPal rocks, check out ProPay. They let you bill anyone, not just other (paypal|propay) users. Their fee is 3.5% + 35 cents/transaction. Not bad.
Shaun
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
and spam free, and interoperable, and free and - well - its understood and well implemented everywhere.
so please tell me what I'm missing by using email as my 'instant messages'.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
In the article I saw they counted downloads... i can say that myself, I've downloaded ICQ at least 10 times. Either for reintalls or my other PCs (notebook, work..etc). I also know people that rebuild their computer every week and ALWAYS just get a new ICQ number instead of using their old one.
I'd be interested to know the actual number.
#1 AOL is fighting to keep their AIM protocol proprietary by rejecting 'unapproved' clients. I betcha they'll try to pull the same crap with ICQ's protocol. See 1 2
#2 They might trash the UINs in favor of the AIM userIDs; FACETIOUSI don't wan't to lose my eleet 5-digit ICQ#./FACETIOUS
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Ah. That makes it clearer. Safe to assume my previous suggestion is wrong. (I don't use AIM on any regular basis on any OS let alone Mac)
OT:
3.5% isn't that great if it's going to be used for relatively 'major' transactions ($100+), might as well get a money order... unless it supports overseas payments or something.
It's pretty clear, to me at least, that this is exactly the kind of project open source is meant for. Obviously different people want different things from their instant messaging software, and the flexibility that a great number of open source messaging clients communicating using a shared standard would offer is pretty staggering.
AOL needs to make an intelligent decision (for once) and realize that the popularity (err...or at least LACK of negativity) they would receive by creating and releasing an all-purpose communication standard that incorporates the best of both technologies would far outweigh the few million bucks they could make off of sending banner adds to their proprietary client programs. I mean, who ever actually clicks on the stupid little things, anyways?
"// this is the most hacked, evil, bastardized thing I've ever seen. kjb"
I just hope the combined client doesn't have 9800 useless features(all with hotkeys) like on ICQ 2000. It's ridiculous. I don't care about birthdays on my buddy list
At least, so say the icons built into the latest Macintosh AIM client. There's a service icon for "AIM Pay" and "AIM Pay (Unused)."
Shaun
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
This is what Away Messages are for! Anyone who's been to college recently surely has a stable of witty auto-responders telling people they're in class or eating or away or what have you.
If you don't want to be disturbed, set yourself away with a "please leave me alone" message. You can also set AIM to only accept IMs from people you specify. I screen my IM's all the time.
--Josh
<plug>For the anal-retentive, check out my comprehensive AIM Logger!</plug>
I don't think it's been all that quiet. Sure, they haven't exactly advertised it, but you notice when you're connected to one server on port 5190 instead of every other friend you are talking to. I'm referring to ICQ2000, that is.
Personally, I would love to see a system that has the nice features of ICQ, while having the reliability of AIM. I have never had to send a message twice on AIM. On ICQ? Two, three, four times... It's ridiculous.
If they can integrate ICQ with AIM, I don't think there's a regulatory commission in the world that would believe they can't allow outside access, as long as competitors are present at the hearings.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Does no one understand the point of being able to have a conversation with these things?
My girlfriend lives in another state. To prevent expensive phone bills, we use ICQ (though we could just as easily use AIM). It's that simple. It's a fabulous way to stay in touch.
It's a sad day when I log on and see Flamebait modded up to +3.
Jonathan David Pearce
Jonathan Pearce jonathan@pearce.name
3EAAFB2A http://www.jonathan.pearce.name/
HaR hAr mIstar sMArty man. yuO think you ar so vary k-Rad foR yuSinG thaT link.
i'LL hAck yuo with the pOwAR of The Lniux mistaR fuNy man. IQC si for luusaRs liek ThRASH.
-Jeff K
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
AIM Pay could also be some sort of PayPal thing for AIM users. They're adding all sorts of other stuff to AIM, it would make as much sense as anything else.
..the ads that are slowly creeping into icq2000? Just recently I've noticed file transfer windows are showing ads, and they didn't before.
...but until that happens, and they release a Linux version without ads, there's always Everybuddy.
In any case, I'll always be in favor of a universal, free client; I haven't tried Jabber lately.
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I, personally, like AOL's AIM client, and I don't really care much for ICQ. However, a minority of my friends like to use ICQ, and refuse to use AIM at all. So, in order to talk to all my friends, I have to run both AIM and ICQ. I feel that integrating AOL and ICQ will make it easier for most IM users to communicate.
Either that, or just use TiK, which has logging built in. :)
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ICQ has a wonderfull privacy feature. I make myself invisible to all but two people, who rarely come online, but when online, I want to be able to chat with. The rest all think that I'm disconnected. Very nice. :)
Yeah, but its for windows... so what good does that do me (and a bunch of other people around here)?
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Who marked that as overrated? I'm still snickering...
Unfortunately, I'm signed up for AIM and ICQ so I can talk to my friends outside of the Realm, so it'd be awfully cramped in there.
Can we check which client they're using before we stash them in the cave?
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As it is, the phone loves to ring at the most pessimal moments, like right after I get home from work and sit on the crapper.
You go to the crapper just AFTER you get home from work?
You mean you haven't discovered that few pleasures in the world to equal that of a long crap on company time?
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
Okay well everyone is talking about ICQ2000 or 98 or whatever...and different versions of AIM... but how do the Linux/Unix clones work now? Can gaim or tik let you login to AIM using your ICQ info?
And what does this unification mean for our beloved clones? Are we going to be stuck with that AIM client that AOL is working on now?
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AMEN! I plan to get a mobile phone eventually, but it will also be off almost all the time. When I go out, I just don't want people to bug me - that's most of the reason for going out! It will be nice for emergencies and the like, but all the time chatting is annoying - not to mention rude. Don't you just HATE it when someone gets a call when you are out to dinner, and they don't bother to excuse themselves from the table?
As for IM, setting yourself as N/A or some equivalent works well for me. I never turn my machine off, so when I go to work or class, I just set ICQ N/A and lock my workstation. If I am doing something important, I usually do the same. Many of my friends leave their IM clients on permanent N/A, and just periodically check the messages for important ones.
BTW these days good cordless phones include belt-clips and hands-free kits. I wear mine around the house all the time, so I never have to stop and run to find the phone.
But Jabber can do more than just instant messaging. We're actually demoing a little application that consists of an MP3 jukebox program and a separate remote control program, both written in Perl and logging into a Jabber server as clients. The remotes send messages to the jukebox indicating which songs they want played, and the jukebox sends back, in its "presence" message, information about what song's currently playing. And all done via the standard Jabber protocol, extended in a standard fashion, because it's XML. (We wanted to do a Jabber-controlled robot, but we only had four days to rig up a demo :-). )
Check out Jabber.org, JabberCentral, and, of course, Jabber.com Inc.
Eric
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Be who you are...and be it in style!
AIM and ICQ names/numbers are quite disposable -- if you want to get someone out of your hair, just create a new account and tell all your friends to message you on it instead. I personally have one ICQ number and as many as 4 AIM names (I've only ever used 2, but the other 2 never expired). I have known people who used upwards of 20 names in their lifetimes, plus more that I didn't know about.
Please, don't believe the hype surrounding the enormous user bases. Many people have an AIM and ICQ account specifically _because_ the two services aren't seamlessly integrated just yet.
For more information, click here.
I switched to ICQ cause my nick was taken on AOL, and i just KNOW that AOL nicks will take the biased...
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How Jaded Are You?
I really Gaim! It's chock full of wholesome goodness and meets 95% of your chat needs.
So ignore it. What people forget is that this stuff is there for *your* convenience, not the caller's. I ignore my phone all the time. My family knows to leave their message because I screen calls and will pick up if it's them. And even then sometimes I don't pick up. :-)
Anyone who later complains "I was IM-ing you!" and gets pissed that you couldn't chat at that exact particular moment isn't worth knowing anyway. In my opinion, at least.
ChicagoFan
Yeah, really. I hate it when people start to talk to me. It feels all icky and social. I'd prefer just to crawl into my little corner of the world, surrounded by blinking lights and little boxes that behave exactly as I tell them to.
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Cool.
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
Eric
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Be who you are...and be it in style!
Would ICQ's use of numbers to identify it's users conflict with AIM's use of screen names?
I'm sure AOL has some way around it. Maybe they will do something like Everybuddy to join the two services together? Or are they going to totally unify the service to it is transparent no matter what client you are using?