AOL-TW Merger: FCC May Require AIM Compatibility

nicadic writes: "The FCC may add a requirement to the AOL-Time Warner merger agreement that would force AOL to make its IM system interoperable with at least one other provider of instant messaging services. Have a look at the full story here (www.washingtonpost.com)" With that small concession, it looks like the merger is likely to go through.

Comments

Slashdot blurbs considered harmful

[pb]

Actually, unlike the misleading /. blurb, this would involve the creation of an "industry standard" that AOL-TW would have to adopt.

Sounds good to me. I mean, really, how many stupid datagram headers can you have anyhow? I implemented tftp recently, and that wasn't hard at all.

I say we do this the old-fashioned way. Draft a standard, and write an RFC. We shouldn't need more than 5-7 actual commands anyhow.
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Standards are good.

[Lonesmurf]

So what? Let me build a tiny scenario here for you: I have buddies from all over the world using all sorts of different programs to chat on all sorts of platforms. In order for me to see who's online and whatnot, I have to have 3 or 4 applications open and build 3-4 databases to keep up with everyone.

Does this strike anyone a fucking stupid?

I want a universal IM client that can connect to ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, etc. and let me chat with whomever I want. Now, not to limit progress, I wouldn't mind if I could only use some special features with those other users using the same service as me (ICQ, etc.) .. but passing text messages between clients using a standardized protocol can't be *that* bloody hard.

Can you imagine if phone companies were like that? You'd need a different, special phone and phone line for anyone that wasn't the same service as you. No way that would happen or would be tolerated (although I'm sure that the phone companies would love it, captive audience and all that).

Rami
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Re:Standards are good.

[Cmdr. Marille]

Well Jabber can at least help you for now. There are several transports you can import into the native jabber system so that you can communicate with various IM's. While Jabber is far away from perfect for now i see a lot of promise and it works(at least when sending text messages to other IM's)
you can get the latest Jabber news and a roundup of clients at JabberCentral. Various Plattforms are supported right now.

Here's how it might go down

[Trinition]

OK, so AOL teams up with another tiny IM company to get interoperability. The small company's IM client now works with AIM and vice-versa.

Now, AOL buys said company and once again wholly owns every AIM-compatible IM client.

Why AIM, why not ICQ?

[Aya]

I don't understand a whole lot about mergers and such. So it seems odd to me that all the fuss is being made over AIM and not over ICQ. Their stats, however fudged, claim that ICQ has at least 20 million more users than AIM. Does anyone really *want* to talk to AOL users, that isn't already an AOL luser themself? That's the only benefit of using AIM over ICQ (unless of course you LIKE advertisements... but they've added those to ICQ now, too). So it seems to me that this is less about instant messaging, and more about opening up AOL's ISP lusers to the rest of the internet.

Heh..

[Johnny Starrock]

THIS JUST IN: AOL announces compatability with ICQ. =)

Interoperability could have been achieved w/o AOL

[Throw Away Account]

Absolutely nothing stopped any other company from making their servers accessible to AIM. The only "interoperability" problem was other chat providers demanding to be able to use the AOL IM servers and userbase without giving even ad revenue back to AOL. They wanted a larger network of users than AIM had that would be mostly paid for by AOL; a double win for the non-AOL side and a double loss for AOL.

So, now MS and Yahoo are going to be rewarded for their attempts to hijack AOL servers with an FCC mandate for AOL to open up its userbase, giving them far greater benefits than AOL will recieve by having access to either the MS or Yahoo chat userbases. Aren't Yahoo and Microsoft big enough to stand on their own two feet?

MSN Messenger and America OnTime

[Bill Fuckin' Gates]

Anyway, getting back on topic, I hope that America Online chooses Microsoft's MSN Messenger as the target of their compatability effort. This service is certainly the second most-popular after AOL's Instant Messenger, and such interoperability would be a boon to both Microsoft Corporation and the newly forged "America OnTime". In fact, Microsoft is fully prepared to support AOT in this effort, and has already developed an implementation path:

1. AOT sends Microsoft a .gif image file of their logo.
2. Microsoft adds the logo to the current MSN Messenger client.
3. Microsoft makes the new "MAIM" (Microsoft/AOT Internet Messenger) available for download.
4. AOT turns over their userbase to Microsoft.
5. Hello, my name is Brak.

This is necessary so that Microsoft can continue to embrace and extend the instant messaging paradigm with innovative new features without breaking compatability with AOT. No, really.


See you in hell,
Bill Fuckin' Gates®.