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AIM And ICQ to be Integrated

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the annoying-desktop-sounds-increased dept.

sam writes "According to this InfoWorld article the next version of America Online's Instant Messenger will allow users to communicate with ICQ users in a move that will bridge the gap between the company's two popular chat services. Maybe AOL finally woke up and realized people were using IM clients that have both in them." I still use only IRC for messaging, but this is gonna make things easier for a lot of users.

2 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. Functionality? by intermodal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does this mean they'll be adding ICQ functionality to AIM, such as being able to message/recieve messages while i'm not online or the person i'm sending to isn't online?

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  2. WHAT A TROLL by Roadmaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This HAS to be meant to be either a hge troll or a humorous comment, but since it hasn't been modded as such, here are the inaccuracies in this comment:

    1- UNIX talk predates ICQ by at least 10 years, and it appears as "vastly inferior" because it's meant for a completely different purpose. A car appears "vastly inferior" to an airplane because it can't fly, but that's not what it was meant to do.

    2- Trillian's author (and those of all the "compatible" IM utilities) aren't "stealing intellectual property"; they're doing reverse engineering of the protocols, then implementing those protocols in their own applications. It's actually so legal, it's even explicitly permitted by law. It's actually a good idea since that way I can use all those IM networks without having to use Windows, or Yahoo's, AOL's and Microsoft's client software. Um, maybe they would prefer I didn't use their IM networks?

    Trading files is not "illegal" per se. That's all I'm going to say about this one.

    This is AOL realizing "hey, we bought ICQ a while ago, let's start actually doing something with it", because they were getting stomped in the IM arena by competitors.