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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.

26 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't this already work? by jimmcq · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought this already worked... You can load up the AIM client and add the Number (not nickname) of an ICQ user as buddy.

    1. Re:Doesn't this already work? by infiniti99 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, which is a huge deal. Lots of people in the comments are posting about client-side workarounds, which don't even solve the problem. If you are logged into AIM and ICQ from one client, the networks are not bridged whatsoever. You've just got two logins, that's all. It's a nice trick, but there is a lot more to solving IM interoperability.

      Now that the IETF working group for Jabber is on its way, I sincerely hope that AOL will consider using it for their server-to-server communication. They can still use OSCAR for client communication (just as they use a proprietary client mail protocol and not POP), but they need to use Jabber on the outside (as they use SMTP on the outside) to fully solve the "IM Interoperability Dilemma" (tm).

      Of course, considering how long it is taking for them to link their own damn networks, I'd say we've got about 5 years to go :(

      AOL holds most of the cards for IM interoperability. I still encourage everyone out there to start using Jabber and run Jabber servers, but AOL's users totally outnumber us. Even in this Slashdot forum today, most of you using some form of IM are using an AOL-controlled service. Please, guys, the faster we move to Jabber, the faster this war will be over. Stop using AIM, ICQ, MSN, or Yahoo, especially if you are on Linux (doesn't anyone think using MSN on Linux is just too ironic?). Or if you can't quit cold-turkey, use GAIM so that you can use Jabber alongside these other proprietary protocols. I still think it will take a move by AOL to fully solve this (as I said, they have most of the cards), but I think if the entire tech community embraced Jabber we would have a lot more influence. This move to link AIM and ICQ is a good first step, but there is more to be done.

      So go forth and use Jabber. Find a friend to do it also. Even if you just have each other in your contact list and no one else, you are securing yourself a place in the future of open IM. I'm already AOL-free, as I quit AIM and ICQ earlier this year. Now my Jabber roster has over 100 contacts, after successful conversion of all of my friends and family. Who needs AOL? Not any of us!!

  2. iChat by krokodil · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does it mean that I can use iChat to chat
    with ICQ firends? That would be cool!

  3. About Time by codemachine · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Considering they use the exact same protocol, I'm not sure what the holdup was. ICQ2000 onward was really just AIM protocol anyhow. I guess they need to make integration look hard so they have an excuse to not allow MSN and Yahoo! interoperability.

  4. Trillian is okay, but ... by kalvyn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Okay, Trillian is just swell, with the exception that AOL constantly tries to block it. Why? I don't have a friggin' clue.

    But!! Gaim is much better. It has never suffered to the blocking that Trillian does AND it is now available for Windows. Although, Gaim is still best used under *NIX. :-p

  5. honest to goodness question... by RealBeanDip · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What is going to be the next big thing in chat that makes all of this a moot point?

    What's the next killer "chat" app and why does it matter?

    I personally find most "chat" boring and don't see the point of it. People obviously use it though, so I guess I just missed the point.

    --

    You know you're a geek if you've ever replied to a tagline.

    1. Re:honest to goodness question... by cei · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I personally find most "chat" boring and don't see the point of it. People obviously use it though, so I guess I just missed the point.

      The way I see it, snail mail was a very asynchronous means of communication, while telephone was synchronous. In the former, you wait a considerable time for a reply, while in the latter, the reply was instantaneous. E-mail changed things a bit. Communication was still asynchronous, but it was also instantaneous. The potential for two people to both be logged in and having a timely exchange regardless of location was nice, yet if one party was unavailable, the message wouldn't be lost to the ether... they'd just get it next time they logged in. No per message costs were another factor, what with postage and long distance rates always a consideration.

      IM straddles the line a bit more. You know when someone is online, but they may be otherwise occupied. It allows an informality... a way to exchange one-liners or anything else, without the recipient feeling they NEED to respond immediately. It's good as a background task so long as neither party is overly anxious for a reply. Less effort, and more potential for a timely response than email.

      Just my two cents...

      --
      This sig intentionally left justified.
  6. iChat just got cooler...I think... by toupsie · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I am assuming that the integration will be rolled into Apple's AIM client, iChat. Now it just needs MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Jabber support. The built-in Rendevous support in iChat is one feature that the Open Source community should jump on. Not only for chat but all forms of connectivity without the tedious cfg editing. I would love to message my Linux and BSD servers securely for system info.

    Me: Hey web server, what's your load?
    Linux-2 Web Server: Heavy dude! Slashdot just linked to a page and I am r0X0red to max! Talk2UL8r

    --
    Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
  7. Re:obligitory trillian link by GlassUser · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The developers have their heads stuck up their asses. Took hours of my work and now they're charging for it. It's half my fault for not getting anything in writing though. But the application itself is still buggy as hell - no shortcut keys to anything, it uses its own custom skinning system which makes it slow as all hell, and it occasionally hangs, hogging cycles, until I kill it. Oh, and it keeps everything in text files in the program files directory, so forget about using it in anything approaching a secure system.

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    funny munging
  8. Diable Open source by haplo21112 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does this mean the open source ICQ clients are gonna get killed...?

    --
    Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
  9. Does this mean... by jesser · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the AIM client will finally include a feature that lets you change how someone appears in your buddy list (e.g., "Jesse Ruderman" instead of "JesseRud")? I can't imagine AIM forcing users to deal with a buddy list full of 9-digit ICQ numbers. Other than automatic logging, this is the feature I'm hoping for the most in the official AIM client.

    --
    The shareholder is always right.
  10. So by TheOnlyCoolTim · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does this mean ICQ might finally throw out those stupid numbers?

    I mean - no one goes to slashdot by typing http://64.28.67.150...

    Tim

    --
    Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
    1. Re:So by CyberKnet · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why does having to be TOCT1987 instead of TheOnlyCoolTim because 30 other people tried it before you make so much more sense?

      ICQ's system gives you a unique identifier, and lets you choose your own nick name, even if other people use it too. The same nickname that lets people find you by a name, instead of a number. Although the nickname may have to be used in conjunction with other identifying information, if the nickname is too common, but still...

      I'm not saying either system makes more sense, however, if we're being critical of cryptic identifiers, then let's do be fair.

      --
      Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor - Ovidius
  11. Re:Trillian by Tink2000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    God forbid AOL get a hold on what is arguably the best client I've ever used. I'd have to go looking for another program that does it all without the ads. I never got a single ad or pr0n spam before AOL bought out ICQ.

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    Why do I M2 everything negatively?
  12. spam by ItsBacon · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Note: I haven't used ICQ in at least a year, so things might be a little different now, but I used to use it quite a lot (I have a 7 digit UIN).

    I remember that there was a lot of spamming on ICQ, especially with offline messages. Is this going to cross over to AIM now?

  13. Re:Trillian by lewp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Crossover Plugin will download and install Trillian for you. I don't use it in Linux, personally, but the Crossover stuff seems to work pretty solidly so I'd be surprised if it didn't run acceptably.

    --
    Game... blouses.
  14. friend of mine worked at AOL by RelliK · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He says that the servers for ICQ and AIM are _identical_. The only thing that separates the two networks is _one flag_ (in the message header, I think), that AOL can switch at will. The reason AOL kept AIM and ICQ separate is purely political: they didn't want the competition to connect to AIM. (IIRC, this has something to do with fulfilling the AOL/TW merger requirements). Microsoft has been quite vocal on this issue, even going so far as to propose "open standards" for instant messaging. Funny how they cry foul when they have to fight an uphill battle for a change.

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    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
    1. Re:friend of mine worked at AOL by mentin · · Score: 4, Interesting
      The reason AOL kept AIM and ICQ separate is purely political: they didn't want the competition to connect to AIM.
      Maybe they don't want the number of users that they can report to shrink in a moment they merge networks?

      Today they have 130M ICQ users plus 160M AOL IM users. If they merge the networks, those 100M who have both ICQ and IM running will have no reason to do this anymore and choose one of them. So instead of 300M combined users AOL will have "only" 200M :)

      --
      MSDOS: 20+ years without remote hole in the default install
  15. Why not match userID's? by strredwolf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why not match userID's, like Ebay did when it brought in Half.com? My UID for ICQ and AIM Screename could be linked together.

    --

    --
    # Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
    $Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
  16. Re:Call me a troll, but... by cygnusx · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ICQ has a _crap_ interface (though the new ICQ 2001 is better) -- but it's very good at SMSing (or texting) folk around the world -- a service Mirabilis provides to ICQ users for free. This alone makes ICQ worth it, if lots of your friends have cellphones.

  17. Plugins and Skins by Lilkeeney · · Score: 4, Interesting

    AOL has waited to long to make this jump. A lot of users have switched to using other clients rather then the AOL client. Millions of people use the AOL client and many of them download other software attempting to alter the client such as AIM+ which allows you to eliminate the ads as well as ad logging. However, if AOL released a client that allowed plugins as well as skins, many people would of not switched to other clients. They could of even kept their ads and (tried) to make it so they couldn't be removed. However, some programmers would create a skin or a plugin rather then creating a new client. And it would be easier for novice users to download a skin and not to learn how to use a new client. I believe that is why winamp has been so popular over the years. Yes, it doesn't have ads, but without plugins or skins I would say it would of been a minority in the market share long ago. One of the main reasons I have switched to GAIM is the plugin support.

  18. How will this affect spam? by Brent_DS · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The whole reason I scraped ICQ from my box was because I got too much spam through it. I wonder if using ICQ names through the AIM server will prevent spam? After all, I've never been spammed over AIM, that I remember... Then again, maybe I should have just looked more closely at ICQ's privacy settings.

  19. Spam by Viceice · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't this just going to increase the reach of ICQ and AIM Spammers?

    I mean doing this is juts going to increase the rate of which users of AIM or ICQ are going to be spammed, seeing as how we are now going to see AIM Spam reaching ICQ and vice versa.

    --
    Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
  20. does this mean that AIM will finaly..... by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 4, Interesting

    have the best feature of ICQ, the ability to leave messages to people who are offline?

    oh please let this be!!!!!1

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    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
  21. Re:obligitory trillian link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    micq.org is the only solution, its much better than ANY icq implementation under a GPL licence.

    None of that "trillian can only send in one msg format and has no legacy compatibility" problems its renound for.

    micq works with all clients, better than the official one mostly. It even lets you controle your network settings fully. dont want peer2peer? well dont use it then! just allow server connections!

    give it a try, you _will_ like it :)

    it runs in a shell, so you can use it remotely

    now3d

  22. Re:ICQ vs JABBER? AKA 1 client vs * cleints? by infiniti99 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Curious, why are you "hacking" your ICQ client? Why doesn't it do what you want in the first place?