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AOL Tests Video Instant Messaging

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the LOL-ROFL-AFK dept.

An anonymous coward writes "AOL, which only last week asked the FCC to forget about some of those mandatory restrictions put into place in order to clear its merger with Time Warner, apparently isn't wasting any time. In a move that circumvents government-imposed limitations on "advanced" multimedia services, Instant Messaging Planet is reporting that AOL has already started beta testing video messaging services with "push-to-talk" and "record-and-forward" features."

6 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. catchup by ramzak2k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All they are attempting is a catch up with MSN messenger & yahoo. This doesnt look like a big money maker given the competition.

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    Siggy Say, Siggy Do
  2. Push to talk? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The push to talk feature skirts the "No videoconferencing" rule since you're recording a short video clip and sending it over. It's not live really.

  3. Hrmm by acehole · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder if they're going to learn from the folly that was 'Microsoft Netmeeting'.

    That degraded into a place of seeing countless people jerking off, flashing and other lude acts.

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    Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
  4. Re:Lol... this will fail miserably... heres why by StupidGoose · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You must remember that AOL's targets are those families who just bought a new Compaq, and want to "get on that Internet thing" to help the kids with their homework, book airline tickets and send e-mail to grandma and gramps(Finding porn too, but Pop will keep that a secret). They don't know what a server is. They couldn't care less how TCP/IP handshaking works. All they know is that AOL lets you get access to this wonderful thing. And AOL knows this. Can you imagine the difference made by advertising "Send instant messages to friends and family", with a picture of a guy entering letters, and the advertisement where the entire family sits in front of a tiny camera on top of the monitor, talking directly to their relatives on the other side of the country? I can.

  5. Re:This wont catch on... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That's right folks. We knew the World Wide Web wasn't going to take off either. After all, 99% of people had a 2400 baud modem so those big web pages would never be a success. Nobody would feel any inclination to obtain a faster connection because those big web pages simply didn't fulfil any need. That is why we are still stuck on 2400 baud modems today. THINK!

  6. Re:Jabber by Chris+Burkhardt · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Opensource:
    http://www.jabber.org

    Jabber is not "Opensource". It is an open standard, with both Open Source and porprietary client and server software in existance.

    Just to be clear ;)

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    "And there be unix which have made themselves unix for the kingdom of heaven's sake." - Matt. 19:12