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AOL Tests Video Instant Messaging
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."
I'm a frequent user of AIM, ICQ, IRC, Yahoo IM, and MSN Messenger.
That being said, I used to use IRC all the time. I had a lot of friends there and it seemed like the place to be. Unfortunately, the packet kiddies have made it extrordinarily unreliable.
ICQ was the next place I frequented. Unfortunately, it's a haven for spammers. It's the only IM service I get spam from. It's pretty reliable, but most of the people that are relatively new to the internet don't have ICQ numbers. So it's not particularly useful anymore, although a few years ago, it too was the place to be.
I've used Yahoo IM, but unfortunately it seems rather pointless to me. I don't know why, I've just never been a fan of it. Yahoo's official client seems rather slow and I have problems connecting to the service rather often. I also find people I know just don't use it that much.
That brings me to the two I use a lot now, those being AIM and MSN Messenger.
I like AIM. I really do. Its client for Linux is rather lacking, but a lot of people have it. It doesn't seem as bloated as ICQ, but it still has a lot of features. And you can bet just about anyone online has an AIM SN. The service is rather reliable, too, I've found.
As for MSN Messenger, it's really become my favorite IM service. I know I'll probably get modded down for being pro-Microsoft, but it does everything I need it to do and aside from the few times it's gone down for maintainence, it's also rather reliable of late. I like it more than AIM just because it doesn't have the rather stupid features like warnings. I've never really understood that or the rate limiting feature. I mean, I know how they work but I don't get the point of them. I've never seen warnings used against obscene or harassing users. I only see them used when someone is mad at someone else and does it as a way to get back at them. MSN doesn't have these stupid features. That's why I like it. And most people I know have MSN Messenger, too.
As for Netmeeting, as an op in some teen channels, I see lots of requests to chat on Netmeeting. I get sick of seeing the requests. It's a home for perverts. Yahoo is turning into that, too. Video chats are nice, but with a low quality webcam and an upstream that just sucks (128 kbit) and lots of friends on dialup, it's rather pointless. And no amount of compression will make it much better without making the quality thoroughly suck. Forget it.
I'll still use AIM, but it's just another pointless feature I'll never use.
Ciryon