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AOL Opening Up AIM Community to Third Parties
DaffyD writes "Refocusing its vision for AOL Instant Messenger, America Online is endeavoring to revitalize the service by opening up its community and presence to third parties. In addition to partners such as CareerBuilder, AOL is seeking to enlist independent developers to build extended AIM services and hopes to offer a plug-in architecture by the end of the year. ICQ recently added such functionality through its open XML-based Xtras feature. Maybe AOL is feeling the heat from alternatives such as Gaim and Adium."
Next up is presence integration with CareerBuilder's online recruiting Web site. Job seekers can now register their AIM Screen Name with their resume to provide prospective employers with a real-time connection. A user's online status will be indicated by the Running Man icon.
Whatever you do, just make sure you change your screen name once you got the job, your new boss may be checking out your running man while you're supposed to be working.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Opening these formats for development will cause more innovation, which can't be bad for the bottom line.
Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!
And not let spyware type stuff get added to it. Lets hope their "addon" framework is a bit better than IE's "addon" framework.
Yup, nothing like good old competition to make a company become more innovative.
...
Oh, wait
-- (Score:i , Imaginary)
I hope this is a sign of great things to come. I know that the GAIM, Bitlbee, and other crowds will hear this as music to our ears.
Pretty Pictures!
I don't really think it'll save them....they need to bring something new to the table, and all they're doing here is bringing more of what everyone else has already brought.
Too little too late, IMHO.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
This is one of the larger episodes of back-pedaling that I've seen in a while.
Example 1
Example 2
AOL has been fighting for years to keep other IM cilent makers off their network. Amazing what a shrinking user base will do for a company.
I'm a big tall mofo.
...is kill the 'lolz wtf bbq 111\\\' people.
Seriously, I don't use AIM partly because of the prevalence of the 12-year-old illiterate AIMer stereotype. (but also because IRC > AIM)
It's not Open Source and it is Windows only, but the freeware version supports lots of things (like AIM file transfers) that kept my friends with AIM instead of gaim long after I had switched.
From the retroactive good choice department...
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
Why haven't they come up with a real and competitive standard yet? There are a number of different instant messaging networks out there, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc. and while I understand they want to keep their networks closed so they can force people to use their player, why not establish one standard and let people choose which client to use.
Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
Dont forget they IM type services require servers to function..
AOL is brining that to the table.. Without those servers, clients will be all dressed up with nowhere to go..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"America Online is endeavoring to revitalize the service by opening up its community and presence to third parties."
You want to revitalize the service? Don't install a bunch of extra crap (like "get AOL Broadband NOW!" icons) on my computer when I grab your messenger. Ad-generated revenue is acceptable in a "free" service, but keep it in the buddy list window, please, instead of popping up a bunch of other windows. Don't make me go buy DeadAIM or whatever just to use your messenger without the kind of problems that make me think of spyware and adware.
That would go a long way to "revitalizing."
Free Sony PSPs from Gratis
Does this mean they're more open to Trillian?
Or maybe feel heat from Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. I don't use the programs but have been impressed by the features and quality they offer when I see friends using them. Too bad YM also installs all that other shite that comes with it such as the Yahoo! Tollbar.
That and fr1st ps0t??
What is your penile percentile?
How about releasing a version of the AIM client that is actually more enjoyable to use than the previous one, instead of more annoying?!
Weirdly enough, when people install an instant messenger client on their computers, their first thought doesn't tend to be "Oh boy, I hope this thing gives me a stock ticker and a dozen popup advertisement windows!"
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
to make AOL a "proper" system is for it also to become decentralized. By the time you add all the features you need to make it private, secure, and compliant, you lose any benefit to running the servers through AOL's centralized servers. Despite the fact that everyone's buddy list is on AOL, if something else came along that was proper everyone would ditch AOL in a heart beat. The key is that more business-oriented functionality needs to be included so that it's not just AOL with extra consumer features, such as "avatars" and sounds.
If I were them, I'd find about USING gaim...its existing plug-in system has been tried and true, and can be used in many different OSs already. It can even plug into alternate IM systems while keeping the "AIM" name (G-AIM!) It could be like google: "Get on GAIM and talk to so-and-so...he's on MSN Messenger I think" The ads would still go to GAIM/AOL. Just a thought.
But hey...what do I know?
We used to use our cellphones for this, but the annoying rings and need to mute the main conference phone to talk with colleagues to establish strategies or get our stories consistent was a hassle.
Whoever has the easiest to use and most features in messenger clients is going to have an opportunity to make some money out of it in the neear future, especially as such clients get integrated into other devices (PDAs, cellphones, MP3 players? Network appliances? Toaster?
The interesting parts include the gist:
everything in moderation
Hopefully we'll be able to see some of ICQ's more advanced features (statuses, offline messaging, video?) make its way to AIM.
I've been unable to get some people to switch to open source messengers as a result of missing one or more of these features.
Could we even see an AIM component in Mozilla suite after this? I know I've often thought that the one thing missing from Moz Suite was a gaim-like multi IM application.
~Rebecca
Instant messaging has all but killed email among people of the younger generation and it is quickly working on the telephone too. The network could be so much greater then it is now with things like offline messages (which rumor has it AIM is expected to annouce fairly soon). Hopefully now that the third party market can really get in there and get their hands dirty things will really explode.
Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
I bet one of the first addons will be for spam. It's common sense.
I'd be more concerned about someone else hopping on your computer when ProspectiveEmployer91241 sends a message to you...
Isn't this the exact opposite of what they've been doing before? It seems like they now want to open up what they have previously been trying to keep proprietary for only one reason: the product is becoming irrelevant.
They've had sites up saying they were planning on doing this for at least a year. I wonder if it'll actually pan out now.
While offline messaging is already available through third-party systems such as DoorManBot and some clients, such as TerraIM already have it integrated, it would be nice if AOL would actually make it native to their default client.
I hope their statements of supporting additions to the service will truly be open and not restricted to those the company already does business with. By making it open, the afford the opportunity of the broad support enjoyed by open source projects, where users feel they have some power.
Send offline messages on AIM with DoorManBot
Perhaps they'll pull a Google and distribute an official set of API's with which one can talk to the AIM servers. What would be great is if they distributed it as a set of libraries. These libraries could then be linked into Kopete, Trillian, GAIM, etc. to allow these programs to access AIM using a true AOL implementation rather than a reverse-engineered version of the protocol. That would be cool.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
How about AOL just opens up their "community" to outside clients, instead changing their protocol every few weeks just to lockout non-AOL Internetters from AIM? They want their Internet access to be a one-way street, but they want fresh new blood to reinvigorate their stagnant, isolated community. So, thinking like a corporation, they sign up new partners to bring inside AOL, rather than ride the innovation power of all the people who could connect if they opened their protocols and formats. It's supply-side community economics, and it won't work as well as defining the community by its members.
--
make install -not war
If you read carefully the EULA of the AIM client, it clearly says:
"You waive any right to privacy."
Nevermind the privacy statement on its own web page. The EULA says it clearly. You waive any right to privacy when using AIM.
Check for yourself.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you've never kissed a girl. Am I right?
Eh, you seem to have missed the name of the protocol he was advocating...
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I understand that opening things up to a "community" can't be anything but a "Good Thing"(TM) (watch out, she's getting out soon...so everyone make sure your decors match or suffer her wrath!!!)
I have a bit of reservation here, though, since I don't see it open like Mozilla is open. Could this lead to the next Toolbar wars? I'm not afraid, for example, of the many extensions for Mozilla, but for AIM, I kind of worry about possible spyware hijacking, etc.
I guess in the end I lack the confidence in most AIM users. I guess I remember all too well what the A means.
In my experience as a developer I would love to use GAIM, but find often that file transferring hardly ever works, which is a very useful feature when collaborating on a project. I has the same problems in my Trillian days. I loved GAIM and Trillian because I could connect to all the services, but recently have found myself primarily using the propietary AIM and MSN clients for reliable file transfer. I RTFA, but I fail to understand how opening the protocol make it so that more people will use their client/clients that they would profit from. I can't imagine people using alternative clients are taking away from AOL's service, and when it is open to other clients, the majority of alternative users will just bum off of the AIM servers. What am I missing?
Refocusing its vision for AOL Instant Messenger, America Online is endeavoring to revitalize the service by opening up its community and presence to third parties.
Refocusing its vision? Endeavoring to revitalize??
I could feel my hair starting to get pointy just reading that much.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Here is a great model I think AOL should pick up. Charge me 30 dollars for AIM. Make it feature rich, spy/adware free and charge me for the software. Not the service, the program. I know that doesn't sit well with the blind hippies among us but I have no problem paying for software if it's good. I'm in college, I dare say I couldn't function without AIM, hell this campus would damn near shut down without it. Charge me for the software and give me incentives to upgrade, it's daring, it's nutty, but I think it just might work.
Are you secure enough in your masculinity to run 'man touch'?
What would have been great is if AOL released the specs for OSCAR, AND provided hooks to the protocol to allow various feature extensions. This will never happen, as once OSCAR is opened, there will be a barrage of third party AIM clients that do not show ads.
Even now, is very easy to develope an application to track the online status of AIM/iChat users, using, for example Net::AIM, NET::TOC and other modules.
Big deal.
http://www.rayn.net . Funny. Stuff.
I have a neat jabber setup running at my office.
All the windows clients using Exodus, but of the many jabber clients for OS X Adium is my favorite for being such a strong project with nice aesthetics.
Exodus is slightly buggy, but it has a useful interface and works well for my environment. I tried out gaim briefly, but the roster items were too big and I didn't find a quick way to fix that. What else are people using for jabber clients?
This one has been known for awhile, and is only avaible to licensees of Macromedia Central. I believe that this requires a downloadable from flash installation of the new API. ( see the new AIM client in flash here: http://www.macromedia.com/software/central/product info/gettingstarted/, not that it works on my linux box... I don't allow flash to write to the disk.)
The other thing they mention is "AIM presence" which is a fancy term for the little online indicator grahpics that have been available to ICQ and yahoo users for years.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
I only use AIM when those I want to chat with can't or won't use ICQ, which unfortunately is most of them. Thankfully, I don't have to use AIM to do it anymore. I use Trillian and it works just fine w/ AIM. And I can use my ICQ and Yahoo Messenger accounts.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Managers will now receive hundreds of "LMAO HER3S MAH RESUM3 FOR CONSIEDRATION LOL!!!!! WTF" messages.
You can do this now with 3rd party systyems like iChat and Macromedia Flash's lattest derivative Breeze.
Think MS Passport, only useful.
.\.\att Clare
Maybe it'd help if they didn't have that fucking AIM Today bullshit which pops up EVERY time you sign on even when you turn it off..
If Gaim could fix it's reconnecting problems then I'd switch to it permantly.. untill then it's AIM in bed, Gaim when awake.
I like muppets.
I read an article about this earlier today that focused on the presence notification that AOL has integrated with Outlook. Apparently this is new to the Windows world, but I've had presence notification for a while now, along with a framework to integrate it into other applications, such as Beagle. Looks like promising stuff.
AOL is cool, but it is still proprietary. I'd like to see widely deployed IM solutions, and something that provides encryption, anonminity, and an offline cache feature similar to YIM's.
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
Imagining for a second that AIM does decide to implement XMPP such that Server-to-Server connections work properly from the hundreds of existing Jabber servers directly to AIM.
That would bump the number of users on XMPP from an estimated 10 million (old figure from a year ago) to an estimated 45 million (AIM's fiugre from the same time period.) If their other services AOLIM and ICQ switched over at the same time, the total would be more like 80 million.
These sort of numbers would be about enough interoperability to say that the battle has been won, IMO. Although I'm curious to know what sort of numbers MSN command at the moment.
But as a server admin, my main interest is in not needing to run a transport just to give access to foreign services. If the foreign services all used the same, standard protocol, life would be pretty damn sweet. :-)
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
How generous and open AOL of to allow applications to hook into their SUCKY client! What a bunch of humanitarians. Praised be AOL.
I see posts here that say this will be good for projects like gaim... No, I don't see it that way at all. AOL is trying to lure people away from open implimentations like gaim, and towards AOL-sanctioned code, which they control.
You want to know how nice AOL is to third-party clients? Well, I wrote my own client. Recently, AOL took away my screen name, for "violation of the Terms of Service."
I can't imagine how I am in violation. I don't use AIM to do anything wrong. I use it to talk to my girlfriend, and a few of my friends here at University, maybe some family members. Oh, and I happen to have written a third party client. Apparently, there was something in that that AOL didn't like.
I have tried to contact AOL about this, ask them exactly WHAT it was that I did wrong. This was probably around a month ago. I haven't been able to get anything out of them.
Nothing in the article says they're opening up to alternative AIM clients. They are allowing companies to "partner" with them, probably involving large licensing fees, to add AIM "presence" (on/offline information) into their products and produce approved plugins for the advertising-riddled official client. That doesn't help GAIM or Adium or Jabber or any other open-source project. It probably doesn't help Trillian either.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
Maybe AOL is feeling the heat from alternatives such as Gaim and Adium.
You must be kidding! I mean Gaim is great and all, but AOL and AIM have at least 4 orders of magnitude more users than Gaim and Adium combined. I doubt they're feeling a great deal of heat.
fucking bunch a crap for stoopid newbies
I wonder what Steve Jobs is thinking right now, with iChat tying in with AIM. I wonder if iChat users will end up getting a whole slew of weird AIM-based spams and such with it becoming much more open to the world.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Or actually work while at your job? You people wonder why you can't hold one down, although it's pretty clear to hard working people like myself. You disgust me.
I have kissed a girl and I use jabber, all my geek friends are converted, the non-geek ones I talk to through the MSN transport.
AIM is only a non-propreitary system when they have released a fully documented server to server protocol which any foreign server can use to allow its users to communicate with AOL users, and does not require any special prior arrangement for the connection to be made or interface to be used, and does not restrict the protocol from being implemented and used without restriction in open source software.
The key to an IM system being open I believe is a completely documented fully functional server to server interface which allows any foreign IM system with its own user namespace, run by anyone to interface with it and to communicate with its users. It works like this, lets you have seperate systems at servicea.com, and serviceb.com, each service has its own user namespace, meaning each manages its own database of usernames and username registration, so each server can have a user named, for instance, joeuser. joeuser@servicea.com would send an IM to joeuser@serviceb.com, and servicea.com would open a server to server connection to serviceb.com and the message would be sent between the services. Unlike IRC, the connection is made without prior arrangement, any server can connect to any other server when the user tries to send a message between the two.
What I think is interesting is that apparently the next version of iChat, which will ship with Tiger, will have Jabber capability. What does this mean for the direction of iChat in the future?
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
I'd be more concerned about someone else hopping on your computer when ProspectiveEmployer91241 sends a message to you...
Let's get this straight: lock your damn computer when you leave it. This is the single easiest thing to do to protect yourself from co-workers or managers with misguided intentions, whether clueless or malicious. Locking is trivial to do in most environments; Windows users have the single default keybinding of <Windows Key>-l (lowercase L). No need to even bother with Ctrl-Alt-Del. Other OSes (Mac OS X, Linux, various Unices) are similarly easy to set up for screen locking, usually via a password-enabled screensaver.
This has another great side-benefit: you will rarely forget even a totally line-noise password ever again. Change your password in the morning (preferably not on a Friday), and you'll type it in a number of times that day, and for the next few days.
Ranting about a moron, what a troll!
Recently I noticed that AIM has an IM Robots section where there are a few bots you can interact with. AOL's new API should include a way to develop new chat bots.
They should develop a gateway that would allow an ordinary web server to send IMs, that way a web server could run chat bot scripts in a common language, such as PHP. This could be the catalyst for a diverse population of chat bots, which could be entertaining and/or useful.
SproutWorks Software Design
Ummmmm that is still a server... That is my point.
No server, no authenication.. no IM..
"Scale" is a different topic for a differen day.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Nothing happened.
Now I'm sad. Why did you make me sad?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Yes! More randomly annoying spyware and prank viruses!
Your skill in reading has increased by one point!
works fine for me
xp sp1
Windows + l only works on XP, 2000 still needs to go through CTRL+ALT+DEL and hit "Lock Computer"
Anybody have an opinion on a good AIM client for Windows? I currently use Gaim. Stop yelling at me for using Windows, I know as well as you do it sucks.
wow... u were WAY off
:n
I have created a 'subscription' to those other users by adding them to my contact list. So whenever I logon, my jabber server contacts the other servers for that user's online status. Since the other user has also agreed to presence information, I'm notified whenever they change status, and my server notifies them. For messages, I contact my server, my server contacts the other user's server, and that goes to the other client.
Check it out. Wikipedia has a good article.
"Joy is contagious," he said, peering into the microscope.
AIM has been plagued with accidental account deletions over the past several months. The official line is that while cleaning up old, unused accounts, they have deleted some good ones. But this issue has been ongoing for several months now.
Personally, i had AIM reset my password daily for two weeks, then suddenly cancel my account..for no reason whatsoever. More infuriating, is that there is no support contact information on aim.com, at all.
Do some googling and you'll find this is a widespread problem. There was even a /. story at one point.
If AOL doesn't get their act together, they are going to really lose some ground in an area they have traditonally dominated.
once you go slack, you never go back
like CTFL+ALT+DEL...ENTER is really hard to do.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
All of the various IM clients on the planet have different interoperability APIs, and "approvals" required to interoperate. This makes life difficult for everyone. If you want to help create a standard cross-IM-client plugin architecture, take a peek at http://imnarrator.sf.net/.
Can your IM do this?
Try the "L" key instead of the "One" key! :-)
Sounds like lawyer-inspired CYA to me, not a nefarious plot to read all your absolutely scintillating conversations about how you got plastered last night and had your way with a garden hoe.
Your communication to the AIM servers is cleartext.
The other party's communication to the AIM servers is cleartext.
Even when you're directly connected to the other user, the communication is cleartext.
Some user somewhere has their conversation intercepted and it comes back to haunt them -- they promptly sue AOL, since it's their service, and it's just like the telephone donchaknow and I didn't know I shouldn't expect that my conversations would be private and my feelings are hurt real bad so I need a million dollars for pain and suffering.
Well, but windows still lets an admin user (ie your boss) login even when it's locked...
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
No, when the admin user "unlocks" your computer it logs you out and doesn't let him do anything til your logged out.
Open Source, Open Standards, Open Minds
It also forcibly closes all of the unsaved documents in the running session, which is dumb and annoying. -j
To enable Win-L (and other Win-* keys) on 9x/ME/2000, and extend the functionality on XP, get WinKey. Free, easy to set up, invaluable.
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
Cool, my =0 contest is still afloat!
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Well you should be saving your work when you leave the machine anyhow. Especially if it's a windows machine, and thereby liable to crash.