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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.
And not let spyware type stuff get added to it. Lets hope their "addon" framework is a bit better than IE's "addon" framework.
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
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.
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.
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