AOL Opens Up the AIM Instant Messaging Network

AVIDJockey writes "In a pleasantly surprising move, AOL has changed its tune when it comes to third-party access to the company's chat network. America Online has recently launched a service called OpenAIM 2.0, which provides open, uninhibited access to services like Meebo, or all-in-one IM clients like Pidgin, allowing them to freely and easily use the AIM instant messaging network. 'At the moment, multi-platform IM desktop clients like Pidgin or Adium (the popular Mac client) generally rely on hacking and reverse engineering access to chat networks run by AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and others. Not only is that bad for developers since it means more work, it also means that such clients often can't use all the features of a particular network.'"

Comments

When will other companies agree ...

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

This is good for business!

Companies think that lock-in is good for business. And sure, it IS when you're dealing with tangible goods. But when dealing with interoperability concerns with software ... well, if something is more useful, it will be more used! (in theory, anyways)

At least AOL finally figured this out. I'm waiting for microsoft and apple (for all their software) to get a clue ;)

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing I'll be modded down for saying this, but this seems more like they're trying to remain relevant by hopping on the "Open" bandwagon a little too late in the game. XMPP was the response to the closed nature of all of these IM networks, and not surprisingly, Google chose that very protocol for Google Talk. They even provided instructions on how to connect using clients _other_ than Google Talk.

AOL, on the other hand has always been quite hostile toward projects that made use of their network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madster). Why would anyone want to develop for them now, just because they've stuck "Open" on AIM hoping that OSS developers take care of their coding for them?

Sounds like

[renegadesx]

They are desperate to not lose any more market share to Yahoo, MSN and Google Talk (among others). Hopefully this will keep pressure on the others to open up their networks (except MSN of course) and embrace the fact that having many clients is too much hassle for people and all-in-ones make more sense

As a Pidgin user I welcome this move.

Re:Still around?

[phoenixwade]

AOL still has a butt load of clueless subscribers, and AIM is the only IM they know anything about....

Open, uninhibited access?

[keytoe]

From the Wired blog post:

AOL's recently launched OpenAIM 2.0 provides open, uninhibited access

From the Open AIM page:

you must pick 2 of the 5 options listed below and incorporate them into your Developer Applications. These options include

• Advertising
• Buddy Info
• Expressions and Buddy Icons
• AIM Start Page
• AIM Toolbar

Just to be clear, these requirements don't apply to Plugins, Bots or the use of the Presence Indicators. Please note that if your application exceeds 100,000 peak simultaneous users, you must implement Advertising as described below as one of your two options.

I think I have a different definition of 'open, uninhibited access' than Wired.

Re:And that's not all!

[Dragonslicer]

It might be my imagination, but GTalk (through the GMail interface) allows one to open an AIM connection. I wonder if it's related to this? I would guess that it's probably more related to AOL starting a Jabber server for AIM.

Re:Revenue sharing plans for displaying ads, etc

[philipgar]

Uh, I'm pretty sure they can force you to stop distribution of your application if you link against their library and aren't following their restrictions. It would be violating the license, and is just as bad as someone linking GPL code into their proprietary applications.

Phil