RSSAOL Buddies Up with ICQ
By Nate Mook | Published October 29, 2002, 12:00 PM
In a surprise move, America Online on Monday took the first steps to enabling interoperability between its AOL client and ICQ in a refresh build of AOL 8.0 released to beta testers. Beta users can now add an ICQ number to their buddy lists, but messages cannot be exchanged until AOL releases a new version of ICQ, which will be available "in the near future."
BetaNews has learned that a beta build of AOL Instant Messenger 5.1 released last week sports similar functionality, but because the AIM server does not recognize the entries, ICQ users are automatically purged from the buddy list. Buddies with ICQ are listed with "-ICQ" appended to their number.
AOL purchased ICQ from Mirabilis in June 1998, but kept the service separate from its own AOL and AIM networks. Despite speculation that the company would allow for communication between the services, AOL remained steadfast that it had no such plans.
The decision for AOL to thus far not allow interoperability is strictly one of business, according to sources close to the company, as the limitation lies in the client itself - not the server architecture.
AOL's instant messaging platform has a modular design composed of tightly held libraries dubbed COOL Components. Each communication protocol utilized by AOL has its own component, including ICQ, which was ported to COOL shortly after the acquisition. COOL is also found in the latest Netscape releases.
In order to test COOL Components, AOL uses a specialized tool dubbed TestBuddy. TestBuddy resembles a slimmed-down version of AIM and has the capability to connect to each AOL-owned network.
For a client to communicate with multiple networks, it must support the appropriate components. A version of AIM released in mid-2000 first showcased this technology by connecting to both ICQ and AOL, but could not send messages across networks. However, the news publicly raised questions about AOL's intentions in the IM space and subsequent AIM releases lacked ICQ support.
The latest beta releases of AOL and AIM contain the necessary libraries to interoperate within AOL's network, as will the next release of ICQ.
The move to connect its networks may be an attempt by AOL to consolidate its numbers after the shift in power that has occurred over the past two years. The once fledgling MSN and Yahoo! networks have garnered a considerable market share from AOL Instant Messenger, and ICQ has been struggling to maintain its user base. By merging AIM and ICQ, AOL will once again control a vast majority of the IM market.
AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo! and numerous other groups have continued work on a universal IM standard for interoperability, but have yet to reach a consensus. Other companies such have Trillian have opted for client-side approach to interoperability and built in support for each chat network into a single application.
http://news.com.com/1604...20-1.asx?ibm_fusion+win
check it out.
Our world is changing :)
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|For many years I've been using programs based on the open XML protocol that aol and all the other major players in the instant messaging world have refused to work with and go so far as to try and shut some of these systems down to no avail i'm glad to say. This will be the future of IM whether they like it or not.....Jabber to find out more
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|some links:
http://www.jabber.org/
http://www.jabber.org/user/publicservers.php
http://www.jabberstudio.org/
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|how can you use ICQ to sign on an AOL screen name?
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|Where can i get this new aol icq program?
e-mail me at micorreia@attbi.com with Info
Thanks....
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|http://aim.com/get_aim/win/win_beta.adp
It just lets you add ICQ#'s to your buddy list.
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|Oh, and posting your e-mail address on the net like that is a quick way to become instantly added to spam lists heh.
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|Makes sense AOL... align your bug-riddled programs with those from ICQ... what a great marriage of mediocrity!
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|I can finally get rid of aim...
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|It is definately good to hear that AOL is actually merging the two networks together to be able to interoperate.
I know I still love ICQ, and the only reason I used MSN now is only because of people at school use it because they're too lazy to learn the power of ICQ :)
ICQ was WAY ahead of it's time. I mean seriously, Microsoft thought it was good how it got Passport? ICQ had UIN's since the start, the idea behind it was one number for many things.
So c'mon guys, instead of complaining about how long it took them to do this, be happy that they're doing it.
And it is true that MSN only got popularity through other MS products, Hotmail, Windows, and IE.
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|I've seen this news in a few places and all mention being able to talk to ICQ contacts from AIM.
What about the other way around?
Perhaps it'll remain one-way, as like a transition period to get people to move from ICQ to AIM before they close ICQ down.
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|Once the new ICQ client is released, you will be able to talk back and forth between both networks. It would be kind of useless to send messages but not receive a response back, would it not?
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|The ICQ and AOL networks were merged a LONG time ago. You can use AOL servers as your ICQ connection server (which is how I got around our firewall block on ICQ), and last I checked you could log into AIM Express with an ICQ UIN.
Seems like this is just the last stage - actually getting the clients to talk to each other. About time too.
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|Hey, leave Pepsi out of this. Actually, I'm glad AOL is taking steps to merge the two messaging clients together. It's going to allow them to have more features - and this means AOL is going to pay more attention to them, too. Hmm... What are they going to call this merged product?... AOL's ICQ Instant Messenger (ICQIM)?
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|Is it just me or should we have seen that headline close to two years ago? The fact that it took them this long is simply unnacceptable. I urge people to use Yahoo or even MSN. AIM is years behind them (not ICQ however).
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|"...AIM is years behind them (not ICQ however)"
lol, they use the *exact* same protocol (OSCAR) and the exact same servers. I actually don't think MSN is any more ahead of AIM/ICQ, I just think that MSN Instant Messenger is prettier, and gaining so many users only due to the fact that it is build into the OS.
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|Except of course... ICQ lets you send OFFLINE messages :) a big help when you dont know someone's email or want to leave a short message
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|AIM and ICQ may now use the same protocols for server communication, but ICQ has many added features which require a separate COOL Component dubbed CoolICQ. ICQ is a more advanced messaging system with detailed profiles, SMS support, offline messages, logging, and numerous other features AIM does not have as of yet.
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|I tested the latest AIM Client with a icq # running ICQ Lite. I used aim to add the icq # to my list, which aim reconized as beeing from icq and asked me for a name for. Then on the icq side, it asked me to authorize my aim username to see me. I did that. However, AIM/ICQ are unable to see each other online they see each other as offine. I sent a message using icq lite to the aim user who was in my list and it was received on AIM, however AIM was unable to send a response.
It seems the interopibility is in the works but is not yet complete.
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|You're right! I just added a random bunch of number to my AIM list and it saw it as an ICQ number. Those buggers are keeping too much secret :-p
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|My AIM account didn't see my ICQ account either (also running ICQ lite)
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|Just Use Trillian!!!!!!
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|Haven't used anything else for a year now...and I have been a diehard ICQ fan...nothing but trillian here..
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|well, i think icq is bloaded, and the reason aol does the compatability thing, is cause they want to faze it out, but now i will actually use aol and add icq users, i stoped using it back in 98, since too much s*** was added on it
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