Personally I have tried all the programs people have mentioned. Why? Because I have friends on all the messaging services. It was driving me crazy with all the popups from different programs.

So then I tried all the programs that could communicate with the other messaging programs. Trillian is by far the best at doing this. With Trillian I can talk with everyone through one program. Most of the extra features in other programs are nice, but not really needed.

I am also using the new MSN client in Windows XP, why because me and my girlfriend don't have to use the phone anymore, we talk in real-time with real-time video. Very slick.

It will be great if AOL communicates with all the other clients, otherwise it will lose some people. But I think it really needs to go the route of MSN and do the video and voice chat. That is the future of the messaging.

AOL will never allow full compatibility with MSN messenger and therefore will continue to block other messengers from using all the features of their protocols.

AOL just plain doesnt like being compatible with anything. They are and always will be a million times worse than microsoft for this, especially while they have moron american government people (that idiot senator, DOJ etc etc etc) jumping at their every breath.

Trillian and Jabber, amongst other messaging systems with similar vendor neutral feautres, still require you to have the IM applications you wish to communicate with on your system and you have to have an account with each. At least that's been my experience when they first came out. Have things changed?

AOLs initiative, and the IMUnified group, including Yahoo and MSN, will allow users to choose their messaging application much like they choose their web browser. I prefer MSN Messenger but I would like to communicate with clients who use AIM. This will allow me to do this without the need for AIM to be on my system as well as third party applications such as Trillian.

This also means Trillian can become its own messaging application which can link to the MSN and AOL user networks.

The fact that AOL is opening the new messaging system is no shock. They are already partnering with many of the broadband ISPs, @home, Cox, Optimum Online, etc to offer its cruddy software through them. By doing this (that is if they continue this project and not hide it under 30 viewruled documents and drop the work on it), they will be in compliance with the FCC ruling on the AOL-TW merger.

I don't see AOL actually following through on this initiative. Like Compuserv 7.0, which still includes Gecko libraries, it'll get lost under someone's desk. AOL is losing users of the instant messaging service as it sits because of geotargetting advertisements in the AIM software, which delivers annoying advertisements for local businesses instead of a definitive set of advertisements across the board for all AIM users.

AIM is now server-side, which means basically, anyone with access to internal areas on AOL can read your instant messages. I only see this initiative putting AOL in a position to read ANY instant message on ANY interoperable client.

I'm not exactly sure if you consider this good news now, but as far as I'm concerned, this is just another salvo of crap that AOL is launching to try to better its name in the minds of its members, and most of the nation.

Jacob
Staff
Observers.net

Not so.

I don't have AOLIM, Yahoo Messenger, or ICQ installed on my system, yet Trillian works fine with them.

I use Trillian and I didn't have to have either Yahoo!, MSN Messenger, ICQ, or AIM on my system to use it, but you do have to have an account with them.

you guys always say "oh you can just use trillian, or odigo, or miranda icq, or jabber or whatnot" but guys... have you actually tried these programs? they suck! i think this is a great advance in IM technology.. and just support multiple protocols is NOT, heh..

honestly i don't really care if this happens or not with software out in the market like trillian. that's just a personal view, however. both aol and msn's messengers have built in ads and having one company linking both services could pose a problem - given that the cash earned isn't shared among companies (putting aside any "need" either might have for more capital). i suppose time will tell where this new technology may lead.

Big deal for AOL.

Go to www.jabber.org or www.jabber.com ....it's an opensource, free, secure, and compatible messaging system that has FAR more advantages than anything AOL or MS or ICQ could come up with, and it's becoming very widely accepted.

mindslip

Right on. You can get for several OS's and if they don't have your OS of choice but there is a Mozilla build for it, you can always download Jabberzilla for Mozilla.

In my experience, Jabber is sorely lacking. Whether it's the poorly made clients (with high mem usage, poor UI design, etc), or a problem with the protocol itsself. I check in on it occasionally to see what the state of the thing is, but usually end-up leaving feeling like I've wasted my time and effort. I still stick with ICQ for now, and Miranda .6.1 is a fantastic low resource useage client with great, functional, no non-sense UI.

This isn't new. The whole point is that aol is opening it's messaging system. They have already released the aol im protocol but they kicked you off if you weren't using their client. All this is saying is that now other clients will be able to use aol's protocol. Something aol should have been doing long ago. Now maybe I can finally get 1 IM that works with all aol im, icq, and msn. I mean really works not that aol sends you a message telling you that you have to get aol im and then kicks you off it's network.

The WinXP version of Messenger has no ads.

Oh really? Have you looked at Windows Messenger? Can you right-click on a contact and instantly begin sharing an application with them? Can you create a whiteboard session with them? Can you make a web page or e-mail IM-aware with their stuff?

Can an end-user use IM to request a remote takeover of their machine from an IT support person wiht Jabber?

Try doing your homework before spouting this crap online.