RSSAOL Tests New AIM Express
By David Worthington | Published August 8, 2003, 8:26 AM
America Online has opened public beta testing for AIM Express 4.0, the latest incarnation of its Web-based real time communications service. The 4.0 milestone sports the look and feel of AOL 9 Optimized, but has more changes in store before its final release to ultimately mirror the Windows AIM interface.
This release will soon support Netscape 7.1 and Mozilla 1.4 on both Windows and Mac OS X. Users of America Online will need to use an external browser for testing. Customers experiencing other issues can sort through a list of known issues.
"AIM Express is designed to be used when people are away from their own computer and do not have the full AOL client or full desktop AIM Client installed," said AOL spokesperson Sheila Tran. "It can be run directly from a Web browser and does not require software to be installed on the PC -- so you can IM from any computer with an internet connection -- such as a friend's PC, an Internet cafe, a public library or wherever."
The availability of this test comes as AOL is refreshing its entire line of Web properties with new releases. Last week, AOL 9 Optimized launched for broadband users, trailed by the official release of AOL Communicator.
The AIM Express beta is immediately available on its launch page.
I'm sure it's great, but browser-specific development?! What year *is* this? And what about browsers that aren't IE, Mozilla, or Netscape? Like Opera?
Score: 0
|This is the best browser based client I've ever seen. It works just like the desktop version. AIM rulz!
Score: 0
|Yes it would rule if you could use it to communicate with something other than AIM members.
Score: 0
|erm it's a web based IM client run by one of the IM companies. You wouldn't expect the web based MSN to do the same.
Score: 0
|If they wanted me to go to their web site and look at thier advertising they would try to make it talk to as many different IM systems as possible. It's my understanding that Microsoft has been trying for years now to communicate with AIM but AOL isn't allowing it. I'm just thankful I can call someone on a Sprint cell phone from my AT&T wireless phone! I wish AOL/AIM would see the logic in that.
Score: 0
|For multi-ISP messaging, try Fire for Mac OS X. It includes Yahoo!, AIM, MSN (I Believe - not big on the whole Mega...err...Microsoft regime), ICQ and a couple others....
Score: 0
|