RSSAOL tests open source Jabber for instant messenging
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published January 18, 2008, 1:50 PM
A lot of AIM and ICQ instant messaging users have likely never even heard of "Jabber" yet. But they'll probably be Jabbering away in the not too distant future, after the bugs get worked out by a new AOL/ICQ test launch.
If you're an instant messaging user (and who isn't, these days?), you'll soon be able to talk to your AIM/ICQ contacts using an open standards technology loosely referred to as Jabber, assuming that a new AOL/ICQ test launch that started this week shows enough success.
What's more, you should be able to do so using conventional AIM or ICQ client software, instead of necessarily resorting to freeware clients now being offered by Google and the Gizmo Project, or to other clients with exotic names like Psi, iChat, and Pidgin.
Actually, Jabber technology got started back in 1998, resulting in the release of an open source server called "jabberd." The actual Jabber protocol eventually evolved into an IETF standard dubbed XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). But if you just use the word Jabber, fans of any of these related technologies will know what you mean.
But why bother with Jabber (or with XMPP), anyway, when you can already get free IM client software through AOL and Trillian, for instance? Well, XMPP might not be for everyone, especially at this stage in the game.
But essentially, beyond using "open" as opposed to "proprietary" technologies, XMPP offers some important practical advantages around IM addressing and prioritization, according to its advocates.
Every user on the Jabber network gets a unique Jabber ID (JID) which is structured a lot like an e-mail address. You can also log in from multiple locations -- such as mobile, home, and work -- and you can ask the Jabber server to prioritize IMs so that some go only to your "mobile" location, for example.
Also, unlike services such as the traditional AIM and MSN Messenger, the Jabber IM network is decentralized, with no central "authoritative server." Therefore, anyone can run a Jabber server, setting up "locations" and prioritizing to which locations various IM messages will go.
Right now, the software in the AOL/ICQ test server is still buggy, according to Florian Jensen's Weblog. Jensen also includes a link to a discussion of the test at the Jdev MUC room.
IM'd one tester: "Let's give AOL guys huge thumbs up!"
Jabber fans also claim many advantages for XMPP over a competing protocol called SIMPLE (Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions), which has gained a lot more mainstream acceptance up to now.
Basically, XMPP proponents say this protocol is better because it was built from the ground up to handle IM and "presence," or location awareness.
But SIMPLE advocates counter that their protocol is capable of dealing well not just with IM, but also with voice, video, and conferencing technologies.
At this point in the game, the only reasons to use AIM is for it's file tranfer abilities. But, even with that...I will never agree to use anything that's AOL. They talk about working out the bugs first, that will never actually happen. I haven't used ICQ in so many years, I keep forgetting it even exists anymore. I ab-wh*** and detest anything of AOL and I know I'm not the only one.
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prndll said:
"At this point in the game, the only reasons to use AIM is for it's file tranfer abilities. But, even with that...I will never agree to use anything that's AOL. They talk about working out the bugs first, that will never actually happen. I haven't used ICQ in so many years, I keep forgetting it even exists anymore. I ab-wh*** and detest anything of AOL and I know I'm not the only one."
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AOL does as good a job of working out bugs as any other program does. None do that task completely and probably never will. Many detest AOL and many love it. However, as long as you continue to talk about your detesting it you also continue to advertise it and get people curious to try it. So, keep up the good work.
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I say I don't like it. The kind of person you speak of is a fool.
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I think this means that aol is giving up on internal development of new products and will just buy third party products from now on.
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sounds like google.
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does this mean that it will be possible to chat to folks at AIM and ICQ with gtalk ?
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Exactly. BTW, you can do it today http://googlesystem.blog...m-buddies-in-gmail.html but you need ICQ and AIM accounts. Jabber clients (using XMPP protocol, not transports) can contact directly, independently what client and server you use.
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this is great news. hopefully the server is robust enough to handle all the alpha nerds slamming it with requests.
at the moment pidgin doesnt seem to be working...and the devs on their IRC channel dont seem to know how to do so either!
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By ppetrov said:
"Don't make me laugh. SIMPLE has almost no acceptance, and will never have. It's being hyped up only among the SIP crowd. XMPP is the way of the future."
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I'm gonna make you laugh. Simple has lots of acceptance in crowds you don't spend time with and there are lots of those. Simple is in, LOL.
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>Jabber fans also claim many advantages for XMPP over a
>competing protocol called SIMPLE (Session Initiation
>Protocol for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging
>Extensions), which has gained a lot more mainstream
>acceptance up to now.
Don't make me laugh. SIMPLE has almost no acceptance, and will never have. It's being hyped up only among the SIP crowd. XMPP is the way of the future.
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I'd rather have two or more competing standards myself.
It tends to make both sides keep improving and pushing their products further.
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