AOL's IM Policy

Sensible or Selfish?

by YTCC Data

For years America Online’s instant messages has been the most dominant form of text messaging. AOL’s large user base of members uses the actual AOL service and those from AIM who uses just the instant messages over the Internet. So when other companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo came along with their messaging product they got little use because AOL already had the huge majority from being the leading online service for the United States.

Microsoft and Yahoo attempted to make their messaging clients work with the AIM user system. After a fierce battle between AOL and the two companies AOL won. Microsoft and Yahoo complained and AOL promised The Internet Engineering Task Force that they would make the system interoperable with other clients. But this has yet to happen in a way that AOL deems acceptable.

AOL’s stance is that when a company makes unauthorized software that "hacks" into the AIM system then that software is a security risk. After all, none of those companies had AOL’s permission to use the AIM protocal; they just went ahead and did it anyway. AOL states that they are just worried about user’s security. So now AOL finds itself constantly blocking and fighting off companies who make unauthorized client connections to their system.

Trillian, is one of many upstarts that have an all-in-one integrated communication system from Internet Relay Chat rooms to ICQ. Trillian is suffering because AOL doesn’t want to allow the company to access the AIM user database. Trillian has become a popular client, but doesn’t always work because AOL is constantly trying to block it from their system.

Is AOL being sensible about blocking other messaging clients or are they being selfish? You Decide!

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