Comments on: AOL brings AIM for Mac back from the dead

Mac users finally get the first updated version of AIM since 2004, but is it too late?


by Riquez-001 September 30, 2008 3:37 PM PDT: Can you do screen sharing, group video conferencing, background video effects etc like you can in iChat?; Like this Reply to this comment

by skillingssucks September 30, 2008 4:00 PM PDT

Sorry AOL, too little, too late. You snooze, you lose.


by jblogg February 9, 2009 7:06 PM PST: I agree. Too late AOL. My firm had to shift away from commercialized instant messengers for several reasons, anyway. Security became a problem as people were quickly sharing files with competitors. We also lost a lot of productivity as employees kept chatting with family and friends. The last straw were the ads.

The main way that AOL shined for us is that our PC users could still video chat through AOL with Mac users. But with an update as belated as this, AOL was just too late.

Justyn
Reference: http://brosix.com; Like this


by Penguinisto September 30, 2008 4:06 PM PDT: Err, thanks but no thanks. Got no use for the thing, four years later.; Like this Reply to this comment


by wlerin September 30, 2008 5:19 PM PDT: One minor tidbit, last I checked, Jabber and XMPP are the same thing. And GoogleTalk uses the Jabber/XMPP protocol.; Like this Reply to this comment


by notforpaper September 30, 2008 7:45 PM PDT: Still not sure what AIM has to offer over iChat; Like this Reply to this comment


by kelmon October 1, 2008 12:28 AM PDT: I'm rather confused as to why AOL is doing this now. I mean, I'm already using AIM via iChat as my primary IM account so I do not need converting to AIM. What does AOL gain from doing this, particularly given that the client doesn't offer anything significant enough to drive increased AIM adoption on the Mac platform?

Put another way, can we expect advertising to be delivered by the new client or some other form of revenue generation for AOL?; Like this Reply to this comment


by Thomas, David October 1, 2008 10:23 AM PDT: Who at AOL determines what products are developed and released? I need a job, I'll take that persons job.; Like this Reply to this comment


by myles taylor October 2, 2008 9:21 AM PDT: I don't know what they are thinking. By this time the majority of users have found another client to use, especially since v4.7 was so buggy on the Intel Chips and wasn't native. It has nothing over iChat and doesn't even begin to compete with Adium, which is what I use. The clamoring for an update for a Mac client probably is behind this, but until they bring out some new features that really blow everyone away, I don't really see the point.

(goes back to chatting on Adium); Like this Reply to this comment


by Shaun822 October 5, 2008 9:45 AM PDT: So in other words it basically offers tabbed browsing and nothing else i might use? Why would I switch?; Like this Reply to this comment


by lee.givens October 6, 2008 10:18 AM PDT: Hello,
I'm the product lead for the AOL Mac products. Just want to make one clarification, we don't support Yahoo! contacts in our Buddy List, just AIM, Apple .Mac and MobileMe.

Our goal with the AIM for Mac project is to bring the AIM Experience back to Mac. We welcome your comments and suggestions as we bring out new and exciting apps to the Mac and iPhone.

Check out our iPhone apps: http://daol.aol.com/software/mac/iphone/

You can keep up the AOL Mac Team at: http://macblog.aol.com

thanks!

Lee Givens
AOL Mac Product Lead; Like this Reply to this comment

(11 Comments)

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