Instant-messaging power users, rejoice: a barrier between two previously isolated realms of online chat is coming down.
A minor sidelight in the Yahoo-Google search ad deal announced Thursday is that the two companies "agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant-messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users," the companies said. They're not sharing further details at this stage, but it's safe to bet that means people on Yahoo's IM network will be able to chat with those on Google's and vice-versa.
That's a big step in the right direction.
IM is a useful if sometimes intrusive tool, especially in this day and age when the Internet has tightened ties among co-workers, family, and friends. But people and companies don't always use the same networks, meaning that power users either must run multiple IM programs or try to bridge the divide with multiprotocol packages such as Trillian, Adium, Digsby, Kopete, or Pidgin.
IM today is similar to the early days of electronic mail, when users couldn't send messages between incompatible services such as AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe. Happily, the Internet's SMTP standard for e-mail emerged victorious, and now we only need one e-mail address (leaving aside the issue of personal vs. work identities, but that's a story for another day).
A power user's plight
I'm one of those heavy IM users tormented by today's situation. I have to talk to people on Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Google Talk. It's a pain having separate usernames for each service, but much worse is looking for software that centralizes IM for me.
I recognize I'm not a representative sample of the population at large. I have 797 buddies, many of them the same people represented on multiple services.
AOL said in a statement, in effect, that I am indeed an anomaly. "We have no evidence that interoperating with other consumer IM services is of great interest to AIM users," the company said.
But I've seen the problem worsen in the years I've used IM, and I believe mainstream people will encounter this problem with greater frequency as they change jobs, graduate from schools, meet new friends, and otherwise expand their social horizons.
Walled gardens
There are signs that these days are numbered. As Internet companies race to build rich communities and services on the Web, "walled gardens" have become widely disparaged as a relic.
Yahoo, for example, has pledged to expose formerly closed parts of its business through its Yahoo Open Strategy. And AOL is opening up AIM some, for example, letting Meebo and eBuddy link up.
But it'll take awhile to convince me that the IM walls are truly coming down.
For one thing, most of the progress to date has been through interoperability agreements that permit one service to link with another. That's like CompuServe building a custom gateway to translate and route e-mail from AOL--helpful, but symptomatic of the larger problem. The more IM services there are, the more gateways each service needs to work with the others, and more services are cropping up as companies such as MySpace, Skype, and Facebook add chat abilities.
What we really need is an IM communication standard. The obvious candidate is the XMPP protocol on which Google built its service but that none of the other major players use.
Google, unsurprisingly, shares my view. "The Web is based on open standards and protocols so users can use any browser on any operating system to visit any Web site. We think the open Web model ought to apply to IM," Seth Demsey, senior product manager for Google Talk, said in a statement.
Of course, it's a lot easier for underdogs to endorse standards, and Google has 1 percent share of IM users worldwide, according to ComScore figures in April.
Interoperability isn't easy
To be fair, IM interoperability isn't an easy technical problem to tackle for mammoth services with millions of users and messages. There also are privacy issues when one service is sharing data and buddy lists with another.
More complicated are higher-level features and services that IM companies have added atop basic text chat: status messages, avatars, file transfer, voice and video chat, message forwarding to mobile phones. I think there's still value to unifying basic text chat even if higher-level features remain fragmented.
Then, of course, there are business reasons to keep things separate. Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft all display ads on their services, and AOL is trying to make its service into a foundation on which programmers will create online applications. Opening up IM connections to other services means, for example, that someone using AIM might not see the ads displayed on the AIM software.
I can't help but wonder, though, if a unified IM landscape might spur faster growth and more extensive use of IM services--factors that mean those people using popular chat software could spend even more time gazing at ads.
Other interoperability deals
There are some other interoperability deals besides the Yahoo-Google one announced Thursday. Most notably, users of Microsoft and Yahoo instant-messenger services can link up and chat if they're using recent versions of the software.
And there could be more progress on this front: "Microsoft looks forward to continuing our interoperability reach to customers worldwide," Brian Hall, Microsoft's general manager of Windows Live, said in a statement.
Users of Apple iChat can link with AIM and Google.
Google's situation is complicated, in part because it has multiple IM options. The company offers Google Talk in two incarnations: client software that can be installed on Windows machines and a gadget that runs in a Web browser. Those versions can work with any XMPP-based chat service. (They're not popular, so you probably haven't heard of them.)
Google also has Gmail chat, which runs alongside the company's Web-based e-mail service. It can work with AIM.
So tell me: Am I an anomaly because I use multiple chat networks? And how do you solve your IM needs? Does a single IM client suffice, or do you use two to cover the bases? Send an e-mail to stephen.shankland@cnet.com or share your opinion in the feedback section below.
AOL plans to launch a new program called AIM Money on Tuesday that lets programmers write applications that run in the AOL Instant Messenger buddy list--and lets programmers get a cut of any resulting revenue.
The move is made possible through use of an open interface in AIM 6.8, another new development. Version 6.8 also includes "mini-applications" that run at the bottom of the AIM buddy list window; 150 new CBS radio stations in AOL Radio; and restoration of the ability to save and import buddy lists, a feature that helps move a to a new IM identity.
As the computing industry has discovered the possibilities of applications running on the Internet, companies are rushing to curry favor with programmers hoping those companies' online offerings. Other examples of the idea are Facebook, Google and other members of the OpenSocial consortium, and the Yahoo Open Strategy.
Ultimately, richer applications can mean more users, more activity, more advertising--though the more lucrative elements of the strategy is largely rhetorical than real at this stage for many. AIM, however, has a well-populated list of active users, unlike many start-ups.
AOL announced the interface in March with its Open AIM 2.0 developer program, which lets programmers write software such as the mini-applications that plug into AIM's own chat software, bots that can communicate with humans on the network, Web-based AIM interfaces, and software that show when AIM members are available online through the service.
The revenue for programmers comes through sharing money generated by an advertisement that can appear along with programs that use the new AIM features. AOL serves advertisements using its Platform-A ad network and pays developers through PayPal.
To use the AIM API (application programming interface), developers have to use two of five AIM elements. The ad is one. The other four are bundling the AIM browser toolbar; providing access to AIM Expressions that customize the AIM interface; displaying the AIM Dashboard start page; and displaying buddy info.
AOL said Tuesday it has opened the interface to AIM Call Out, a move that will let programmers more easily build products that tap into the service for making calls over the Internet to mobile or landline phones
The Open Voice API (application programming interface) is freely available. Building it into a device, such as a phone with Internet access or with support for SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), can let people call using AOL's network and bypass much of the ordinary telephone infrastructure.
AOL charges fees for using the Call Out service, but the rates are compelling, the company argues. Calling within the United States costs 1.7 cents per minute; calling Beijing costs 1.5 cents per minute; and calling a mobile phone in the U.K. costs 20 to 25 cents per minute.
"Our offering and our rates are competitive with traditional landline and mobile carriers, as well as other VoIP carriers in the space," Brent Newsome, director of AOL's voice services, said in a statement.
The move is part of the Time Warner division's effort to expand its free AOL Instant Messaging network into revenue-generating areas. AOL has 62 million active AIM users, the company said.
It's not the only company making the move from IM to voice over Internet Protocol. Yahoo Instant Messenger, a top rival, said Tuesday it's moving off its in-house phone connection technology to that of start-up Jajah in the third quarter.
A Canadian start-up is offering a way to do local searches from within AIM or Live Messenger through a free service called Poynt.
Multipled Media's Poynt service lets you search for local businesses and view listings on a map all within the IM window. Last week, the company added the ability to search for movie listings and watch trailers.
Poynt displays local business listings on a map in Windows Live Messenger and AIM.
(Credit: Multiplied Media)It wasn't immediately obvious to me why I would want to do a local search in IM rather than toggle over to a Web browser, and an analyst agreed with me to some extent.
"It addresses a big audience that's using IM and has an instant-messaging window open all the time," said Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. "It involves a little bit of a behavior change because people aren't used to doing that through an IM window, but there's an interesting opportunity."
But we both see a lot of potential for Poynt on mobile devices, and toward that end, the company is working to enable it on BlackBerry devices in mid-2008, according to John Lowe, chief executive of Multipled Media. On mobile devices the service will use GPS (Global Positioning System) to set your location.
I gave it a spin on my computer, locating Poynt as a contact on my AIM and Live Messenger services. Once you start communicating with Poynt there are some easy-to-follow commands for using the service. You set your location using a landmark, address, city, or ZIP code.
Then you can choose SuperPages in the U.S. and Yellow Pages in Canada and search by store name or store type, or movies to see current films by theater, genre, or title. You can also see show times, cast listings, and synopsis and search for movies playing on specific dates.
The listings can be displayed on a map that opens up in an adjacent interactive window in Live Messenger (although for some reason that feature wouldn't work for me) or in a separate browser window for AIM.
Multiplied Media aims to make money off sponsored listings and a revenue share from transactions, such as buying tickets online.
The company is working on an Apple widget for the Mac and functionality on the iPhone, as well as something for Facebook. Multiplied Media also plans to add user reviews, possibly through a partnership with a provider like Yelp, Lowe said.
Despite an interoperability agreement between Microsoft's and Yahoo's IM services, the Poynt service won't work on Yahoo Messenger until the company specifically develops the capability. However, both iChat and Gmail use the AIM functionality and so Poynt is available through those interfaces, the company said.
Updated 3:50 p.m. PST to clarify that AOL was first Web chat app chosen for iPhone demo, but may not be the only one to run on it.
AOL's AIM chat application just got a major boost--it's the first "official" native Web chat application for the iPhone.
AIM on the iPhone was demonstrated earlier on Thursday at Apple's announcement of the iPhone software development kit in Cupertino, Calif.
AOL was chosen to build a test version of AIM for the iPhone in two weeks, Apple said at the event. No word on when iPhone users will be able to use it.
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The AIM on iPhone application offers a buddy list, the ability to easily toggle among multiple instant-messaging conversations with a finger swipe and the option of using a photo on your iPhone as your buddy icon.
With AIM being the top IM client, it's no wonder Apple chose AOL over Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google. But it's got to be a snub to Google, its partner on other iPhone applications.
AIM, meanwhile, is interoperable with Google Talk, so maybe I'll be able to get to my Google contacts on the iPhone like I can via Gmail.
AIM has about 50 percent of the IM market, followed by MSN/Windows Live Messenger with about 33 percent, Yahoo Messenger with about 30 percent and Google Talk with about 2.5 percent, according to Nielsen Online. The figures are close estimates based on the percentage audience each IM application has of a total unique audience. That's why the percentages of market share add up to more than 100 percent.
The long-awaited iPhone software development kit, which will be released in June, was finally unveiled Thursday.
And with it came a few applications, developed in a couple weeks by some very high-profile names in tech. Apple demonstrated seven new applications in a variety of categories: business, communications, and games.
• Touch FX: Adds Photo Booth-style effects to a photo using your finger on the iPhone touch screen. Pinch or tap to introduce fun-house mirror style effects.
• Touch Fighter: The first official game for the iPhone, developed by Apple engineers over two weeks. You fly through space and steer by using the iPhone like a pretend control wheel, with both hands on the side.
• Spore: Electronic Arts created a mobile version of the game.
• Salesforce.com management application: Salesforce.com created an application that does more than you can do with its Web-based application. For instance, it can talk to Maps to plot directions to your next appointment, figure out how many more widgets you need to sell to make your quota, and more.
• AIM: AOL made an iPhone version of the instant-messaging service. You can switch between conversations with a swipe of the finger, like if you're scrolling through photos on the iPhone. You can also upload photos from your iPhone to serve as your buddy icon.
• Medical records app: Epocrates, a maker of software for medical professionals built a native iPhone application that can access an SQL database for accessing medical information, pictures of pills, and checking for potentially harmful drug interactions.
• Super Monkey Ball: A game from Sega. A skiing game, where you hurtle down a ramp trying to get bananas, and other things. It uses the accelerometer for control, just like Tough Fighter.
See my colleague Tom Krazit's blow-by-blow chronicling of the event as it unfolded in Cupertino on Thursday morning.
CNET News.com's Tom Krazit contributed to this report.
AOL is getting a lot of credit for "opening" its ubiquitous AIM instant-messaging software "to open source." However, like Microsoft did recently by revealing documentation to its APIs and protocols, all AOL has done here is open access to OSCAR protocols necessary to create open-source implementations.
This is great, but consider just how much more AOL could have done--and for its benefit--such as open-sourcing its instant-messaging server and client software.
Think about it. What revenue does AOL protect by keeping its IM software closed? Sure, there's advertising revenue from the obnoxious ads it sprays around the client, but that is thinking far too small.
The real money is in abundance. Or in "adoption-led markets," to borrow Sun Microsystems' nomenclature.
... Read more
AOL on Wednesday announced the Open AIM 2.0 developer program, which opens up the chat network to third-party developers and services.
AOL is giving developers access to the AIM network to integrate the chat program into other applications and services, a first for the messaging service. Meebo and eBuddy are among the first partners.
The company also is rolling out a new advertising revenue-sharing platform in April called "AIM Money" in which developers of third-party applications can make money off display ads that appear next to AIM.
There are also new tools to aid developers of mobile and enterprise applications.
Major Michael Pottratz of the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center demonstrates proper fitting of the immersive binocular HARV display at the AFCEA West 2008 conference in San Diego.
(Credit: Mark Rutherford)For Army researchers looking to give robot operators new ways to "see" via unmanned ground vehicles on the battlefield one thing is clear, legacy video doesn't cut it anymore.
It's not just broadcast quality or resolution that needs improvement, but the level of "telepresence": the sense of increased situational awareness that allows a robot driver to shoot and move and make fast decisions.
One possible upgrade is the three-axis Head-Aimed Remote Viewer (HARV), a dome enclosed, three-axel gimbal-mounted camera that slews around to match operator head movement. Wherever the soldier/operator looks, the unit instantly rotates to focus on that area. The operator's visual perception through the immersive binocular display is one of actually being onboard the vehicle, according to Chatten Associates.
It's not like watching a TV screen; it's more like standing there looking through slightly tinted glasses. Head-aiming capitalizes on the visual processing capability of the human mind yielding results that are three to four times faster than an ordinary pan/tilt systems with flat panel displays, according to the company. (See videos here.)
(Credit:
Chatten Associates)
The way it stands now, operators must swerve the bot from side to side using a joystick to get a quick look around. But in this case, the operator's head position controls both the UGV sensors as well as where its weapon system is aimed. Head-aiming is twice as effective as the joystick-aiming, where tests showed that 15 percent of the hostile targets identified were actually friendly forces, according to Chatten.
The HARV includes optical and digital zoom, night vision, infrared illuminators and pointers, and stereo audio. It can also be controlled by a joystick, or a mouse control mounted on an infantryman's weapon's handgrip. This means the operator can keep his head up and not have to take his hands off his weapon.
Another attempt to improve robotic vision by Picatinny Arsenal - a super wide, fisheye lens called WARVVS (Wide Angle Robotic Vehicle Vision System). Seen here at West 2008 mounted on a SWORD UGV. A number of these units have already been delivered to Iraq and Army researchers are waiting for troop feedback on their effectiveness.
(Credit: Mark Rutherford)
(Credit:
Nintendo of America)
The Nintendo Wii launched more than a year ago, and the system is still incredibly hard to find. This long after the system started shipping, people are still camping in front of stores as soon as they hear about new shipments.
Friday morning, Nintendo of America's president and CEO, Reggie Fils-Aime, held a telephone press conference to address the continuing shortage of the Wii.
Fils-Aime said Nintendo hadn't expected as much demand for the Wii as they're getting. Since the launch, he claimed, Nintendo has almost doubled its global production from 1 million to 1.8 million Wiis per month, and tripled its workforce at Nintendo of America's North Bend, Wash., distribution center. The Nintendo president wouldn't say whether Nintendo would further increase its Wii production, but he denied any claims that Nintendo is stockpiling Wiis.
"There was no ability for us to stockpile systems in the summer for the holiday rush," Fils-Aime said. "Enough systems would make everyone, including me, much happier."
According to Fils-Aime, Wiis will be available next week at all major retailers. If past patterns are any indication, however, that "availability" will be limited to shoppers willing to camp out before stores open on Sunday or Monday morning. Since Christmas is just two weeks away, you're probably still going to have some difficulty finding a Wii.
While that seems to be the biggest hope for Christmas Wiis, Reggie also announced a raincheck program in conjunction with GamesStop to get more Wiis out to shoppers in January. Even if Wiis are out of stock, on December 20 and 21, consumers will be able to purchase them for January.
On those two days, if you put down the full retail price of the Wii at a GameStop, you'll receive a raincheck guaranteeing you a Wii in January. The rainchecks will be available only as supplies last, but Fils-Aime said GameStop has "many tens of thousands" of rainchecks available across its 3,000+ stores. Perhaps the Wii-hungry will be camping out next week to get a raincheck for a Wii next month. We'll find out by next Friday.
"We went into the launch with very high expectations," Fils-Aime said. "What we didn't expect was to throw out the whole playbook and essentially create a whole new level of sell-through for this industry. You can't plan for that."
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