This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (May 2012)

AOL Instant Messenger (abbreviated AIM) is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997. Stand-alone official AIM client software includes advertisements and is available for Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac OS, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS.^[1] The software, maintained by AOL, Inc., at one time had the largest share of the instant messaging market in North America, especially in the United States (with 52% of the total reported as of 2006).^[2] This does not include other instant messaging software related to or developed by AOL, such as ICQ and iChat. As of June 2011, one reported market share had collapsed to 0.73%.^[3] However, this number only reflects installed IM applications, and not active users.

History[link]

In September 1995, the "Buddy List" precursor to AIM was launched internally to AOL employees. In March 1996, the Buddy List was opened up to AOL subscribers running Windows 95. The buddy List feature became available to Mac users sometime later in late 1996 to mid 1997. The standalone AIM became available to non-subscribers in 1998.^[4] The release of AIM came over a decade after AOL's prior QuantumLink incarnation had offered "On-Line Messages" (OLMs) to its subscribers.

Since version 2.0, AIM has included person-to-person instant messaging, chatroom messaging, and the ability to share files peer-to-peer with buddies. Version 4.3 introduced storing user contact lists on AOL servers and allowed for a maximum of 200 buddies to be stored. Also, in the 4.x versions, the AIM client for Microsoft Windows added the ability to play games against one another using the WildTangent engine. The first version released with WildTangent did not warn the user that it was going to be installed. Newer versions do, because many spyware scanners flag WildTangent software as spyware.^[5]

The successor to AIM version 5.9 was originally named AIM Triton. Compared with version 5.9, Triton's programming code was rewritten and featured a brand new UI engine called Boxely. The first beta version of Triton (0.1.12) supported only Windows XP^[6] when released. For the first time in developing a new version of AIM, these preliminary versions were made publicly available on the AIM home page for any user to test and provide feedback.

In September 2006, Triton was renamed to AIM 6 and a new beta version was made available. This version slightly changed the UI.^{[citation needed]} The final stable version of AIM 6.0 was released on December 15. New features included connection to AIM Pages, additional customization, and compatibility with address book programs and sites through a "Universal Address Book" powered by Plaxo. Further, the upgrade unified away messages and general user updates into RSS feeds and added the ability to send messages to offline users. Certain features that were missing from the prior version were also re-added, such as global font customization and a smaller cache usage, although the Get File function has yet to return. Also new in this release was opening AIM to developers,^[7] which allowed anyone to create plug-ins or custom AIM clients for Windows, Macintosh, or Linux.

The next version, 6.1, added Buddy List docking, support for inserting images into Buddy Info, the ability to change the highlight colors of the UI, improvements in displaying Linked Screen Names, several bug fixes, and improved Windows Vista support.

Version 6.5.11.1 supports status messages (similar to away messages), and has improved cell phone integration.^[8]

In version 7.4 for Windows and version 2.1 for Mac OS, AIM added support for Facebook, allowing users to login using their Facebook ID and chat with their Facebook friends.^[9]

Version 7.5 has added the voice call option between AOL users and the ability to share photos and videos. The 7.5 version also allows people to download the program for Windows Vista. Users can now also connect their AIM account to Twitter, Foursquare and MySpace.^[10]

Protocol[link]

The standard protocol that AIM clients use to communicate is called Open System for CommunicAtion in Realtime (OSCAR). Most AOL-produced versions of AIM and popular third party AIM clients use this protocol. However, AOL also created a simpler protocol called TOC that lacks many of OSCAR's features but is sometimes used for clients that only require basic chat functionality. The TOC/TOC2 protocol specifications were made available by AOL, while OSCAR is a closed protocol that third parties have had to reverse-engineer.

In January 2008, AOL introduced experimental Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) support for AIM,^[11] allowing AIM users to communicate using the standardized, open-source XMPP. However, in March 2008, this service was discontinued.^{[citation needed]} As of May 2011, AOL offers limited XMPP support.^[12]

Terminology[link]

AIM and AOL use several terms for elements of their instant messaging that are different from other messengers. These include:

• Away message: A function of some instant messaging applications whereby a user may post a message that appears automatically to other users if they attempt to make contact when the user is unavailable. It is analogous to the voice message on an answering machine or voice mail system.
• Block: An AIM user may block a specific screen name on their buddy list. The blocked user cannot contact or see the status of the blocker. Both users in this case will always see each other as offline until the blocker "unblocks" them.
• Buddy Info: Information about the user that may be edited by the user. The user's buddies are able to view the information as a pop-up. There is a character limit that cannot be exceeded.
• Buddy List: The centerpiece of AIM, a list containing the status of up to 1000 buddies stored on an AIM server so the user can access this list from any instance of AIM. The status of the buddies can be seen as "online", "away", "idle", "mobile", or "offline".
• Direct connection: AIM users can, instead of relaying messages through the AIM server, connect to each other's computers directly via this method and send various forms of media.
• Screen name: Term for user name with AOL origins. These are available for free with registration at the AIM website, and range from 3 to 16 characters long.
• Rate limiting: This prevents a user from sending too many messages in a short amount of time. Once a user is rate limited, they are unable to send messages for about 10 seconds, though they may still receive messages during this time.
• Warning: If a user feels a received instant message is inappropriate, the recipient can "warn" the sender, which increases the sender's warning level. Warning levels reduce the rate at which users can send messages and can eventually cause a given screen name to be unable to sign on for a period of time. Since it was often abused, the feature is no longer supported in AIM Triton or AIM 6. For a while, warnings had not been disabled serverside, meaning that older AIM clients, third-party clients, or user-written add-ons may still allow users to bypass "soft" removal of warning abilities.
• AIM Closed List, Allow Only, Buddies Only, or Privacy refers to the option on the AOL Instant Messenger client to allow only users on a user's buddy list to contact them. This is to prevent harassment or spamming and is also a secure way to chat.
• Icon: Also termed an avatar, a small, personalized picture that a user can set up to appear whenever they message another user.

Privacy[link]

For privacy regulations, AIM has a strict age restrictions. AIM accounts are only available for children over the age of 13. Any children under the age will not have access to AIM.^[13]

Under the AIM Privacy Policy, AOL has no rights to read or monitor any private communications between users. Unless the conversions is posted public domains such as Chat Rooms or Message boards. The profile of the user has no privacy.^[13]

If public content is accessed it can be used for online, print or even broadcast advertising etc. This is outlined in the policy and terms of service, "you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium". This allows anything one posts to be used without the knowledge of your permission.^[13]

The question of how secure is AIM has come up to question. AOL has taken many steps in order of preventing the access from unauthorized member. However it is not guaranteed that personal information will not be accessed.^[13]

AIM is different from other clients such as Yahoo! Messenger in that it does not require approval from one buddy to be added to another's buddy list. As a result, it is possible for users to keep other unsuspecting users on their buddy list to see when they are online, read their status and away messages, and read their profiles. In fact, there is a web API to display one's status, away message as a widget on one's webpage.^[14] However, one can block another user from communicating and seeing one's status; though this does not prevent the user from creating a new account that is not blocked and therefore can still track the first user's status. A more complete privacy option is to select a menu option allowing communication only with those on one's buddy list; this causes blocking (thus appear offline to) all users not on one's buddy list.

AOL recently teamed up with Facebook, allowing you to login to AIM using your Facebook account. However, many privacy advocates claim that the convenience comes at a high price. In order to sign up for AIM Express, the more lightweight, web-based version, you must accept all of their account access stipulations. These include access to your photos, videos, messages in your inbox (including private), custom friends list, friend requests, and more. You must also allow AIM to access your account when you're offline, as well as post messages and videos on your wall. If you refuse to accept all the terms, the sign-up process stops.

New release logs all conversations and there is no opt-out.^[15]

Chat Robots[link]

AOL and various other companies supply robots on AIM that can receive messages and send a response based on the bot's purpose. For example, bots can help with studying, like StudyBuddy. Some are made to relate to children and teenagers, like Spleak, others give advice, and others are for more general purposes, such as SmarterChild. The more useful chat bots have features like the ability to play games, get sport scores, weather forecasts or financial stock information. Users were able to talk to automated chat bots that could respond to natural human language. They were primarily put into place as a marketing strategy and for unique advertising options. It was used by advertisers to market products or build better consumer relations.^[16]

Before the inclusions of such bots, the other bots DoorManBot and AIMOffline provided features that are provided today by AOL for those who needed it. ZolaOnAOL and ZoeOnAOL were short lived bots that ultimately retired their features in favor of SmarterChild. As of November 18, 2008, the SmarterChild bot for AIM was retired and is no longer offering any services, although still available through MSN.^[17]

URI scheme[link]

AOL Instant Messenger's installation process automatically installs an extra URI scheme ("protocol") handler into some web browsers, so URIs beginning "aim:" can open a new AIM window with specified parameters. This is similar in function to the mailto: URI scheme, which creates a new e-mail message using the system's default mail program. For instance, a web page might include a link like the following in its HTML source to open a window for sending a message to the AIM user notarealuser:

<a href="aim:goim?screenname=notarealuser">Send Message</a>

To specify a message body, the message parameter is used, so the link location might look like this:

aim:goim?screenname=notarealuser&message=This+is+my+message

To specify an away message, the message parameter is used, so the link location might look like this:

aim:goaway?message=Hello,+my+name+is+Bill

When placing this inside a URL link, an AIM user could click on the URL link and the away message "Hello, my name is Bill" would instantly become their away message.

To add a buddy, the addbuddy message is used, with the screenname parameter

aim:addbuddy?screenname=notarealuser

This type of link is commonly found on forum profiles, to easily add contacts

Vulnerabilities[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

AIM is known^[where?] for security weaknesses that have enabled exploits to be created that use third-party software to perform malicious acts on users' computers.^[18] Although most are relatively harmless, such as being kicked off the AIM service, others perform potentially dangerous actions such as sending viruses. Some of these exploits rely on social engineering to spread by automatically sending instant messages that contain a URL accompanied by text suggesting the receiving user click on it, an action which leads to infection. These messages can easily be mistaken as coming from a friend and contain a link to a web address that installs software on the user's computer to restart the cycle.

Users have also reported sudden additions of toolbars and advertisements from third parties in the newer version of AIM. Multiple complaints about the lack of control of third party involvement have caused many users to stop using the service.^[18] AIM has also been complained about their internet connection quality. Connection would be either inconsistent or working properly only of a few months before deteriorating severely. AIM has also been considered a slower program than most available instant messaging services. Mostly in relation to the lack of proper internet connection, service between connections has been hard to arrive quickly, especially involving sent images and videos. The interface has also been criticized as impractical and unorganized, make it user-unfriendly. Although people who have used AIM since its beginnings may have a much better grasp of how to use it, newer users would have a harder time grasping the concept of the interface.

Extra features[link]

Versions available[link]

There are five ways to access AOL instant messaging service, divided into three categories. The first category is strictly from using an internet browser. By clicking 'aim.com' on AIM's main website, it directs the user to a page, where they can access and use AIM. The Second category would be operating systems on computers. The AOL service allows AIM for Windows and AIM for Mac. This allows users to use the service on any type of operating service. The last category is mobile devices. Currently, the application is available for three systems, iPhone, and Android.^[19]

iPhone application[link]

On March 6, 2008, during Apple Inc.'s iPhone SDK event, AOL announced that they would be releasing an AIM application for iPhone and iPod Touch users. The application is available for free from the App Store, but the company also provides a paid version, which displays no advertisements. Both are available from the App Store. The AIM client for iPhone and iPod Touch supports standard AIM accounts as well as MobileMe accounts. There is also an express version of AIM accessible through the Safari browser on the iPhone and iPod Touch.^[20]

In 2011 AOL launched a massive overhaul of their Instant Messaging service. Included in the update was a brand new iOS application for iPhone and iPod Touch which incorporated all the latest features. A brand new icon was used for the application, featuring the new cursive logo for AIM. The user-interface was entirely redone for the features including: a new buddy list, group messaging, in-line photos and videos, as well as improved file-sharing.^[21]

Currently the application is in version 5.0.5, which was updated as of March 2012. In the latest iteration, it supports more social stream features, much like Facebook and Twitter, as well as the ability to send voice messages up to 60 seconds long.^[22]

iPad application[link]

On April 3, 2010 Apple released the first generation iPad. Along with this newly released device AOL released the AIM application for iPad. It was built entirely from scratch for the new version iOS with a specialized user-interface for the device. It supports geo location, Facebook status updates and chat, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and many social networking platforms.^[23]

AIM Express[link]

AIM Express runs in a pop-up browser window. It is intended for use by people who are unwilling or unable to install a standalone application or those at computers that lack the AIM application. AIM Express supports many of the standard features included in the stand-alone client, but does not provide advanced features like file transfer, audio chat, video conferencing, or buddy info. It is implemented in Adobe Flash.^[24] It is an upgrade to the prior AOL Quick Buddy, which was later available for older systems that cannot handle Express before being discontinued. Express and Quick Buddy are similar to MSN Web Messenger and Yahoo! Web Messenger.

AIM Pages[link]

AIM Pages was released in May 2006, allowing the 63 million AIM users to create an online, dynamic profile. The buddy list serves as the basis for the AIM Page social networking service. An AIM Page is built using modules following the ModuleT microformat. AIM Pages was discontinued in late 2007.

AIM for Mac[link]

AOL released an all-new AIM for the Macintosh on September 29, 2008 and the final build on December 15, 2008. The redesigned AIM for Mac is a full universal binary Cocoa API application that supports both Tiger and Leopard – Mac OS X 10.4.8 (and above) or Mac OS X 10.5.3 (and above). On October 1, 2009, AOL released AIM 2.0 for Mac.

AIM for Phoneline[link]

AIM Phoneline was a Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service^[25] provided via the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) application. It was also known to work with Apple's iChat Client.

On May 16, 2006 AOL will launch a new service for AIM. AIM Phoneline provides users the ability to have a few local number, this allows AIM users to receive incoming calls for free.^[26] The service allows users to make calls to landlines and moblie devices through the use of a computer. The service however is only free for receiving and AOL will charge a user of 14.95 a month for unlimited calling plan.^[27]

In order to use AIM Phoneline users must download the latest version of a AIM Triton software (the free one), and must have a good set of headphones that has a microphone attached. It may take several days after a user signs up before it starts working.^[27]

The service has provided users with many interfaces such as Auto Action APIs, Ringback Tone APIs and Screen Name Services API that make the AIM Phoneline a great service.^[28]

On January 13, 2009, the service was officially closed. The closing of the free service has caused the number associated with the service to be disabled and not transferrable for a different service.^[29]

AIM Call Out[link]

AIM Call Out is a discontinued Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service provided by AOL via its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) application that replaced the defunct AIM Phoneline service in November 2007.^[30] It did not depend on the AIM client and could be used with only an AIM screenname via the WebConnect feature or a dedicated SIP device. The AIM Call Out service was shut down on March 25, 2009.^[31]

AIM real-time IM[link]

A new feature has been added to AIM. The real-time IM allows users to have a better experience. This feature is available for AIM 7 and it allows a user to see what the other is typing as it is being done. This feature was developed and built with assistance from Trace Research and Development Centre at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Gallaudet University. The application provides visually impaired users the ability to convert messages from text(words) to speech.^[32]

For the application to work users must have AIM 6.8 or higher. This feature is not compatible with older versions of AIM software, AIM for Mac or iChat. Real Time IM will connect directly to a users PC and their partners PCs as well. This is a direct IM connection. For one's safety it is important to only accept connections from people you know.^[32]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official AIM website
• AOL Instant Messenger Express
• AOL Instant Messenger at the Open Directory Project

AOL Inc.

276px AOL logo featuring Eraser canvas.
Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: AOL
Industry	Internet Telecommunication Media
Founded	1983 as Control Video Corporation 1991 as America Online, Vienna, Virginia (Tysons Corner), U.S.[1] 2006 as AOL
Headquarters	New York City, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Tim Armstrong (Chairman and CEO)
Revenue	US$ 2.417 billion (2010)[2]
Operating income	US$ -983 million (2010)[2]
Net income	US$ -783 million (2010)[2]
Total assets	US$ 2.962 billion (2010)[2]
Total equity	US$ 2.287 billion (2010)[2]
Employees	5,860 (2010)[2]
Website	AOL.com AOL.com Corporate site AOL Blog AOL Corporate Communications on Twitter AOL on Twitter AOL on Facebook

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL, previously known as America Online, written as "AOL" and stylized as "Aol." but commonly pronounced as an initialism) is an American global Internet services and media company.^[3][4] AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York.^[5][6] Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services.^[7] AOL is headquartered in New York City, but has many offices throughout cities in North America, such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Beverly Hills, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Dulles, Mountain View, Orlando, San Francisco, and Toronto. London and Tokyo are its foreign offices. As of December 2011, it serves 3.3 million paid subscribers.^{[citation needed]}

AOL is best known for its online software suite, also called AOL, that allowed customers to access the world's largest "walled garden" online community and eventually reach out to the Internet as a whole. At its prime, AOL's membership was over 30 million members worldwide,^[8] most of whom accessed the AOL service through the AOL software suite. The company has claimed that it had 34 million subscribers at its peak, although an undisclosed portion were using free hours.^[9]

In 2000 AOL and Time Warner merged under the name AOL Time Warner. The merger was not fruitful and on May 28, 2009, Time Warner announced that it would spin off AOL into a separate public company. The spinoff occurred on December 9, 2009,^[10] ending the eight-year relationship between the two companies.^[11]

History[link]

Major milestones[link]

With regional branches around the world, the former American "goliath among Internet service providers"^[8] once had more than 30 million subscribers^[8] on several continents. It ranked fourth (behind the Web, email, and graphic user interfaces) in a 2007 USA TODAY retrospective on the 25 events that shaped the first 25 years of the Internet^[12] and was named to the ".com 25" by a panel of Silicon Valley influencers on the occasion of the same anniversary.^[13]

In January 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced plans to merge, forming AOL Time Warner, Inc. The terms of the deal called for AOL shareholders to own 55% of the new, combined company. The deal closed on January 11, 2001. The new company was led by executives from AOL, SBI, and Time Warner. Gerald Levin, who had served as CEO of Time Warner, was CEO of the new company. Steve Case served as Chairman, J. Michael Kelly (from AOL) was the Chief Financial Officer, Robert W. Pittman (from AOL) and Dick Parsons (from Time Warner) served as Co-Chief Operating Officers.

AOL stock went from $226 billion in 2001 to about $20 billion in 2006.^[14]

As of June 2010, AOL's subscriber base dropped to 4.4 million.^[15]

An AOL subscription was rated the "Worst Tech Product of All Time" by PC World in 2006 who stated that it had the "stigma of being the online service for people who don't know any better".^[16] AOL was rated both one of the best and worst Internet suppliers in the UK, according to a poll by BBC Watchdog.^[17]

AOL ceased to be a part of Time Warner on December 9, 2009. The company declared an IPO on that day, under the stock symbol NYSE:AOL.^[18]

In February 2011, AOL purchased The Huffington Post for $315 million.^[19] Shortly after the acquisition was announced, Huffingtonpost.com co-founder Arianna Huffington assumed the role of President and Editor-in-Chief of The AOL Huffington Post Media group. Huffington replaced David Eun.^[20] She oversees the development of all editorial content from both companies including news, technology, music and local media websites.

1980s[link]

AOL began as a short-lived venture called Control Video Corporation (or CVC), founded by Bill von Meister. Its sole product was an online service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console after von Meister's idea of buying music on demand was rejected by Warner Brothers.^[21] Subscribers bought a modem from the company for 49.95 USD and paid a one-time 15 USD setup fee. GameLine permitted subscribers to temporarily download games and keep track of high scores, at a cost of 1 USD per game. The telephone disconnected and the downloaded game would remain in GameLine's Master Module and playable until the user turned off the console or downloaded another game.

The original technical team was composed of Marc Seriff, Tom Ralston, Ken Huntsman, Janet Hunter, Dave Brown, Steve Trus, Ray Heinrich, Craig Dykstra, and Doug Coward.

In January 1983, Steve Case was hired as a marketing consultant for Control Video on the recommendation of his brother, investment banker Dan Case. In May 1983, Jim Kimsey became a manufacturing consultant for Control Video, which was near bankruptcy. Kimsey was brought in by his West Point friend Frank Caufield, an investor in the company.^[21] Von Meister quietly left the company in early 1985. Control Video was reorganized as Quantum Computer Services, Inc. on May 24, 1985, with Kimsey as Chief Executive Officer and Marc Seriff as Chief Technology Officer. Out of 100 employees from Control Video, only 10 remained in the new company.^[21] Case himself rose quickly through the ranks; Kimsey promoted him to vice-president of marketing not long after becoming CEO, and later promoted him further to executive vice-president in 1987. Kimsey soon began to groom Case to ascend to the rank of CEO, which he did when Kimsey retired in 1991.

Kimsey changed the company's strategy, and in 1985 launched a dedicated online service for Commodore 64 and 128 computers, originally called Quantum Link ("Q-Link" for short). The Quantum Link software was based on software licensed from PlayNet, Inc, (founded in 1983 by Howard Goldberg and Dave Panzl). In May 1988, Quantum and Apple launched AppleLink Personal Edition for Apple II and Macintosh computers. In August 1988, Quantum launched PC Link, a service for IBM-compatible PCs developed in a joint venture with the Tandy Corporation. After the company parted ways with Apple in October 1989, Quantum changed the service's name to America Online.^[22][23]

Steve Case positioned AOL as the online service for people unfamiliar with computers, in particular contrast to CompuServe, which had long served the technical community. The PlayNet system that AOL licensed was the first online service to require use of proprietary software, rather than a standard terminal program; as a result it was able to offer a graphical user interface (GUI) instead of command lines, and was well ahead of the competition in emphasizing communication among members as a feature.^{[citation needed]}

From the beginning, AOL included online games in its mix of products; many classic and casual games were included in the original PlayNet software system. In the early years of AOL the company introduced many innovative online interactive titles and games, including:

• Graphical chat environments Habitat (1986–1988) and Club Caribe (1988) from LucasArts.
• The first online interactive fiction series QuantumLink Serial by Tracy Reed (1988).
• Quantum Space, the first fully automated Play by email game (1989–1991).

1990s[link]

In February 1991 AOL for DOS was launched using a GeoWorks interface followed a year later by AOL for Windows. This coincided with growth in pay-based online services, like Prodigy, CompuServe, and GEnie. 1991 also saw the introduction of an original Dungeons & Dragons title called Neverwinter Nights from Stormfront Studios; it was the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) to depict the adventure with graphics instead of text.

AOL discontinued Q-Link and PC Link in the fall of 1994. In September 1993, AOL added USENET access to its features.^[24] This is commonly referred to as the "Eternal September". AOL quickly surpassed GEnie, and by the mid-1990s, it passed Prodigy (which for several years allowed AOL advertising) and CompuServe.

In particular was the Chat Room concept from PlayNet, as opposed to the previous paradigm of CB-style channels. Chat Rooms allowed a large group of people with similar interests to convene and hold conversations in real time, including:

• Private rooms – created by any user. Hold up to 23 people.
• Conference rooms – created with permission of AOL. Hold up to 48 people and often moderated.
• Auditoriums – created with permission of AOL. Consisted of a stage and an unlimited number of rows. What happened on the stage was viewable by everybody in the auditorium but what happened within individual rows, of up to 27 people, was viewable only by the people within those rows.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1990–94,^{[citation needed]} AOL launched services with the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, Pearson, Scholastic, ASCD, NSBA, NCTE, Discovery Networks, Turner Education Services (CNN Newsroom), National Public Radio, The Princeton Review, Stanley Kaplan, Barron's, Highlights for Kids, the US Department of Education, and many other education providers. AOL's offered the first real-time homework help service (the Teacher Pager—1990; prior to this, AOL provided homework help bulletin boards), the first service by kids, for kids (Kids Only Online, 1991), the first online service for parents (the Parents Information Network, 1991), the first online courses (1988), the first omnibus service for teachers (the Teachers' Information Network, 1990), the first online exhibit (Library of Congress, 1991), the first parental controls, and many other online education firsts.

The first chat room-based text role-playing game, Black Bayou. was introduced by AOL in 1996.

Originally, AOL charged its users an hourly fee, but in October 1996 this changed to a flat monthly rate of $19.95. During this time, AOL connections would be flooded with users trying to get on, and many canceled their accounts due to constant busy signals. A commercial featuring Steve Case telling people AOL was working day and night to fix the problem was made. Within three years, AOL's userbase grew to 10 million people. In 1995 AOL was headquartered at 8619 Westwood Center Drive in the Tysons Corner CDP in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia,^[25][26] near the Town of Vienna.^[27]

AOL was quickly running out of room in October 1996 for its network at the Fairfax County campus. In 1996,^{[citation needed]} AOL moved to 22000 AOL Way in Dulles, unincorporated Loudoun County, Virginia.^[28] The move to Dulles took place in mid-1996 and provided room for future growth. In a five year landmark agreement with the most popular operating system, AOL was bundled with Windows software.^{[citation needed]}

On March 31, 1997, the short-lived eWorld was purchased by AOL.

2000s[link]

In January 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced plans to merge. The terms of the deal called for AOL shareholders to own 55% of the new, combined company. The deal closed on January 11, 2001 after receiving regulatory approval from the FTC, the FCC, and the EU's COMP.^{[citation needed]}

In 2004, along with the launch of AOL 9.0 Optimized, AOL also made available the option of personalized greetings which would enable the user to hear his or her name while accessing basic functions and mail alerts, or while logging in or out.

In 2005, AOL broadcast the Live 8 concert live over the Internet, and thousands of users downloaded clips of the concert over the following months.^{[citation needed]} In late 2005, AOL released AOL Safety & Security Center,^{[citation needed]} a bundle of McAfee anti-virus, CA anti-spyware, and proprietary firewall and phishing protection software. News reports in late 2005 identified companies such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google as candidates for turning AOL into a joint venture;^[29] those plans were apparently abandoned when it was revealed on December 20, 2005 that Google would purchase a 5% share of AOL for $1 billion.

On April 3, 2006, AOL announced that it was retiring the full name "America Online"; the official name of the service became "AOL", and the full name of the TimeWarner subdivision became "AOL, LLC".^[30]

On June 8, 2006,^[31] AOL offered a new program called AOL Active Security Monitor. This is a diagnostic tool to check the local PC's security status, and recommends additional security software from AOL or Download.com. The program rated the computer on a variety of different areas of security and general computer health. Two months later,^[32] AOL released AOL Active Virus Shield. This software was developed by Kaspersky Lab. Active Virus Shield software was free and did not require an AOL account, only an internet email address. The ISP side of AOL UK was bought by The Carphone Warehouse in October 2006 to take advantage of their 100,000 LLU customers which made The Carphone Warehouse the biggest LLU provider in the UK.^[33]

On August 2006, AOL announced that they would give away email accounts and software previously available only to its paying customers provided the customer accessed AOL or AOL.com through a non-AOL-owned access method (otherwise known as "third party transit", "bring your own access", or "BYOA"). The move was designed to reduce costs associated with the "Walled Garden" business model by reducing usage of AOL-owned access points and shifting members with high-speed internet access from client-based usage to the more lucrative advertising provider, AOL.com. ^[34]The change from paid to free was also designed to slow the rate of members canceling their accounts and defecting to Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo!, or other free email providers. The other free services included:^[35]

• AIM (AOL Instant Messenger)
• AOL Video^[36] featured professional content and allowed users to upload videos as well.
• AOL Local, comprising its CityGuide,^[37] Yellow Pages^[38] and Local Search^[39] services to help users find local information like restaurants, local events, and directory listings.
• AOL News
• AOL My eAddress, a custom domain name for email addresses. These email accounts could be accessed in a manner similar to other AOL and AIM email accounts.
• Xdrive was a service offered by AOL which allowed users to back up their files over the Internet.^[40] It was closed on January 12, 2009.^[41]

According to AOL CEO Randy Falco, as of December 2007, the conversion rate of accounts from paid access to free access was over 80%.^[42]. Later in August 2006, AOL informed its American customers that it would be increasing the price of its dial-up access to US$25.90. The increase was part of an effort to migrate the service's remaining dial-up users to broadband, as the increased price was the same price they had been charging for monthly DSL access.^[43] However, AOL has since started offering their services for $9.95 a month for unlimited dial-up access.^[44]

On September 17, 2007, AOL announced that it was moving one of its corporate headquarters from Dulles, Virginia to New York City^[45] and combining its various advertising units into a new subsidiary called Platform A. This action followed several advertising acquisitions, most notably Advertising.com, and highlighted the company's new focus on advertising-driven business models. AOL management stressed that "significant operations" will remain in Dulles, which included the company's access services and modem banks.

In October 2007, AOL announced that it would move one of its other headquarters from Loudoun County, Virginia to New York City; it would continue to operate its Virginia offices.^[6] As part of the impending move to New York and the restructuring of responsibilities at the Dulles headquarters complex after the Reston move, AOL CEO Randy Falco announced on October 15, 2007 plans to lay off 2000 employees worldwide by the end of 2007, beginning "immediately".^[46]. The end result was a near 40% layoff across the board at AOL.

By November 2007, its customer base had been reduced to 10.1 million subscribers,^[47] just narrowly ahead of Comcast and AT&T Yahoo!.

On January 3, 2008, AOL announcing the closing one of its three Northern Virginia data centers, Reston Technology Center, and sold it to CRG West.^[48]

On February 6, 2008, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes announced that Time Warner would split AOL's internet access and advertising businesses into two, with the possibility of later selling the internet access division.^[49]

On March 13, 2008, AOL purchased the social networking site Bebo for $850m (£417m).^[50] On July 25, 2008 AOL announced it was shedding Xdrive, AOL Pictures, and BlueString to save on costs and focus on its core advertising business.^[51] AOL Pictures was terminated on December 31, 2008. On October 31, 2008, AOL Hometown (a web hosting service for the websites of AOL customers) and the AOL Journal blog hosting service were eliminated,^[52] after first announcing the impending shutdown on September 30, 2008^[53]

On March 12, 2009, Tim Armstrong, formerly with Google, was named Chairman and CEO of AOL.^[54]

On May 28, 2009, Time Warner announced that it would spin AOL off as an independent company once Google's shares ceased at the end of the fiscal year, and AOL's page and logo changed afterward.^[55]

On June 11, 2009, AOL announced the acquisition of Patch Media, a community-specific news and information that focuses on individual towns and communities. ^[56]

On November 23, 2009, AOL unveiled a sneak preview of a new brand identity which has the a wordmark Aol logo superimposed onto canvases created by commissioned artists. The new identity, designed by Wolff Olins,^[57] was enacted onto all of AOL's services on December 10, 2009.

The New AOL[link]

On December 10, 2009, AOL traded independently for the first time since the Time Warner merger on the NYSE under the symbol AOL. ^[58]

On April 6, 2010, AOL announced that they were planning to shut down or sell Bebo. This has been successfully concluded but with a huge loss on investment.^[59] On June 16, 2010, AOL sold Bebo to Criterion Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount, believed to be around $10 million. ^[60]

On September 28, 2010, at the San Francisco TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, AOL signed an agreement to acquire TechCrunch to further its overall strategy of providing premier online content.^[61][62]

In December 2010, AIM eliminated access to AOL chat rooms noting a marked decline of patronage in recent months. ^[63] On December 12, 2010, AOL acquired about.me, a personal profile/identity platform, 4 days after public launch. ^[64]

On January 31, 2011, AOL announced the acquisition of European video distribution network, goviral. ^[65] On February 7, 2011, AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315 million.^[66]

On March 10, 2011, AOL announced it will cut around 900 workers in the wake of the Huffington Post deal.^[67]

On September 14, 2011, AOL formed a strategic ad selling partnership with two of its largest competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft.^[68]

On March 15, 2012, AOL announced the acquisition of Hipster, a mobile photo sharing app for an undisclosed amount. ^[69]

On April 9, 2012, AOL announced a deal to sell 800 patents to Microsoft for $1.056 billion. The deal includes a "perpetual" license for AOL to use these patents. ^[70]

On April 24, 2012 the company launched the AOL On network, a single web site for its video output.^[71]

Controversies[link]

This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. Its Criticism section may compromise the article's neutral point of view of the subject. Tagged since September 2009. It may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Tagged since September 2009.

Community leaders[link]

Prior to mid-2005, AOL used online volunteers called Community Leaders, or CLs, to monitor chatrooms, message boards, and libraries. AOL's use of remote volunteers dated back to the establishment of its Quantum Link service in 1985. Some community leaders were recruited for content design and maintenance using a proprietary language and interface called RAINMAN, although most content maintenance was performed by partner and internal employees.

Two former community leaders, Brian Williams of Dallas and Kelly Hallissey of New York filed a class action lawsuit against AOL citing violations of U.S. labor laws in its use of community leaders. The lawsuit was filed in the United States Federal Courthouse, New York City on May 25, 1999 which subsequently was followed by the dismissal of all community leaders under the age of 18 years old as well as a reorganization of the community leader program as a whole. The Department of Labor was also investigating AOL's alleged labor law violations, but came to no conclusion closing their investigation in 2001.^[72] AOL began drastically reducing the responsibilities and privileges of its volunteers in 2000. The program was eventually ended on June 8, 2005. Current Community Leaders at the time were offered 12 months of credit on their accounts in thanks for their service.

Within one decade of the class action lawsuit being filed, the class had grown to over 6,000 members citing the largest class action lawsuit ever filed against an internet based company. Currently it is the third largest class ever involved in any lawsuit on a federal level in the United States, affecting ultimately the employment eligibility of individuals in an online environment.

In February 2010, a settlement was approved by the Courts in the class action suit. The settlement included a $15 million USD payment. This payment was then divided by one third, the first of which was attorney and legal fees. Five Million was then divided among the included members of the class which consisted of more than 7,000 individual former Community Leaders. The final five million dollars was donated to charities hand picked by Hallissey and Williams then approved by the Courts for distribution. One such charity, The Remote Area Medical Foundation (www.ramusa.org), received payments in excess of $1.2 million USD for the provision of medical services, supplies and medication for those in need within the more rural areas of the United States and beyond.

Prior to the 1999 class action lawsuit, the community leaders were informed of a change in compensation for duties performed by AOL. Community leaders would be charged a reduced rate per month for their accounts and no longer would be given unlimited access without invoice. During this live announcement via an online meeting of all community leaders in a virtual arena, Brian Williams of Dallas led many community leaders in a virtual "strike" or "sit-in" to protest the new charges the community leaders were being asked to now pay. This protest or strike is noted as the first of its kind for an online environment and was nicknamed for the row of the arena it was held in; Row 800. Following the protest, AOL terminated the online working relationship between itself and several of the Community Leaders involved. Quickly following the release of these community leaders was the reinstatement of each one terminated with exception to Williams, which AOL was not willing to review due to the role he played within the cause of the protest. During this time, Williams role on AOL was that of Guide XNT (Guide Program), CB Naked (Crystal Ball forum), VnV Naked (iVillage's Vices and Virtues Forum) and JCommBrian (Jewish Community Online Forum).

Billing disputes[link]

AOL has faced a number of lawsuits over claims that it has been slow to stop billing customers after their accounts have been canceled, either by the company or the user. In addition, AOL changed its method of calculating used minutes in response to a class action lawsuit. Previously, AOL would add 15 seconds to the time a user was connected to the service and round up to the next whole minute (thus, a person who used the service for 11 minutes and 46 seconds would be charged for 13 minutes). AOL claimed this was to account for sign on/sign off time, but because this practice was not made known to its customers, the plaintiffs won (some also pointed out that signing on and off did not always take 15 seconds, especially when connecting via another ISP). AOL disclosed its connection-time calculation methods to all of its customers and credited them with extra free hours. In addition, the AOL software would notify the user of exactly how long they were connected and how many minutes they were being charged.

AOL was sued by the Ohio Attorney General in October 2003 for improper billing practices. The case was settled on June 8, 2005. AOL agreed to resolve any consumer complaints filed with the Ohio AG's office. In December 2006, AOL agreed to provide restitution to Florida consumers to settle the case filed against them by the Florida Attorney General.^[73]

Account cancellation[link]

Many customers complained that AOL personnel ignored their demands to cancel service and stop billing. In response to approximately 300 consumer complaints, the New York Attorney General's office began an inquiry of AOL's customer service policies.^{[citation needed]} The investigation revealed that the company had an elaborate scheme for rewarding employees who purported to retain or "save" subscribers who had called to cancel their Internet service. In many instances, such retention was done against subscribers' wishes, or without their consent. Under the scheme, consumer service personnel received bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars if they could successfully dissuade or "save" half of the people who called to cancel service.^{[citation needed]} For several years, AOL had instituted minimum retention or "save" percentages, which consumer representatives were expected to meet. These bonuses, and the minimum "save" rates accompanying them, had the effect of employees not honoring cancellations, or otherwise making cancellation unduly difficult for consumers.

On August 24, 2005, America Online agreed to pay $1.25 million to the state of New York and reformed its customer service procedures. Under the agreement, AOL would no longer require its customer service representatives to meet a minimum quota for customer retention in order to receive a bonus.^[74] However the agreement only covered people in the state of New York.^[9]

On June 13, 2006, Vincent Ferrari documented his account cancellation phone call in a blog post,^[75] stating he had switched to broadband years earlier. In the recorded phone call, the AOL representative refused to cancel the account unless the 30-year-old Ferrari explained why AOL hours were still being recorded on it. Ferrari insisted that AOL software was not even installed on the computer. When Ferrari demanded that the account be canceled regardless, the AOL representative asked to speak with Ferrari's father, for whom the account had been set up. The conversation was aired on CNBC. When CNBC reporters tried to have an account on AOL cancelled, they were hung up on immediately and it ultimately took more than 45 minutes to cancel the account.^[76]

On July 19, 2006, AOL's entire retention manual was released on the Internet.^[77] On August 3, 2006, Time Warner announced that the company would be dissolving AOL's retention centers due to its profits hinging on $1 billion in cost cuts. The company estimated that it would lose more than six million subscribers over the following year.^[78]

Direct marketing of disks[link]

Prior to 2006, AOL was infamous for the unsolicited mass direct mail of CD-ROMs and 3½" floppy disks containing their software. They were the most frequent user of this marketing tactic, and received criticism for the environmental cost of the campaign.^[79] According to PC World, in the 1990s "you couldn't open a magazine (PC World included) or your mailbox without an AOL disk falling out of it".^[9]

The mass distribution of these disks was seen as wasteful by the public and led to protest groups. One such was No More AOL CDs, a web-based effort by two IT workers^[80] to collect one million disks with the intent to return the disks to AOL.^[81] The website was started in August 2001, and an estimated 410,176 CDs were collected by August 2007 when the project was shut down.^[81] AOL CDs were recognized as No.1 on PCWorld's top ten list of most annoying tech products.^[82]

Software[link]

• In 2000, AOL was served with an $8 billion lawsuit alleging that its AOL 5.0 software caused significant difficulties for users attempting to use third-party Internet service providers. The lawsuit sought damages of up to $1000 for each user that had downloaded the software cited at the time of the lawsuit. AOL later agreed to a settlement of $15 million, without admission of wrongdoing.^[83] The AOL software then was given a feature called AOL Dialer, or AOL Connect on Mac OS X. This feature allowed users to connect to the ISP without running the full interface. This allowed users to use only the applications they wish to use, especially if they do not favor the AOL Browser.
• AOL 9.0 was once identified by Stopbadware as being under investigation^[84] for installing additional software without disclosure, and modifying browser preferences, toolbars, and icons. However, as of the release of AOL 9.0 VR (Vista Ready) on January 26, 2007, it was no longer considered badware due to changes AOL made in the software.^[85]

Usenet newsgroups[link]

When AOL gave clients access to Usenet in 1993, they hid at least one newsgroup in standard list view: alt.aol-sucks. AOL did list the newsgroup in the alternative description view, but changed the description to "Flames and complaints about America Online". With AOL clients swarming Usenet newsgroups, the old, existing user base started to develop a strong distaste for both AOL and its clients, referring to the new state of affairs as Eternal September.^[86]

AOL discontinued access to Usenet on June 25, 2005.^[87] No official details were provided as to the cause of decommissioning Usenet access, except providing users the suggestion to access Usenet services from a third-party, Google Groups. AOL then provided community-based message boards in lieu of Usenet.

Terms of Service (TOS)[link]

AOL has a detailed set of guidelines and expectations for users on their service, known as the Terms of Service (TOS, also known as Conditions of Service, or COS in the UK). It is separated into three different sections: Member Agreement, Community Guidelines and Privacy Policy.^[88][89] All three agreements are presented to users at time of registration and digital acceptance is achieved when they access the AOL service.

There have been many complaints over rules that govern an AOL user's conduct. Some users disagree with the TOS, citing the guidelines are too strict to follow coupled with the fact the TOS may change without users being made aware. A considerable cause for this was likely due to alleged censorship of user-generated content during the earlier years of growth for AOL.^{[90][91][92][93]}

Certified email[link]

In early 2005, AOL stated its intention to implement a certified email system called Goodmail, which will allow companies to send email to users with whom they have pre-existing business relationships, with a visual indication that the email is from a trusted source and without the risk that the email messages might be blocked or stripped by spam filters.

This decision drew fire from MoveOn, which characterized the program as an "email tax", and the EFF, which characterized it as a shakedown of non-profits.^[94] A website called Dearaol.com^[95] was launched, with an online petition and a blog that garnered hundreds of signatures from people and organizations expressing their opposition to AOL's use of Goodmail.

Esther Dyson defended the move in a New York Times editorial saying "I hope Goodmail succeeds, and that it has lots of competition. I also think it and its competitors will eventually transform into services that more directly serve the interests of mail recipients. Instead of the fees going to Goodmail and EON, they will also be shared with the individual recipients."^[96]

Other members of the antispam and blogging community were broadly critical of moveon.org and the EFF's attempts to characterize this as a "shakedown".^{[citation needed]}

Tim Lee of the Technology Liberation Front^[97] posted an article that questioned the EFF's adopting a confrontational posture when dealing with private companies. Lee's article cited a series of discussions^[98] on Declan McCullagh's Politechbot mailing list on this subject between the EFF's Danny O'Brien and antispammer Suresh Ramasubramanian, who has also compared^[99] the EFF's tactics in opposing Goodmail to tactics used by Republican political strategist Karl Rove. Spamassassin developer Justin Mason posted some criticism of the EFF's and Moveon's "going overboard" in their opposition to the scheme.

The dearaol.com campaign lost momentum and disappeared, with the last post to the now defunct dearaol.com blog—"AOL starts the shakedown" being made on May 9, 2006.

Comcast, who also used the service, announced on its website that Goodmail had ceased operations and as of February 4, 2011 they no longer used the service.^[100]

Search data[link]

On August 4, 2006, AOL released a compressed text file on one of its websites containing 20 million search keywords for over 650,000 users over a 3-month period between March 1, 2006 and May 31, intended for research purposes. AOL pulled the file from public access by August 7, but not before its wide distribution on the Internet by others. Derivative research, titled A Picture of Search^[101] was published by authors Pass, Chowdhury and Torgeson for The First International Conference on Scalable Information Systems.^[102]

The data were used by Web sites such as AOLstalker^[103] for entertainment purposes, where users of AOLstalker are encouraged to judge AOL clients based on the humorousness of personal details revealed by search behavior.

User list exposure[link]

In 2005, Jason Smathers, an AOL employee, was convicted of stealing America Online's 92 million screen names and selling them to known spammers.^[104][105]

Company purchases[link]

Notable people[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• AOL
• AOL mobile
• AOL Trademark List – list of major trademarks owned by AOL
• AOL CD Collecting Site has the only published book on AOL Disk Collecting with older CD versions available
• Organizational Chart of AOL, from wikiorgcharts.com
• Nieman Journalism Lab. "AOL". Encyclo: an encyclopedia of the future of news. http://www.niemanlab.org/encyclo/aol. Retrieved 1 April 2012. 

International Sites[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

A buddy list in Pidgin 2.0

Instant messaging (IM) is a form of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver. In push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients, instant messaging basically offers real-time direct written language-based online chat. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet. It may address point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers. More advanced instant messaging allows enhanced modes of communication, such as live voice or video calling, video chat and inclusion of hyperlinks to media.

Definition[link]

Instant messaging falls under the umbrella term online chat, since it is also text-based, bi-directionally exchanged, and happens in real-time. IM is distinct from chat in that IM is based on clients that facilitate connections between specified known users (often using a contact list, buddy list, or friend list). Online 'chat' includes web-based applications that allow communication between (often directly addressed, but anonymous) users in a multi-user environment.

Overview[link]

Instant messaging is a set of communication technologies used for text-based communication between two or more participants over the Internet or other types of networks. IM–chat happens in real-time. Of importance is that online chat and instant messaging differ from other technologies such as email due to the perceived quasi-synchronicity of the communications by the users. Some systems permit messages to be sent to users not then 'logged on' (offline messages), thus removing some differences between IM and email (often done by sending the message to the associated email account).

IM allows effective and efficient communication, allowing immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. However IM is basically not necessarily supported by transaction control. In many cases, instant messaging includes added features which can make it even more popular. For example, users may see each other via webcams, or talk directly for free over the Internet using a microphone and headphones or loudspeakers. Many client programs allow file transfers, although they are usually limited in the permissible file-size.

It is usually possible to save a text conversation for later reference. Instant messages are often logged in a local message history, making it similar to the persistent nature of emails.

History[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012)

Command-line Unix "talk", using a split screen user interface, was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Instant messaging predates the Internet, first appearing on multi-user operating systems like Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) and Multiplexed Information and Computing Service (Multics)^[1] in the mid-1960s. Initially, some of these systems were used as notification systems for services like printing, but quickly were used to facilitate communication with other users logged in to the same machine. As networks developed, the protocols spread with the networks. Some of these used a peer-to-peer protocol (e.g. talk, ntalk and ytalk), while others required peers to connect to a server (see talker and IRC). The Zephyr Notification Service (still in use at some institutions) was invented at MIT's Project Athena in the 1980s to allow service providers to locate and send messages to users. During the bulletin board system (BBS) phenomenon that peaked during the 1980s, some systems incorporated chat features which were similar to instant messaging; Freelancin' Roundtable was one prime example. The first^[2] dedicated online chat service was the CompuServe CB Simulator in 1980,^[3] created by CompuServe executive Alexander "Sandy" Trevor in Columbus, Ohio.

Early instant messaging programs were primarily real-time text, where characters appeared as they were typed. This includes the Unix "talk" command line program, which was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some BBS chat programs (i.e. Celerity BBS) also used a similar interface. Modern implementations of real-time text also exist in instant messengers, such as AOL's Real-Time IM^[4] as an optional feature.^[5]

In the latter half of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the Quantum Link online service for Commodore 64 computers offered user-to-user messages between concurrently connected customers, which they called "On-Line Messages" (or OLM for short), and later "FlashMail." (Quantum Link later became America Online and made AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), discussed later). While the Quantum Link service ran on a Commodore 64, using only the Commodore's PETSCII text-graphics, the screen was visually divided into sections and OLMs would appear as a yellow bar saying "Message From:" and the name of the sender along with the message across the top of whatever the user was already doing, and presented a list of options for responding.^[6] As such, it could be considered a type of graphical user interface (GUI), albeit much more primitive than the later Unix, Windows and Macintosh based GUI IM software. OLMs were what Q-Link called "Plus Services" meaning they charged an extra per-minute fee on top of the monthly Q-Link access costs.

Modern, Internet-wide, GUI-based messaging clients as they are known today, began to take off in the mid 1990s with PowWow, ICQ, and AOL Instant Messenger. Similar functionality was offered by CU-SeeMe in 1992; though primarily an audio/video chat link, users could also send textual messages to each other. AOL later acquired Mirabilis, the authors of ICQ; a few years later ICQ (now owned by AOL) was awarded two patents for instant messaging by the U.S. patent office. Meanwhile, other companies developed their own software; (Excite, MSN, Ubique, and Yahoo!), each with its own proprietary protocol and client; users therefore had to run multiple client applications if they wished to use more than one of these networks. In 1998, IBM released IBM Lotus Sametime, a product based on technology acquired when IBM bought Haifa-based Ubique and Lexington-based Databeam.

In 2000, an open source application and open standards-based protocol called Jabber was launched. The protocol was standardized under the name Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). XMPP servers could act as gateways to other IM protocols, reducing the need to run multiple clients. Multi-protocol clients can use any of the popular IM protocols by using additional local libraries for each protocol. IBM Lotus Sametime's November 2007 release added IBM Lotus Sametime Gateway support for XMPP.

As of 2010, social networking providers often offer IM abilities.

Many instant messaging services offer video calling features, voice over IP and web conferencing services. Web conferencing services can integrate both video calling and instant messaging abilities. Some instant messaging companies are also offering desktop sharing, IP radio, and IPTV to the voice and video features.

The term "Instant Messenger" is a service mark of Time Warner^[7] and may not be used in software not affiliated with AOL in the United States. For this reason, in April 2007, the instant messaging client formerly named Gaim (or gaim) announced that they would be renamed "Pidgin".^[8]

Clients[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012)

Each modern IM service generally provides its own client, either a separately installed piece of software, or a browser-based client. These usually only work with the supplier company's service, although some allow limited function with other services. Third party client software applications exist that will connect with most of the major IM services. Adium, Empathy, Meebo, Miranda IM, Pidgin, Qnext and Trillian are a few of the common ones.

Interoperability[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012)

Pidgin's tabbed chat window in Linux

Standard complementary instant messaging applications offer functions like file transfer, contact list(s), the ability to hold several simultaneous conversations, etc. These may be all the functions that a small business needs, but larger organizations will require more sophisticated applications that can work together. The solution to finding applications capable of this is to use enterprise versions of instant messaging applications. These include titles like XMPP, Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Communicator, etc., which are often integrated with other enterprise applications such as workflow systems. These enterprise applications, or enterprise application integration (EAI), are built to certain constraints, namely storing data in a common format.

There have been several attempts to create a unified standard for instant messaging: IETF's Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), Application Exchange (APEX), Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol (IMPP), the open XML-based Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), and Open Mobile Alliance's Instant Messaging and Presence Service developed specifically for mobile devices.

Most attempts at producing a unified standard for the major IM providers (AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft) have failed, and each continues to use its own proprietary protocol.

However, while discussions at IETF were stalled, Reuters signed the first inter-service provider connectivity agreement on September 2003. This agreement enabled AIM, ICQ and MSN Messenger users to talk with Reuters Messaging counterparts and vice-versa. Following this, Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL agreed to a deal in which Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005 users would also have the possibility to talk to public instant messaging users. This deal established SIP/SIMPLE as a standard for protocol interoperability and established a connectivity fee for accessing public instant messaging groups or services. Separately, on October 13, 2005, Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that by the 3rd quarter of 2006 they would interoperate using SIP/SIMPLE, which was followed, in December 2005, by the AOL and Google strategic partnership deal in which Google Talk users would be able to communicate with AIM and ICQ users provided they have an AIM account.

There are two ways to combine the many disparate protocols:

• Combine the many disparate protocols inside the IM client application.
• Combine the many disparate protocols inside the IM server application. This approach moves the task of communicating with the other services to the server. Clients need not know or care about other IM protocols. For example, LCS 2005 Public IM Connectivity. This approach is popular in XMPP servers; however, the so-called transport projects suffer the same reverse engineering difficulties as any other project involved with closed protocols or formats.

Some approaches allow organizations to deploy their own, private instant messaging network by enabling them to restrict access to the server (often with the IM network entirely behind their firewall) and administer user permissions. Other corporate messaging systems allow registered users to also connect from outside the corporation LAN, by using an encrypted, firewall-friendly, HTTPS-based protocol. Usually, a dedicated corporate IM server has several advantages, such as pre-populated contact lists, integrated authentication, and better security and privacy.

Certain networks have made changes to prevent them from being used by such multi-network IM clients. For example, Trillian had to release several revisions and patches to allow its users to access the MSN, AOL, and Yahoo! networks, after changes were made to these networks. The major IM providers usually cite the need for formal agreements, and security concerns as reasons for making these changes.

The use of proprietary protocols has meant that many instant messaging networks have been incompatible and users have been unable to reach users on other networks. This has cost the instant messaging format dearly.^[9]

Mobile instant messaging[link]

Mobile instant messaging (MIM) is the technology that allows instant messaging services to be accessed from a portable device, ranging from standard mobile phones, to smartphones (e.g. devices using operating systems such as Android, Blackberry OS, iOS, Symbian OS, Windows Phone, et al.). It is done two ways:

• Embedded clients – tailored IM client for every specific device.
• Clientless platform – a browser-based application that does not need to download any software to the handset, and which enables all users and all devices from any network to connect to their Internet IM service, ideally. In practice, browser limits can pose problems.

In web browser[link]

Gmail introduced instant messaging ability in its webpages, which can be used in a web browser with no need to download and install the IM client. Later, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail also implemented this. Several independent SaaS providers offers instant messaging of different IM services. Generally such services are limited to text chat, although Gmail has voice and video abilities, and Yahoo! Doodle incorporates a multi-color drawing pad. As of August 2010, Gmail allows calling regular phones from their web-based IM client.

Interface (chat) is a Browser Chat Addon for the Dooble Web Browser to chat serverless and fully distributed.

Friend-to-friend networks[link]

Instant messaging may be done in a friend-to-friend network, in which each node connects to the friends on the friends list. This allows for communication with friends of friends and for the building of chatrooms for instant messages with all friends on that network.

IM language[link]

Users sometimes make use of internet slang or text speak to abbreviate common words or expressions to quicken conversations or reduce keystrokes. The language has become widespread, with well-known expressions such as 'lol' translated over to face-to-face language.

Emotions are often expressed in shorthand, such as the abbreviation LOL, BRB and TTYL; respectively laugh(ing) out loud, be right back, and talk to you later.

Some, however, attempt to be more accurate with emotional expression over IM. Real time reactions such as (chortle) (snort) (guffaw) or (eye-roll) are becoming more popular. Also there are certain standards that are being introduced into mainstream conversations including, '#' indicates the use of sarcasm in a statement and '*' which indicates a spelling mistake and/or grammatical error in the prior message, followed by a correction.^[10]

Business application[link]

Instant messaging has proven to be similar to personal computers, email, and the World Wide Web, in that its adoption for use as a business communications medium was driven primarily by individual employees using consumer software at work, rather than by formal mandate or provisioning by corporate information technology departments. Tens of millions of the consumer IM accounts in use are being used for business purposes by employees of companies and other organizations.

In response to the demand for business-grade IM and the need to ensure security and legal compliance, a new type of instant messaging, called "Enterprise Instant Messaging" ("EIM") was created when Lotus Software launched IBM Lotus Sametime in 1998. Microsoft followed suit shortly thereafter with Microsoft Exchange Instant Messaging, later created a new platform called Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, and released Office Communications Server 2007 in October 2007. Oracle Corporation has also jumped into the market recently with its Oracle Beehive unified collaboration software.^[11] Both IBM Lotus and Microsoft have introduced federation between their EIM systems and some of the public IM networks so that employees may use one interface to both their internal EIM system and their contacts on AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! As of 2010, leading EIM platforms include IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Communications Server, Jabber XCP and Cisco Unified Presence. Industry-focused EIM platforms as Reuters Messaging and Bloomberg Messaging also provide enhanced IM abilities to financial services companies.

The adoption of IM across corporate networks outside of the control of IT organizations creates risks and liabilities for companies who do not effectively manage and support IM use. Companies implement specialized IM archiving and security products and services to mitigate these risks and provide safe, secure, productive instant messaging abilities to their employees.

Review of products[link]

IM products can usually be categorised into two types: Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM)^[12] and Consumer Instant Messaging (CIM).^[13] Enterprise solutions use an internal IM server, however this isn't always feasible, particularly for smaller businesses with limited budgets. The second option, using a CIM provides the advantage of being inexpensive to implement and has little need for investing in new hardware or server software.

For corporate use, encryption and conversation archiving are usually regarded as important features due to security concerns. Sometimes the use of different operating systems in organizations requires use of software that supports more than one platform. For example many software companies use Windows XP in administration departments but have software developers who use Linux.

A company with Windows network could use a software application like ShixxNOTE^[14] which is a network-enabled sticky notes program. Every computer on the network listens for new messages which when found are presented to the user like colorfull desktop sticky notes via which a reply can be sent instantly.

Risks and liabilities[link]

Although instant messaging delivers many benefits, it also carries with it certain risks and liabilities, particularly when used in workplaces. Among these risks and liabilities are:

• Security risks (e.g. IM used to infect computers with spyware, viruses, trojans, worms)
• Compliance risks
• Inappropriate use
• Trade secret leakage

Security risks[link]

Crackers (malicious "hacker" or black hat hacker) have consistently used IM networks as vectors for delivering phishing attempts, "poison URLs", and virus-laden file attachments from 2004 to the present, with over 1100 discrete attacks listed by the IM Security Center^[15] in 2004–2007. Hackers use two methods of delivering malicious code through IM: delivery of viruses, trojan horses, or spyware within an infected file, and the use of "socially engineered" text with a web address that entices the recipient to click on a URL connecting him or her to a website that then downloads malicious code. Viruses, computer worms, and trojans usually propagate by sending themselves rapidly through the infected user's contact list. An effective attack using a poisoned URL may reach tens of thousands of users in a short period when each user's contact list receives messages appearing to be from a trusted friend. The recipients click on the web address, and the entire cycle starts again. Infections may range from nuisance to criminal, and are becoming more sophisticated each year.

IM connections usually occur in plain text, making them vulnerable to eavesdropping. Also, IM client software often requires the user to expose open UDP ports to the world, raising the threat posed by potential security vulnerabilities.^[16]

Compliance risks[link]

In addition to the malicious code threat, the use of instant messaging at work also creates a risk of non-compliance to laws and regulations governing use of electronic communications in businesses. In the United States alone there are over 10,000 laws and regulations related to electronic messaging and records retention.^[17] The better-known of these include the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, HIPAA, and SEC 17a-3. Clarification from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) was issued to member firms in the financial services industry in December, 2007, noting that "electronic communications", "email", and "electronic correspondence" may be used interchangeably and can include such forms of electronic messaging as instant messaging and text messaging.^[18] Changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, effective December 1, 2006, created a new category for electronic records which may be requested during discovery in legal proceedings. Most nations also regulate use of electronic messaging and electronic records retention in similar fashion as the United States. The most common regulations related to IM at work involve the need to produce archived business communications to satisfy government or judicial requests under law. Many instant messaging communications fall into the category of business communications that must be archived and retrievable.

Inappropriate use[link]

Organizations of all types must protect themselves from the liability of their employees' inappropriate use of IM. The informal, immediate, and ostensibly anonymous nature of instant messaging makes it a candidate for abuse in the workplace. The topic of inappropriate IM use became front page news in October 2006 when U.S. Congressman Mark Foley resigned his seat after admitting sending offensive instant messages of a sexual nature to underage former House pages from his Congressional office PC. The Mark Foley Scandal led to media coverage and mainstream newspaper articles warning of the risks of inappropriate IM use in workplaces. In most nations, corporations have a legal responsibility to ensure harassment-free work environment for employees. The use of corporate-owned computers, networks, and software to harass an individual or spread inappropriate jokes or language creates a liability for not only the offender but also the employer. A survey by IM archiving and security provider Akonix Systems, Inc. in March 2007 showed that 31% of respondents had been harassed over IM at work.^[19] Companies now include instant messaging as an integral component of their policies on appropriate use of the World Wide Web, email, and other corporate assets.

Security and archiving[link]

In the early 2000s, a new class of IT security provider emerged to provide remedies for the risks and liabilities faced by corporations who chose to use IM for business communications. The IM security providers created new products to be installed in corporate networks for the purpose of archiving, content-scanning, and security-scanning IM traffic moving in and out of the corporation. Similar to the e-mail filtering vendors, the IM security providers focus on the risks and liabilities described above.

With rapid adoption of IM in the workplace, demand for IM security products began to grow in the mid-2000s. By 2007, the preferred platform for the purchase of security software had become the "computer appliance", according to IDC, who estimate that by 2008, 80% of network security products will be delivered via an appliance.^[20]

User base[link]

Many of the numbers listed in this section are not directly comparable, and some are speculative. While some numbers are given by the owners of a complete instant messaging system, others are provided by commercial vendors of a part of a distributed system. Some companies may be motivated to inflate their numbers to raise advertising earnings or attract partners, clients, or customers. Importantly, some numbers are reported as the number of active users (with no shared standard of that activity), others indicate total user accounts, while others indicate only the users logged in during an instance of peak use.

See also[link]

• Ambient awareness
• Chat room
• Comparison of instant messaging clients
• Comparison of instant messaging protocols
• Forums
• Think Tanks
• Instant messaging manager
• IRC
• LAN messenger
• Mail.ru
• Microblogging
• Nudge (instant messaging)
• Operator messaging
• Social media
• Text messaging
• Unified communications
• Usage share of instant messaging clients

References[link]

External links[link]

• Instant Messaging at the Open Directory Project
• "Global Instant Messaging Market Share" – CC-Licensed market share data.
• IM and LAN messengers List of IM and LAN messaging software

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. It includes attribution to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2008)

Nick Thune
File:Nick Thune.jpg Performing at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles, January 2010
Born	(1979-12-08) December 8, 1979 (age 32) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Website
NickThune.com

Nick Thune (born December 8, 1979) is an American actor, comedian, and musician.

Thune was born in Seattle, Washington^[1] to parents Erik and Cindy Thune and lived in South Africa for most of his childhood. He has one sister and twin brothers. At age 24, Thune moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career in stand up and has been gaining popularity. He has performed on The Tonight Show eight times, and was featured in a Comedy Central Presents special in 2007.^[2] Aside from numerous stand up gigs, he has also landed small but memorable roles in movies such as Knocked Up and Unaccompanied Minors.^[1]

In February 2009, Thune performed at the DTD Reality concert at the University of Southern California.^[3]

Thune's debut album Thick Noon was released on February 23, 2010 by Comedy Central Records.^[1]

Thune was cast as a lead in the 2010 NBC pilot for "Beach Lane" starring opposite Matthew Broderick.^[4] However, the pilot was not picked up as a series.^[5] He has since made guest appearances on the comedy programs Traffic Light and Happy Endings in 2011.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official blog
• Nick Thune at the Internet Movie Database