![]() "The new versions of ICQ make it even easier and more convenient for users to stay in touch in real time from wherever they are and in a variety of different ways," Jim Bankoff, president of AOL Web properties, said in a statement. ![]() This is not AOL Time Warner's first Web-based IM service. AOL launched a Web-based version of its AOL Instant Messenger, called AIM Quick Buddy, nearly two years ago. The product has since been upgraded and renamed AIM Express. The new ICQ releases come as competing instant messaging services from Microsoft and Yahoo introduce bells and whistles such as videoconferencing in a bid to overtake AOL's lead in a fast-growing market.īy contrast, AOL has avoided loading on new IM features, concentrating instead on making its products more mobile under its "AOL Anywhere" and lesser-known "ICQ Anywhere" slogans. ICQ introduced server-based contact lists with the release of version 2001b earlier this year, in effect freeing its members from the desktop by storing address books and other data on central computers maintained by the company.ĪOL Time Warner, with its AIM and ICQ messaging services, has 41.7 million home subscribers, up 21 percent from a year earlier, according to a report last month from online research firm Jupiter Media Metrix. MSN Messenger users rose 94 percent to 18.5 million Yahoo Messenger subscribers rose 25 percent to 11.9 million. None of the services work with each other, although efforts are under way to set common IM standards. AOL, which has long been criticized for refusing to open its network to rivals, has recently cut deals with IBM subsidiary Lotus and with Sun Microsystems to test interoperability for its service. In the past year Microsoft has aggressively challenged AOL on several fronts, offering special deals for Internet access and integrating its instant messenger into its new operating system, Windows XP.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |