AOL IM: Rise or fall?

voodooboy · #1 (**permalink**) 01-16-2004, 09:02 AM

I just read a great rant in PC Magazine by Lance Ulanoff on AOL's misuse of Instant Messaging services.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1436726,00.asp

Quote:

I give America Online's Instant Messenger client another five years before it's relegated to the file cabinet marked "once popular" because virtually everyone has stopped using it. I cannot imagine how a service that's run in such a cavalier, pushy, and unwise manner can continue to thrive in a competitive marketplace.

I've only recently come to this conclusion, but the sinking feeling started creeping over me about six months ago. That's when I noticed these odd little AOL for Broadband invaders appearing all over my PC. And I'm not talking about advertisements. Shortcuts turned up on my desktop, favorites that I didn't put there showed up in Internet Explorer, and items materialized in the Startup folder of my Programs list. At first I couldn't figure out where these uninvited guests had come from—then I recalled recently accepting a minor AOL Instant Messenger update.

I personally have never liked AIM, I tend to lean more towards MSN's IM application. I have tried several others but keep going back. SO my question to you is this; What IM do you use and why? And do you openly offer your IM as a contact avenue for clients? Do you think that free IM services (AOL, MSN, NS) are as professional to use as a coded app. designed specifically for your web site? If you use an application for IM on your site, which do you use and why?

Have I asked enough questions? Should I stop? Why are you turning red in the face?

OK, I'll stop. Let me know what you think.

matauri · #2 (**permalink**) 01-16-2004, 01:17 PM

Scott, I have often thought along these lines myself. Now recently, I have clients & potentials that are asking these same questions. The Internet 'on-call' is catching on.

The trouble I see, is that so many people use so many varying means of it, that like everything else in the IT industry we are having to cater for most if not all. I have even seen many top level business professionals running MSN Messenger,ICQ,AIM, etc in their offices, because it allows them to stay in touch with family, friends & business contacts.

So possibly my answer would be, have coded apps on your site, operate a discussion board, and use a program such as Trillian that will run all the other chat progs (with limited features). So now coupled with your email, cell phones,palms, etc....you make yourself available anywhere anytime. (though I would hate to have a huge client base using them!) :-)

Cindy

voodooboy · #3 (**permalink**) 01-16-2004, 02:37 PM

Oh, that reminds me, I need to oil the chain that has me shackled to my desk. Nothing like (not) being able to get away from it all.

matauri · #4 (**permalink**) 01-16-2004, 03:06 PM

Thanks to modern technology, beds will soon be seen in museums! ;-)

Cindy

christoefar · #5 (**permalink**) 01-21-2004, 02:45 PM

I use MSN, the only reason I use msn is because my friends use it, I did have Trillian once, but didn't like it, and I only had one other person in anything but MSN,

So I think MSN is best,

redcircle · #6 (**permalink**) 01-21-2004, 02:48 PM

I have not used AOL's aim program in awhile. I prefer to you Gaim. http://gaim.sourceforge.net great alternative. It also supports ALL the major chat services and it's not as buggy as trillion.

voodooboy · #7 (**permalink**) 01-21-2004, 02:56 PM

I used to have HumanClick on one of the sites I administered (even won a graphics contest with them) until they went pay-per-use and the client didn't want to do it anymore.

I had found one application that worked very much like it, that ran on your own server, (.cgi scripted) but when I went back to find it, the site was no longer there. Does anyone know of an application like that? I would prefer to offer an independent application to my clients than an outsourced service.

computers · #8 (**permalink**) 01-21-2004, 03:43 PM

I do have AIM installed, however, I very rerely use it. For customers I use a free program calles Live Help, more infor here:
http://www.craftysyntax.com/livehelp/?v=2.7
It also allows monitoring of visitors. I have found it to be very usefull and reliable.

glawrie · #9 (**permalink**) 01-21-2004, 03:54 PM

Our small firm uses (and has done for several years) the Yahoo! Messenger system. Why? Well a few key features that make all the difference:

* We like the 'offline' message feature - if someone you want to send a message to is not actually on line, you can still send a message and it will be delivered when the person next starts Y!M

* We like the well sorted 'message archive' feature (at least on Windows clients - not yet made it to OS X) - that allows you to keep a transcript of some / all of your messenger chats for up to 100 days without any intervention / saving etc.

* We like the 'conference' facility that allows more than two people to participate in chats

* We think the voip service built in to the system is better quality than those in other services (and again you can have a voice chat involving more than two people)

We also run MSN messenger as a backup, but rarely use it. We also make use of Yahoo! to communicate with clients and partners - we are a small firm with global work, and it is a very handy utility that we really couldn't do without.

We have looked at multi-protocol clones (e.g. FIRE on Macs, Trillian etc.) and not stuck with any - mainly because none seem to support / offer the key features we like (those listed above).

We have also evaluated closed equivalents (e.g. Groove, Quickplace etc.) and dumped those for the same reasons.

dealercrm · #10 (**permalink**) 01-21-2004, 04:46 PM

If anybody is interested...

AOL has released a SDK to the Macromedia Flash Central Community. You can use it to make your own custom Instant Messenging applications.

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/max...s/connect.html

dealercrm · #11 (**permalink**) 01-21-2004, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computers

I do have AIM installed, however, I very rerely use it. For customers I use a free program calles Live Help, more infor here:
http://www.craftysyntax.com/livehelp/?v=2.7
It also allows monitoring of visitors. I have found it to be very usefull and reliable.

I figured I would give this Live Help Implemenation a shot. I fould it very very slow. The code for the system is also very unorganized.

Just my 2 cents

cooper · #12 (**permalink**) 01-22-2004, 04:09 AM

I have used Trillian, iChat, AIM, Yahoo! and MSN and overall the Yahoo! messenger is the best. The quality of voice chat is higher, the help files are better, the client application is less obtrusive and more configurable and less buggy. and and and
The only downside is file exchanges which (as memory serves) are limited to 1.5MB. This is the only area besides market penetration where the AIM network is better. The windows client for AIM is pretty lame with all the ads and the myriad of links it litters all over your system. The iChat client for OSX is so understated and easy to use that I don't need to install anything else. I love Yahoo!'s send message even when user is away feature as I always need to send a quick link to someone without having to generate an email and send that off. It's so much faster to do it with an IM. And Yahoo has the nice integration with other services like email and such. I know MSN has this service as well as the AIM client now, but YM does it best.

I never got into ICQ as the iterface seemed clumsy when I tried it years ago and it turned me right off of it.

So I went on long enough here. Anyone else?

esiegel · #13 (**permalink**) 01-22-2004, 09:29 AM

for personal chat...I use AIM/AOL, MSN, Yahoo.
on my site we use LivePerson...which is great, but even though we are locked into a 3 year old price of $90/month...it is kind of expensive. I'm starting to find lower cost alternatives. I just want to make sure we don't lose anything before we switch.

esiegel · #14 (**permalink**) 01-23-2004, 10:56 AM

Has anyone tried Real Assistant?
It's an ASP appliction that seems to have most of the features that I am paying a monthly fee for on my site with LivePerson. The one time charge for this is about 1.5 months worth of my current service...and will allow me to have multiple operators. Their site is:
http://www.real-assistant.com/

Any feedback would be appecitated

voodooboy · #15 (**permalink**) 01-23-2004, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by esiegel

Has anyone tried Real Assistant?
It's an ASP appliction that seems to have most of the features that I am paying a monthly fee for on my site with LivePerson. The one time charge for this is about 1.5 months worth of my current service...and will allow me to have multiple operators. Their site is:
http://www.real-assistant.com/

Any feedback would be appecitated

Looks good to me. It seems to have all the standard functions. The one down-side is that it is ASP. Most users are going to want something that will run under Linux/Apache. But if you have a WIN server, I say go for it.