America Online Inc made its feelings about Microsoft Corp’s new MSN Messenger instant messaging product very apparent on Friday, by twice blocking MSN users from being able to communicate with AOL AIM users. Microsoft launched MSN Messenger on Wednesday, and also announced support for industry standards designed to enable all instant messaging products to talk to each other. AOL characterized the method of accessing its software used by Microsoft as a hack, and by Thursday morning those who tried it received only an error message. Users of Yahoo! Inc’s second generation Messenger product, currently in its beta release, received similar messages.
By Friday afternoon, Microsoft issued a new build of MSN Messenger that fixed the problems, only to find itself blocked once more by AOL almost immediately. On Friday night the software giant said it would continue to adjust its software in order to keep compatibility. It also emerged that the Internet Engineering Task Force’s Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol Working Group, which Microsoft is now supporting, had attempted, but failed to recruit AOL as a member. While AOL itself had not returned ComputerWire’s calls by press time, elsewhere it stated that it was supportive of standards and that at some point it would want to support standards that were helpful to its members.
Aside from changing its software to thwart Microsoft, AOL also announced that it would soon launch the ICQ Mail service, a customized, free, web-based email service developed in collaboration with Critical Path Inc. Following Microsoft’s integration of MSN Messenger with its Hotmail mail service, AOL says it will integrate the mail service in with the ICQ messaging client, which has 38 million users registered worldwide. Earlier in the month, AOL/ICQ signed a four-year deal with Net2Phone Inc, enabling Net2Phone’s internet telephony services to be provided through ICQ software. AOL also updated its AIM instant messenger service on July 15 with version 2.0. It says some 40 million users are registered for AIM.
Tribal Voice Inc, a smaller player in the instant messaging world, also announced upgrades to its IM offering on Friday, and pledged to provide interoperability with other messaging systems (see separate story). á
