IM Wars

Tuesday, January 7, 2003
Thursday, October 20, 2004 (Update)

I don’t even remember when I started instant messaging. It was probably around 1995, because that’s when I convinced my parents to sign up for AOL. Instant messaging was basically limited to send and receive in those days. There were no emoticons, there was no picture chat, talk feature, and all that good stuff. Nevertheless it was amazing at the time how fun instant messaging was.

The greatest reason why most people in the States use AOL Instant Messenger these days is because of AOL’s ISP (internet service provider) monopoly of the mid-to-late 90s. Nearly everybody used AOL, and those who didn’t wished there was a way for them to instant message. Then AOL came out with their Instant Messenger software (AIM). The guy/girl who came up with that idea was probably slapped sometime later on, because now there was no more reason to have AOL! Unless you were a real rookie, that barely had a clue what the internet was, you didn’t need AOL. And of course all those non-AOLers were happy, because they could now instant message without paying for AOL! So, since AOL pioneered instant messaging on a large scale, they today have the most users worldwide with their instant messaging software.

Why are places like Europe different? Despite the fact that AOL did exist in Germany, Britain, and a few other countries at that time, it didn’t have the monopoly that existed in the States. Plus a lot less people were using the internet in general, and still do today, because unlimited service via phone lines doesn’t really exist anywhere.
But just like in the U.S., Hotmail was very popular. Hotmail was bought by Microsoft, and when it came out with MSN Messenger, it was able to advertise it to millions of Hotmail users worldwide. Since Europeans weren’t already using AOL/AIM, they downloaded MSN Messenger.

Of course there are two other relatively big players: Yahoo! and ICQ. Yahoo!, like Microsoft, profited from the fact that many people were using their web site for email, chatting, etc. Yahoo! was also the first program that sent you mail alerts, which gave it an additional popularity boost.

ICQ built itself up from scratch, amazingly enough, and pioneered features such as offline IMing, file sending, and SMSing (sending text messages to cellular phones). It was the first free instant messaging client, as it came out in 1996. Since 1998 it has been owned by AOL.

What programs you used basically depended on what programs your friends were using. If you had many friends on different clients, you had to have several programs open.

Fortunately programs such as Trillian (PC), and Fire (Mac) have come out, which allow you to connect to many servers at once. Both Trillian and Fire support AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, and the chat client IRC, while Fire also supports Jabber IM, a little used IM client mainly used by corporations such as IBM to chat securely in their own intranet. Trillian and Fire make all chat networks’ IM windows look the same, making it easy for you to chat with many people on different networks at the same time, while overcoming some of the shortfalls of the networks’ official clients.

Here are the above mentioned networks in a detailed review:

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
180 Million Registered Users (December 2002)
Kai’s “Screen Name”: Kai Brinker
Kai’s Buddy Count (January 5, 2003): 32
U.S. Cell Phone Compatibility: Multiple
Video: PC & Mac (Use iChat on Macs)

Pros:
Most users
Intraprogram profile
Many extra features (pictures in IMs, talk, file send, etc.)
Supports the most U.S. networks for wireless chatting

Cons:
Only two statuses (available and away)
No offline messaging

AOL Instant Messenger is a great program for chatting and sending files. It’s been around forever, and has therefore been optimized a great deal. Two drawbacks are that it lacks multiple statuses such as “busy,” “on the phone,” etc., and it also doesn’t feature offline messaging, which Yahoo! and ICQ do, which allow you to message an offline user, who will then get the message once they sign on. AIM now supports many U.S. cell phone networks for wireless chatting. Simply add a cell phone number as a buddy using the country code and the number: (315) 252-2525 becomes 13152522525. The latest versions have a built-in feature to forward messages to your cell phone. Many GSM cell phones now have AIM software on them. With Macintosh designing their iChat AV to work with AIM video, the AIM network is the best for universal video chat. iChat even supports up to three video chats at once.

ICQ (“I Seek You”)
140 Million Registered Users (December 2002)
Kai’s “UIN”: 101664091
Kai’s Buddy Count (January 5, 2003): 4
U.S. Cell Phone Compatibility: N/A
Video Chat: Windows XP Only

Pros:
Able to communicate far beyond the internet (messages to cell phones, PDAs, etc.)
Many directory tools
Offline IMing
Ability to prevent someone from adding you to their contact list

Cons:
IMing requires more effort, there is less oversight
UINs (user identification numbers) for identity makes initial contact difficult (hard for you/your friend to remember it)

I never really used ICQ much. I first downloaded it back when AIM didn’t have file transferring. I personally find it very complicating to use. Sending of IMs requires clicking, and if multiple messages come in from the same users, you must click a “read next” button to see them. There are still many users though, and ICQ probably has the most features. Despite supporting cell phone networks in countries as foreign as Yugoslavia, ICQ will not work with U.S. cell phone companies. Then again, it's nowadays mostly popular outside the United States.

MSN Messenger
75 Million Registered Users (March 2003)
Kai’s “Member Name”: kai@newkai.com
Kai’s Buddy Count (January 5, 2003): 62
U.S. Cell Phone Compatibility: Multiple
Video Chat: Windows XP Only

Pros:
Email addresses are usernames (if you know their email address you can quickly add contacts)
Display names let you change what your contacts see in your slot on their list
You can see who has added you to their contact list
You can disallow people from adding you to their list (you must approve them)
Windows users have great integration
Hotmail mail alerts

Cons:
Seems to have the greatest connection problems, especially with slower connections
Profiles are on the internet, making editing/viewing a long process
No away messages, although you can put them in your display name
Not as many extra features
No offline IMing

MSN doesn’t have as many users, but as with Internet Explorer and Windows, it will most likely use its powers to catch up fairly quickly. Contacts are listed by their email addresses, and when they sign on their display name appears, which they can change anytime in a few seconds. Upon disconnecting their display name hovers around in the offline list for a mysterious amount of time before it is lost again and their email address appears again. It is pretty easy to use, however, and keeps up with most of the extra features the competition adds. MSN now works with multiple cell phone providers.

Yahoo!
Doesn't Disclose User Count
Kai’s “ID”: new_kai
Kai’s Buddy Count (January 5, 2003): 1
U.S. Cell Phone Compatibility: Multiple
Video Chat: PC & Mac (no sound w/ Mac)

Pros:
Great video technology
Many availability statuses
Most emoticons
Yahoo! mail alerts
Offline messaging

Cons:
Profiles are on the internet, making editing/viewing a long process

I am not a big user of the Yahoo! instant messaging network. As you can see I only have one buddy on it!

Jabber IM
Around 2 Million Users
Kai’s “Username@Servername”: tnk@jabber.org
Kai’s Buddy Count (January 5, 2003): 0
U.S. Cell Phone Compatibility: None
Video Chat: Don't Even Ask!

Pros:
Allows for secure intra-network chatting
No official client, so there are many programs available

Cons:
Hardly any users!
No extra features!

Jabber’s main feature is that it allows for intra-network chatting. It can be set up, for example, on your school or company’s intranet to chat internally. Then there is no worry someone will try to sell you stuff or try to get you to go to some random web site (unless there’s a spammer in your school/company!). You can also connect to public hosts such as jabber.org or jabber.com to chat with the world. The only problem is “the world” is very small when you look at the user numbers. Jabber also allows you to connect to the other chat networks, but the only time I tried it I found it very complicating, and couldn’t get it to work.

 

 

The marks AOL and AIM are registered trademarks of America Online, Inc.; the marks Instant Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger are service marks of America Online, Inc.; the mark ICQ is a registered mark of ICQ, Inc. The mark Yahoo! is a registered mark of Yahoo! Inc. The mark MSN is a registered mark of Microsoft Corporation.