AOL Opens Up the AIM Instant Messaging Network

AVIDJockey writes "In a pleasantly surprising move, AOL has changed its tune when it comes to third-party access to the company's chat network. America Online has recently launched a service called OpenAIM 2.0, which provides open, uninhibited access to services like Meebo, or all-in-one IM clients like Pidgin, allowing them to freely and easily use the AIM instant messaging network. 'At the moment, multi-platform IM desktop clients like Pidgin or Adium (the popular Mac client) generally rely on hacking and reverse engineering access to chat networks run by AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft and others. Not only is that bad for developers since it means more work, it also means that such clients often can't use all the features of a particular network.'"

And that's not all!

It might be my imagination, but GTalk (through the GMail interface) allows one to open an AIM connection. I wonder if it's related to this?

Re:And that's not all!

It might be my imagination, but GTalk (through the GMail interface) allows one to open an AIM connection. I wonder if it's related to this?

I would guess that it's probably more related to AOL starting a Jabber server for AIM.

When will other companies agree ...

This is good for business!

Companies think that lock-in is good for business. And sure, it IS when you're dealing with tangible goods. But when dealing with interoperability concerns with software ... well, if something is more useful, it will be more used! (in theory, anyways)

At least AOL finally figured this out. I'm waiting for microsoft and apple (for all their software) to get a clue ;)

Well...

I'm guessing I'll be modded down for saying this, but this seems more like they're trying to remain relevant by hopping on the "Open" bandwagon a little too late in the game. XMPP was the response to the closed nature of all of these IM networks, and not surprisingly, Google chose that very protocol for Google Talk. They even provided instructions on how to connect using clients _other_ than Google Talk.

AOL, on the other hand has always been quite hostile toward projects that made use of their network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madster). Why would anyone want to develop for them now, just because they've stuck "Open" on AIM hoping that OSS developers take care of their coding for them?

Re:Well...

FWIW, Aimster never had any problems with AOL*. We've had many more problems with libfaim/libpurple, which are the open source implementations of OSCAR. In particular, AOL has engaged an authentication arms race, repeatedly making it harder to legally log in to AIM. The newest technique (https submission) looked like it was pretty much the death knell for independent OSCAR implementations. It's really difficult to RE, and allowed them freedom to use bigger, more trademarkable shared secrets. (Copyright has exceptions for compatibility purposes; trademark, not so much)

AOL has always had at least a partial open network, in the form of TOC. Surprisingly, they have kept it open for all these years, despite the early pessimism of many people (myself chief among them). This latest opening is an interesting move, and probably hints at new market realities in IM. It's good to see the space changing, especially in a continuing push towards openness.

Sadly, it means that all my contract work for reverse engineering OSCAR (etc) just dried up =)

* Aimster didn't actually use AOL for anything; they just had a data extracting proxy that sat between the user and the IM network, so they could show presence info in their custom UI. I actually worked there for a short while, and extended that proxy to support ICQ, amongst other things. (It was a terribly-run company, which is why I quit after only a few months. If they _had_ used AIM for the file transfers, as I was suggesting, they likely wouldn't have had nearly the legal trouble they did. And, any case against them would also amount to an equal case against AOL, which makes for an interesting set of motivations...)

Re:Well...

I don't know if it's too late. AIM still has TONS of users. It's not clear to me how AOL intends to make money from AIM if people are using other clients without embedded ads, but I guess I don't really care either.

Sounds like

They are desperate to not lose any more market share to Yahoo, MSN and Google Talk (among others). Hopefully this will keep pressure on the others to open up their networks (except MSN of course) and embrace the fact that having many clients is too much hassle for people and all-in-ones make more sense

As a Pidgin user I welcome this move.

Restrictions

From the FAQ [aol.com]:

Are there any restrictions on what I can build?

We tried to make the Open AIM Program as restriction-free and flexible as possible. But in order to help protect our network and users, certain rules apply.

• We ask that you incorporate two value-added features of the AIM service into your application. The full list that you can pick from is listed in our Additional Feature Requirements webpage.
• Although we have removed many restrictions on usage and development, we still do not permit developers to build Open AIM applications that are interoperable with other IM networks. (Multi-headed applications are now allowed). Please refer to the Developers License Agreement for additional details.

Required features

Can GPL-compatible software (or really any kind of open-source software) be written, given these restrictions?

Open AIM Additional Feature Requirements

Welcome to Open AIM! If you intend to develop and distribute an AIM Custom Client (including mobile versions) or Web AIM Developer Application, you must pick 2 of the 5 options listed below and incorporate them into your Developer Applications. These options include

• Advertising
• Buddy Info
• Expressions and Buddy Icons
• AIM Start Page
• AIM Toolbar

Just to be clear, these requirements don't apply to Plugins, Bots or the use of the Presence Indicators. Please note that if your application exceeds 100,000 peak simultaneous users, you must implement Advertising as described below as one of your two options.

Not sure what will work best for your application? Don't worry. You can always change your selections to suit your needs as you grow.

This is starting to look as if now that everyone knows the OSCAR protocol anyway, AOL is trying to make a power grab under the guise of openness...

Re:

Well, considering libpurple (Pidgin, Adium, and Meebo) has a user base somewhere around a fuckton, they'd have to put the ads in if they wanted to used the "blessed" protocol

Re:Required features

Can GPL-compatible software (or really any kind of open-source software) be written, given these restrictions?

No.

Re:Required features

This is really not useful at all, then. Any decent application will have 100,000 users at a time, so this means we're getting advertising in Pidgin if they decide to implement it (I hope not). Self-Compile with stripped advertising, anyone?

Re:Required features

Although we have removed many restrictions on usage and development, we still do not permit developers to build Open AIM applications that are interoperable with other IM networks. (Multi-headed applications are now allowed). Please refer to the Developers License Agreement for additional details.

Pidgin could not implement this if they wanted to.

Re:Required features

Ugh. That reminds me. The other day at work I installed aol's aim client because a chat room had been set up to communicate while we went through some procedures (I usually just use gmail for chat). Suddenly Firefox's home page had been changed to aol.com, I had a hideous toolbar and some crappy chat bots added in my gmail chat list. Christ. Fuck this company.

Re:

1. have it "display" the ads as 0px by 0px, black on black background
2. randomly have the whole horde select one ad for ALL the clients to "click" on
3. ad server DDoS'ed, melts down, "open-sores terr'rists" blamed

Profit? What profit? Didn't you see the bit ab

Re:

Because of Jabber's decentralized nature, it's not hard to imagine E-Mail providers bundling IM services with their e-mail packages.

Heck, a handful of them already do just that (Google being the biggest and most obvious such provider)

It's not as if IM traf

Re:Restrictions

It seems poorly worded, but I think they do not want to allow bridging. For example, Microsoft could create a server-side bridge to AIM and put a box in the next version of MSNM for people to enter their AIM IDs. They would then see AIM users as MSN users, stop using the AIM client, and forget about the AOL brand. Currently, AIM is bridged with GTalk, and I presume AOL get a fair amount of money from Google because of it. I suspect that AOL have realised that IM standardisation is inevitable and that they can make more money selling their customers to other IM networks in the short-term, before they become just another IM provider in the same way that they are an email and web hosting provider.

Allowing people to connect to the network using other clients helps this strategy, since it means more people will actively use the network and they can charge higher fees for the bridges to GTalk, MSN, Y!IM and so on. Allowing people to build bridges with this would completely destroy their new business model.

Open, uninhibited access?

From the Wired blog post:

AOL's recently launched OpenAIM 2.0 provides open, uninhibited access

From the Open AIM page:

you must pick 2 of the 5 options listed below and incorporate them into your Developer Applications. These options include

• Advertising
• Buddy Info
• Expressions and Buddy Icons
• AIM Start Page
• AIM Toolbar

Just to be clear, these requirements don't apply to Plugins, Bots or the use of the Presence Indicators. Please note that if your application exceeds 100,000 peak simultaneous users, you must implement Advertising as described below as one of your two options.

I think I have a different definition of 'open, uninhibited access' than Wired.

Re:Huh?

"AOL is going even further, offering such services the option to run AOL-served advertisements as part of a revenue sharing plan. So far, AOL hasn't given too many details on the advertising tie-in, but more details will be released next month." RTA So, pidgin can now add ad's to the bottom, and share the profits with AOL.

Re:Huh?

I did RTFA, but I'm not limiting my imagination to a bunch of companies tying their networks together to make more money. And unless something changed, Pidgin is GPL... meaning anyone can grab the source and cut out the code that loads advertisements.

Now that the network is completely open, protocols and all, the only reason anyone would use an ad-laden client is from inertia & familiarity, not because those clients are 'better'.

Re:

I've found some problems in pidgin... namely, messages like to disappear into the ether(net?) with no indication whatsoever...

It can make for interesting conversations.

Re:Still around?

AOL still has a butt load of clueless subscribers, and AIM is the only IM they know anything about....

Re:

They can't force a client to display ads. They can request it, and a client can even pretend to do so, but there's no way they can force a third party to display ads they don't want to.

Re:Revenue sharing plans for displaying ads, etc

Uh, I'm pretty sure they can force you to stop distribution of your application if you link against their library and aren't following their restrictions. It would be violating the license, and is just as bad as someone linking GPL code into their proprietary applications.

Phil

Re:

I've never gotten a message from their own AIM bots, and in Kopete, as in every single other IM client I've used, it's possible to simply collapse groups (and forget about them).

So what, exactly, is the problem? (Or is there something I'm missing?)