AOL is finally opening up AOL Instant Messenger, its popular chat network.
As Miguel Helft and I reported Wednesday, AOL is integrating Facebook chat with AIM, which is actively used by 17 million people each month in the United States. People who download the new AIM software (here in beta) can use it to chat with their Facebook friends without logging into Facebook
The move is long overdue. While services like Meebo, Apple’s iChat and Google Chat have integrated with other chat services over the years, growing more useful and stronger as a result, the AIM software has remained a lonely island: log onto AIM, and you can only chat with your AIM friends. That, along with the occasionally overbearing advertisements in the AIM software, has sent many users packing for other online chat tools.
Brad Garlinghouse, president for Internet and mobile communications at AOL, said that in the past AOL had not adapted its instant messenger service to meet user expectations of interoperability. Under a new management team, AOL’s attitude is changing.
“We are now taking risks that historically we would not have taken,” he said. “People who use AIM are much more likely to use other parts of the AOL experience. So for us we are looking at creating a more useful product. This is about getting back to basics.”
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