A rchive Date
[ 15-06-2000 ]
Category
[ Information Technologies ]
sub-Categoy
[ AOL ]
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[http://www.networkworld.com
AOL blocks Odigo's IM service
By Christine M. Campbell
IDG News Service, 06/12/00
Another salvo has been fired in the instant messaging wars, this time late Saturday night when AOL blocked users of startup Odigo from exchanging messages with AOL's Instant Messaging (AIM) users.
AOL blocked the Odigo instant messaging software 10 days after Odigo allowed its users to communicate with AIM users, according to Avner Ronen, co-founder and vice president of strategic development for Odigo. However, Odigo's users can still communicate with ICQ, he added.
"We're surprised [AOL] acted that way, after 10 days. In previous cases, [rival instant messaging providers] were blocked in a matter of hours," Ronen said. After being up and running for days rather than hours, "we didn't think they would give us attention and block us," he added.
"Odigo [and other instant messaging providers] have attempted unauthorized access," said Tricia Primrose, a spokeswoman for AOL. "We consider it, essentially, [as] hacking; we want to protect members' privacy and security."
Because instant messaging software requires users to enter their IDs and passwords, the measures taken by AOL are designed to protect its members from unauthorized users gaining access to their accounts, she added.
Ronen said that Odigo tried unsuccessfully to contact AOL before its interoperable instant messaging software was released. AOL gave no notice before blocking Odigo users from exchanging instant messages with AIM users, he added.
Odigo is trying to contact AOL again to request that Odigo users be allowed to communicate with AIM users, Ronen said. Meanwhile, Odigo is looking for ways to restore communications between AIM users and Odigo's approximately 700,000 users -- 100,000 of those 700,000 signed up for the service after Odigo began offering interoperability with AIM, according to Ronen.
Primrose said that she was not familiar with any attempts by Odigo to contact AOL before the launch of Odigo's interoperable software.
AOL has been battling competing instant messaging software vendors since last year, when Microsoft's MSN Messenger, iCast's iCaster and Tribal Voice's PowWow were locked out of connecting with AIM. Back then, AOL argued that it had to block MSN Messenger's users from interacting with AIM users because Microsoft was gaining access to AIM servers and thus to information like users' passwords.
The battle was rekindled in light of the impending AOL and Time Warner Inc. merger, as iCast and Tribal Voice filed separate briefs asking that one of the conditions of the merger be instant messaging interoperability.
Other companies, including Microsoft, Excite@Home, AltaVista, AT&T, CMGI (the parent company of iCast and Tribal Voice) and Prodigy Communications rallied around iCast and Tribal Voice in a letter to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications and the Senate Commerce Committee to raise awareness regarding the lack of progress in reaching an instant messaging standard -- without taking a position on the impending merger.
Odigo "will be one of the first to adopt" an instant messaging standard, Ronen said. "Interoperability is a priority for Odigo."
Recently, Tribal Voice and iCast also sent approximately 2,000 consumer petitions to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) demanding that AOL open its instant messaging services and make its products interoperable with those of other companies.
Primrose said that AOL supports efforts to arrive at an open standard for interoperability; however, "our view is we should spend time to create a standard that protects privacy and security of users, [which is] far more desirable than fast-tracking" to a standard, she said.
Meanwhile, AOL has licensing agreements with IBM, Novell, Lycos, EarthLink Networks, Apple Computer and Juno Online Services that allow these partners to create their own brands using AIM technology.]
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