A rchive Date
[ 15-06-2000 ]
Category
[ Information Technologies ]
sub-Categoy
[ AOL ]
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[http://www.techweb.com/
AOL Again Shuts Off Instant-Messaging Rival
(06/12/00, 4:40 p.m. ET) By Barbara Darrow, TechWeb News
Just two weeks ago, Odigo touted its instant-messaging service as the first and only way to interoperate with both of America Online's instant messaging products, AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) and AOL's ICQ.
Odigo may now wish it had kept a lower profile. Over the weekend, AOL (stock: AOL) blocked interoperability between Odigo Instant Messenger users and AIM users.
"There was no communication from AOL," said a spokesman from Odigo, New York. "They did it over the weekend, like thieves in the night."
It is not the first time AOL has erected walls between its AIM users and the rest of the instant-messaging universe. It already blocks interoperability between AIM and Microsoft (stock: MSFT) instant-messaging users. Odigo Messenger users can still access buddies using AOL's ICQ instant-messaging service, however.
An AOL spokeswoman said the company was merely protecting the privacy of its members and assuring that they would not receive spam or other unwanted mail. "AOL is committed to the IETF process and want a technology standard to emerge but it won't happen overnight," she said.
She was not sure why AOL blocked Odigo from AIM but did not do the same with ICQ.
AOL's reluctance to play with third-party instant-messaging rivals apparently has caught the eye of federal regulators, however. Reuters reported Monday that the Federal Communications Commission has asked AOL whether it is working with other Internet companies on standards to allow customers using different instant messaging programs to interact and, if not, what benefits that provides to AOL customers.
The FCC, which is reviewing AOL's bid to buy Time-Warner (stock: TWX), has requested more information on this and expects a reply by June 30. Some Internet players -- including CMGI (stock: CMGI), which owns a stake in several IM companies -- have petitioned the FCC to look into the matter.
Cutting access to AIM users is a huge deal for Odigo, which was touting its product's links to both ICQ and AIM as a key differentiator.
"What this means to our users is that, as of Saturday, they were prevented access to their buddies at AIM," said Avner Ronen, co-founder and vice president of Odigo.
Since the company announced the new Messenger 2.5 10 days ago, it has added 100,000 users, he noted.
"We're dedicated to providing interoperability," Ronen said. "We said we'd be interoperable with all the major IMs within the year, and we'll do our best. AOL is not returning our calls."
AOL is by far the market leader in instant messaging, with an estimated 120 million users of its two offerings. (Odigo, by contrast, claims 1 million users.) That is the reason others seeking to break into the market are so eager to forge links with AOL's user base.
Some in the messaging community were sympathetic to AOL's position.
"Look, if companies would monetize, put a value on, what they get from intereoperating with AIM, AOL has shown an interest in interoperability," said David Hsieh, vice president of business development for FaceTime Communications, Foster City, Calif.
Hsieh cited partnerships AOL has forged with his company as well as with Novell (stock: NOVL) and Lotus as examples of AOL's willingness to cooperate with other vendors.
"AOL has spent time and money building value, and companies like Odigo are essentially hacking into their network," Hsieh said. "That would be like me building a phone and using AT&T's network without paying."
Observers said the real opportunity of instant messaging, just as with telephony, lies in ubiquity and that eventually the vendors must assure interoperability between their various wares. This is especially true as instant messaging moves beyond the consumer realm into real-world customer-service applications, wherein companies will rely on instant-messaging connections to provide near real-time feedback on service and support issues.
Ironically, Microsoft has been cast in the good-guy role by having its system interoperate with others. In instant messaging, AOL is Goliath, and Microsoft and the other players -- TribalVoice, Odigo, and FaceTime -- are Davids.
"AOL is the 800-pound gorilla in this fight and will not let smaller players chip away at its monopoly," said Matt Cain, vice president of the Meta Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based researcher.
The IM battle will likely follow the same route as calendar standards, he noted.
"With the calendar there were many companies with different agendas, and they finally ended up in the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) forum and were able to drag the calendar specification out for years," Cain said. "At that point, the controversy moves behind closed doors. I expect this will drag out another two years." 
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