The Multi Level Messenger's
Interoperability
"The ability of software and hardware on multiple machines from
multiple vendors to communicate."
Instant Messaging
By any standard of judgment, instant messaging (IM) is one of
the hottest markets in Internet technology. With estimates of
63% of all Internet users communicating on one of the four major
IM networks in 2003, the case can also be made that instant
messaging is among the fastest-growing markets. Nationally
speaking, four in ten Americans on the Internet are using
instant messaging software. These four networks, of course, are
AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, and ICQ, with ICQ also owned and operated by
AOL. To better understand the importance of interoperability
technology.
What does this all mean for the tens of millions of IM users?, a
number expected to grow exponentially in the years to come? It
means that there is a clear and obvious need for a
communications bridge between what many have termed a digital
divide. The communications barriers are being taken down, and we
believe that our company stands on that ground.
Until very recently, all of the major IM networks were very
reluctant to engage in talks about providing interoperability
between vendors. Even as recently as 2003, interoperability
between AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! were described by David Gurle of
Reuters as "a topic of avoidance among all three".
IM2 provides seamless interoperability between each of the five
instant messaging platforms,, with the only requirement being
that the user has pre-existing accounts with those networks.
This effectively houses all of the IM accounts a user might have
into one central application, providing streamlined access to
business contacts, friends, and relatives regardless of their IM
network of choice.
New, innovative communication technologies are advancing at a
blistering pace, and IM2 is dedicated to bridging the gap
between the familiar IM networks of today and these breakthrough
technologies of tomorrow. A proprietary VoIP (Voice Over
Internet Protocol) is in the works for future versions of IM2,
as well as SMS (Short Message Service), a mobile technology
designed to deliver text responses to queries made by mobile
devices. Essentially, IM2 wants to be your communications hub,
your gateway to all the chatting fun the Internet has to offer.
In today's world there are 4 major instant messaging networks:
AOL Instant Messenger - AIM
Percentage of IM Market: 53.4%
Publisher: America Online Inc - http://www.aim.com
About: AOL Instant Messenger, touted by the company as immediate
cross-Internet communication, is an instant messaging
application that was originally developed to allow users of
non-AOL Internet Service Providers to keep in touch with their
AOL friends via IM, free of charge. With a focus on ease of use
and the advantage of the then-largest subscriber base of users,
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) quickly rose in popularity to become
the most frequently used IM network on the Internet.
Create Account
MSN Messenger
Percentage of IM Market: 38%
Publisher: Microsoft Corporation. - http://www.msn.com About:
MSN Messenger is an instant messaging client developed by
Microsoft for users of its MSN Internet service, and eventually
extended to any Internet user with a Microsoft Hotmail account.
This was an approach similar to the one employed by AOL, which
was providing non-MSN users with a free medium to communicate
with MSN users, with the only requirement being that they
register a Hotmail account, or Passport. As we would later see,
however, Microsoft took timely advantage of the 2001 release of
its Windows XP operating system -- bundling and activating MSN
Messenger with the OS, renamed to Windows Messenger. Although
this hasn't brought MSN Messenger to the levels of usage enjoyed
by AOL Instant Messenger, it has garnered the second highest
number of users among the IM clients.
Create Account
Yahoo! Messenger
Percentage of IM Market: 30%
Publisher: Yahoo! Inc. - http://www.yahoo.com
About: Yahoo! Messenger was the first non-ISP Internet company
to offer an IM client that seriously challenges AOL and MSN in
terms of unique users. Connectivity to Yahoo! Messenger requires
a Yahoo! ID, which is usually an e-mail address, which also
allows access to other Yahoo! Services. Yahoo! is popular among
many users for its seamless webcam technology, which allows
users to communicate back and forth using a video camera.
Additionally, Yahoo! Messenger has seen considerable popularity
for its IMVironment feature, an extremely in-depth graphical
environment that surpasses traditional skins. These innovations
have earned Yahoo! the third spot among the major IM networks,
clocking in at 30% of the IM market.
Create Account
ICQ
Percentage of IM Market: 8.8%
Publisher: America Online Inc. - http://www.icq.com
About: ICQ is the first-ever instant messaging application,
created by a start-up Israeli technology company called
Mirabilis. First released in 1996, the name "ICQ" is a play on
the phrase "I seek you". ICQ users are flagged and identified by
Universal Internet Number, or UIN. These numbers are assigned to
users in sequential order, meaning that new users today receive
numbers well over 100,000,000. This has actually caused users
with very low numbers (six digits or less) to auction off these
easy to remember UINs on eBay and other Internet auction
websites. Although ICQ enjoys only 8.8% of the IM market, they
have held strong on CNET Download.com as the number 1 most
popular software for seven consecutive years, with over 300
million downloads.
To Create an account ICQ you need to be a pre-existing user. You
can download their software here.
Internet Relay Chat
About: Internet Relay Chat (frequently abbreviated with "IRC")
was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988. IRC was designed
primarily for group communications rather than the direct
one-to-one chat offered by the "big four" IM networks, but IRC
is not without its own popularity. IRC quickly gained prominence
in the early 90's. IRC remains very popular today for group
communications and even file sharing. The network is vast and
easily customizable.
You do not need an IRC account to log into IRC. You can simply
connect using IM2 software.
Voice Over IP
VoIP (short for Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a suite of
technologies designed to carry voice traffic and conversations
over the same protocols that carry regular Internet traffic,
instead of the regular phone network. There are a myriad of
different VoIP providers and service arrangements, but
generally, a user signs up to a VoIP service and uses a computer
microphone to place "calls" over the Internet. Some VoIP
services include the option to place calls from computers to
regular land-line POTS (plain old telephone service) telephones,
although this service is often billed to the user as a premium
feature.
Relative to the heavily regulated landline telephone network,
VoIP technology still enjoys freedom from most of the hoops and
hurdles associated with Federal Communications Commission and
other regulation, which has spurred unprecedented research and
investment into the up-and-coming technology. Private
organizations have instead taken the standardization initiative,
with recognized leaders collaborating to promote the use of ITU-T,
the standard for sending voice and video over IP on the Internet
and within intranets. Sensing a pressing need to embrace VoIP or
suffer huge losses in subscribers, many traditional telephone
carriers have sunk considerable resources into developing
proprietary VoIP services.
These traditional networks, however, are seeing competition from
well-heeled Internet rivals. With plainspoken offerings and an
aggressive marketing campaign outlining the many advantages held
by VoIP technology over traditional telephone lines, Industry
analysts expect VoIP technology to become the voice
communications medium employed in most households in the very
near future, and the excitement surrounding VoIP has prompted
IM2 to stake its own claim in this growing field. Future
versions of IM2 will contain a proprietary VoIP protocol,
allowing crystal-clear digital voice chat across the globe for
all IM2 users.
SMS - Short Message Service
SMS (short for Short Message Service) is an immensely popular
technology developed to send and receive text messages to and
from mobile telephones. SMS use has caught on most popularly in
Europe, with over a billion messages sent monthly between mobile
phones using SMS technology. SMS is part of GSM's Phase 1
standard for communications between mobile telephones, and the
first short message believed to have been sent took place in
December of 1992. The technology has expanded in both use and
public mindshare in recent years, with such established web
presences making use of SMS to deliver query responses to mobile
telephones. What started as a simple means of sending text
messages back and forth bas blossomed into a technology with
seemingly limitless possibilities. Sports scores, stock quotes,
weather information, and more types of data is now being beamed
across the airwaves on a daily basis, all using SMS. Seamless
interoperability across technologies of both today and tomorrow
is IM2's chief concern, and as such, future IM2 releases will
contain functionality allowing users to send and receive text
messages.
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