WORKING OUT THE BUGS OF 'INSTANT MESSAGING'
By Gail Whiteside
January 1999
In researching this project, I decided to download several instant
messaging programs. I installed AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and Microsoft
Chat. All these programs had their merits, but I had to agree with the
latest reviews found on the Net about instant messaging...none of them
seem to provide a comprehensive package. While ICQ has just about every
messaging option imaginable, from real time chatting to file transferring,
it's interface isn't that impressive. AOL doesn't have chat functions, and
Microsoft Chat is unnerving because it's often impossible to connect to
the server. Still, instant messaging is an emerging technology and the
companies are avidly working to try to improve it.
In a high tech net column called "From The Front", Bob Kane
writes that inadequacies plague most IM programs. For example People Link
allows multiple-party conversations, but according to Kane, its visual
cues and privacy feature are awkward. NetPopUp and PeerChat offer no
"buddy lists". So there is definite room for improvement. And
the companies providing instant messaging are toiling away at fine tuning
their products.
But doing that means dealing with technological challenges. A case in
point is the 'interoperability issue". Instant messaging software is
now, according to Kane, in its "VHS/Betamaz stage". If you want
to start communicating in real time, all parties have to have the same
software. Microsoft is a case in point. But Microsoft has submitted a
proposal to the Internet Engineering Task Force to get a standard set for
these instant messaging applications. Forty companies are backing the idea
- except for one - AOL. Why? Well AOL Instant Messenger is compatible with
the 'buddy lists' built into AOL itself. That gives users a direct line to
ten million people. And guess what. AOL just doesn't want to share that
with anyone. So time will tell, but rest assured instant messaging will
emerge into technology way past its current stage. No doubt in a few years
time PC chatters will be "ROTFL" (chat lingo - rolling on the
floor laughing) looking back at the stone-age days of ICQ'ing.
MOVE OVER BOOKS-ON-TAPE
(c)
Copyright 1999 by Gail Whiteside.
Not to be reproduced without permission. |
