InformationWeek

In a keynote presentation this week at PC Expo in New York, America Online chief technology officer Marc Andreessen said instant messaging-already used by an estimated 50 million consumers-is catching on with businesses. "It's E-mail on steroids," Andreessen said. "It replaces the phone."

Instant messages can be exchanged by PC users in near real time, enabling new types of collaboration. It "will come into the workplace in exactly the same way that the Web did in 1994 and 1995," said An- dreessen. "Workers came home, saw their kids using the Web to access a museum in Germany or a library in Australia, and said, 'Why can't I do this at work?'"

Message Bundle
AOL bundles Instant Messenger with its Netscape Communicator browser suite, and also makes its ICQ chat software available as a free download from the Web site of its subsidiary, ICQ Inc. AOL said this week that it plans to deliver E-mail to 3Com's Palm handheld devices later this year. Eventually, AOL will make instant messaging available on the Palm as well, company officials say.

Some companies are already using instant messaging. Bidder's Edge Inc., a company that searches for information for clients on goods that are auctioned on the Web, uses AOL's ICQ to communicate with employees and customers.

Bidders Edge CEO James Carney says instant messaging is particularly useful for reaching employees who are working off-site and on the company intranet but who aren't necessarily checking E-mail. Such users often have access to just one phone line, which they're using for the modem, so that they can't be reached by telephone. "When you have people who are working remotely, [instant messaging] is a real tool," says Carney.

Bidder's Edge also uses ICQ to notify its customers when bidding begins on products at auction sites. Carney says some people prefer to receive an instant message because it gives them a jump on bidding.

BMG Entertainment is developing its own online messaging capability. The company is rolling out an internal network, called BENet, that incor- porates instant messaging, E-mail, and bulletin boards, says senior VP and CIO Scott Dinsdale.