August 4, 1999

High-Tech Hypocrisy: Pot, Meet Kettle

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Does your business use instant messaging? Would universal and interoperable IM systems be a benefit? Do you see AOL's moves as a justifiable attempt to retain control of a huge part of the Web-communication market, or is AOL engaging in exactly the kind of behavior it accuses Microsoft of practicing? Discuss it in LangaLetter threads.

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Fred Langa is a senior consulting editor and columnist for Windows Magazine. Fred's free weekly newsletter is available via subscribe@langa.com. You can contact him at fred@langa.com or via his website at http://www.langa.com.

By Fred Langa

An "Instant Message," or IM, is a form of E-mail that can be exchanged by PC users in near real-time: If I send an IM to you, a few seconds later a little text box opens on your screen. In the box, you'll see my message to you, along with a place to type your reply.

For distributed enterprises or businesses with a traveling work force, IMs are a great way to get and share small bits of information, to quickly ask a question of a colleague and to get an immediate reply, or to brainstorm and collaborate faster than E-mail allows and less expensively than by telephone. As a recent InformationWeek article said, "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." (Want more information? See story here and here.)

AOL is the undisputed king of instant messaging. Its two main forms of IMs include "AOL Instant Messenger" which is bundled with the AOL online service software and with Netscape browsers, and "ICQ" a standalone application that AOL acquired last year. Some published reports claim the users of AOL's IM services send in excess of 700 million messages per day! (Each line of text in an IM counts as a "message.")

IMs have become so important to so many people that the Internet Engineering Task Force is working on a standard so future IM applications can interoperate. But establishment of that standard is some time off--and that's where the trouble starts. Right now, AOL holds a virtual monopoly on instant messaging, and they want to lock out other players.

Microsoft, for example, recently launched its own free "Messenger Service" and did something interesting: It figured out how to let Messenger Service users talk to AOL IM users.

AOL was not amused, and found a way to block MS users. MS found a way around the block, and MS and IM users could communicate again. AOL then blocked that. And that's where things stand today.

I found the whole thing darkly amusing: Just a few weeks ago, AOL was in a federal court whining about how evil Microsoft tried to use its market power to hinder AOL's and Netscape's competitive efforts.

And yet now, in a totally brazen way, AOL is doing exactly the same thing in an area it dominates. Talk about hypocrisy: While AOL is chest-thumping about the "the fight for Web standards" over on http://developer.netscape.com/, it's actively resisting standardization in instant messaging.

In fact, AOL's moves are so brassy that other companies such as AT&T and Yahoo! have joined with Microsoft to try to get AOL to stop acting in such a counterproductive manner.

I don't see how anyone who has felt disgust at some of Microsoft's tactics can turn a blind eye to AOL's. With its proprietary online service, its proprietary E-mail system, and now a proprietary IM service that it's working to retain, AOL in many ways is the antithesis of the move towards open standards and interoperability. I guess AOL only wants open standards in selected areas--where Microsoft is strong.

But what's your take? Does your business use instant messaging? If so, which one? Would universal and interoperable IM systems be a benefit? Do you see AOL's moves as a justifiable attempt to retain control of a huge part of the Web-communication market, or is AOL engaging in exactly the kind of behavior it accuses Microsoft of practicing? Is sauce for the goose also sauce for the gander? Join in!

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