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CNET
July 30, 2001
Watch out browsers, bots, e-mail and telephones–here comes the next generation of instant messaging.
Long associated with casual text-based conversations among teens and singles in America Online chat rooms, IM technology is now poised not only to gain mainstream acceptance, but to establish itself as an independent platform for a variety of communications and information-gathering applications.
Already, instant messaging applications from mainstream software and media companies Yahoo, AOL Time Warner and Microsoft offer a long menu of communications tools that go beyond the traditional text-based instant message. These include audio chat and PC-to-phone telephony, videoconferencing, file sharing and multiplayer games.
A further glimpse of what may be in store came last week, as Microsoft showed off several new IM capabilities in the pipeline at an analyst conference. One of these would make it possible to exchange drawings, or “ink,” in instant messages, an application that could find a place in messaging over handheld devices. The other lets IM correspondents collaborate on messages with an editing capability for drawings and text.
As the major contenders and their smaller competitors work overtime to come up with new IM-based applications, analysts are bracing for a coming wave of innovation and investment, provided key rivals can sort out disputes that have kept their services from working together. By independently adding new bells and whistles to IM, Microsoft in particular may be hoping to prod America Online to open its network to competing services faster.
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