Both Earthlink Network Inc and MindSpring Enterprises Inc have agreed to distribute co-branded editions of America Online Inc’s Instant Messenger (AIM) software. AIM is at the center of an increasingly bitter turf war between AOL and Microsoft Corp, In July 1999, Microsoft released rival software under the name MSN Messenger. AOL swiftly characterized the Microsoft software as a hack and blocked it from interoperating with AIM, ostensibly because it poses a security risk to AOL subscribers. Microsoft rebuilt MSN Messenger to get around the block, and AOL reblocked it.
This happened again and again until Microsoft got fed up and wrote to AOL chief executive Steve Case, asking him to stop blocking the software and to work with Microsoft on an Internet Engineering Task Force standard to allow the different messaging systems to interoperate. The irony of Microsoft being the advocate of open systems while AOL sulks behind its proprietary software has not been lost upon observers.
Now the 1.3 million subscribers to Pasadena, California-based Earthlink and 1.2 million members of Atlanta, Georgia-based MindSpring will join the 40 million users already registered as part of the AIM community. On the internet, if you can’t build a grassroots movement, there’s always the option of buying one.
