Author Archives: Greg C.

About Greg C.

I am passionate about building awesome user experiences, working closely with publishers and watching people "get" technology.

The Art of Niche

Posted on by
Reply

Last year at W3C I gave a talk about how monolithic social networks would give way to more niche networks for a multitude of reasons.  I got a lot of strange looks that day, but in the 14 months since that talk, some evidence is popping up that niche networks and websites will gain more importance to both users and developers.

Late last week AOL launched a new, and some are calling a “super niche” site, for PC gamers, BigDownload.com.  This site will provide PC gamers downloads and the latest gaming news.  We have launched many niche sites over the past year, and have more to come later this year.

These niche sites obviously are more attractive to not just users, since it gives them specific information they are looking for, but also advertisers since they can reach and target a specific audience.

AIM is leading the pack of downloads on the AppStore

Posted on by
Reply

As I mentioned earlier today, we launched AIM for the iPhone in the Apple AppStore.  This evening TechCrunch posted the top 10 download apps list and AIM comes in at number 2 with over 12K downloads.  The number 1 app is Remote, which was written by Apple to control your iTunes and Apple TV.  I firmly believe real-time messaging applications will be huge on this phone because of the fees that AT&T intends to charge for SMS.  As people migrate to these messaging apps, I think people will see the short comings of SMS.  Here is the top downloads list.

AIM on the iPhone is out and free

Posted on by
5

The lines are forming fast and furious at Apple and AT&T stores all across the world and anticipation has reached a furor pitch for the 3G iPhone tomorrow.  But, not wanting to trump tomorrow’s excitement, Apple released iTunes 7.7 that has AppStore support (AIM MusicLink works with iTunes 7.7) and with the iPhone SDK 2.0 posted this morning, apps can now be downloaded and installed!

We have posted the AIM client that we first debuted on stage at the iPhone SDK launch back in March.  The client has been improved with some really cool features new to the AIM client, including gestures to start new messages and switch between conversations, as well as the ability to use the iPhone camera to take a picture and make the picture your buddy icon.  A bunch of people asked how we wrote the client, and the answer is that we used our Open AIM Web APIs to write this client.  The client is free and available on the AppStore now.

Vivaty AMO and some Open AIM love on Techcrunch

Posted on by
1

Techcrunch wrote this morning about a Vivaty plugin that was written for AIM.  The same plugin was also written for Facebook’s platform.  Vivaty Scenes was one of the plugins that launched in June when we released AIM 6.8 and AIM Modules.  First, I want to say it was nice that Techcrunch gave OpenAIM some love, as some of our apps and plugins rival the usage of the most popular Facebook or MySpace apps.  AIM as a platform sometimes flies under the radar of the blogosphere, but it is the only synchronous real-time communication platform that allows the building of your own applications as well as application hosting and sharing of our social graph via the AIM Buddy List.

With regards to Vivaty Scenes, their app is hosted in the AIM Buddy List as an AIM Module (AMO).  Their app is currently in beta, and requires XP or Vista with IE6+.  You can download the AIM Module from the AIM Gallery.

AIM MusicLink 3.0.0.0

Posted on by
3

Happy Monday everyone!  I am posting the latest version of AIM MusicLink that contains support for a new media player as well as a couple of fixes for some old bugs.  In AIM MusicLink 3.0.0.0, I have added support for XM Player version 3.4.2.1+.  MusicLink now has support for 8 different media players.  The full list can be found on the AIM MusicLink home page.

I have also fixed two bugs that have been around for a while.  ITunes would report the current song even if the player was paused or stopped.  MusicLink will only set an ITunes song if the player is playing a song now.  The other bug that I fixed involved Windows Media Player.  People were reporting that WMP songs were getting set in their AIM Status even when WMP was not running.  I have fixed an issue where if the player exits the WMP plugin was reporting the wrong information.  If WMP crashes, which does happen, MusicLink may still report the incorrect information.

Download the latest AIM MusicLink here.

Will SMS go the way of the Dodo Bird?

Posted on by
2

A post on Silicon Alley two days ago regarding AT&T’s different iPhone plans caught my attention.  Dan Frommer, writes that AT&T is “screwing its customers by not offering a text message plan in between their 200/$5 and 1500/$15.”  But this is not a problem since there will be “a handful of instant messaging apps” released on the 11th.

The iPhone which, without doubt, has moved the ball down the field as far as smartphones are concerned, I believe is about to change the way all of us do real time synchronous communication via our mobile device.  Since most if not all people will have unlimited data with the iPhone, it makes more sense to use a messaging client rather than pay per SMS.  Messaging clients bring with it, presence, rich-text messages, user customization, such as status, avatars, etc, a familiar experience, and most importantly the ability to do advanced features like photo sharing and file transfer, both of which cannot be done via MMS since it is not supported on the iPhone right now.

SMS is not going away over night, but the iPhone will make it more attractive to NOT use SMS because the IM clients for the phone will be very good.  I am looking forward to seeing what RIM and Android can churn out to keep up.  As I wrote yesterday, here at AOL, we have a very nice AIM client for the Windows Mobile Platform.

AIM Express Beta 3

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday we released a new version of AIM Express Beta 3 that addresses a bunch of bugs as well as a few feature requests.

  • Improved connection & performance
  • Shortcut key to start a new IM with someone on or not on your Buddy List, use CTRL + /
  • Report Abuse on users who are IM’ing with threatening messages
  • Clear History in your IM from the right click menu on with IM window
  • We’ve added a dropdown menu on each IM window with some actions you can take for each buddy

Note: We are asking that everyone update to the latest version of Adobe Flash 9 for AIM Express, as Flash just recently fixed a serious security flaw.  As always we love to get feedback on this client, as the features above are a direct result of all the great feedback we are getting.

Heading to NYC on Wednesday

Posted on by
Reply

For all the AOL-ers up in New York City, I will be up at the 770 Broadway AOL Headquarters on Wednesday to give a speech on OpenAIM.  Come on by and check out the latest that AIM and Open AIM has to offer.  In the past month alone we have been really busy working on AIM.  Here are just a few highlights:

As you can see it was a busy month of June.  My talk on Wednesday is at 12PM, I will have some OpenAIM swag on me, so make sure you come by and say “hi.”

AIM for Windows Mobile

Posted on by
2

Late last week we posted a new AIM beta for the Windows Mobile platform.  The client is built using the Web AIM APIs and provides a new look for an AIM client on a mobile device.  All of the core AIM features are part of this application, including status, viewing Buddy Icons, and Buddy List management.

Please note: This build of AIM Mobile does not have an Update Mechanism available. This means you will have to return to beta.aol.com and check if a new build of AIM for Windows Mobile is available. The Update Mechanism will be included in a future build.

Supported Devices: AIM for Windows Mobile supports devices with the Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6 operating systems. Some examples are:

  • T-Mobile Wing
  • Sprint Mogul and HTC Touch
  • AT&T Blackjack II, Tilt
  • Sprint Samsung ACE
  • Motorola Q
  • Verizon Wireless 6800
  • Most Palm Treo’s

AIM Blast…A new way to Communicate

Posted on by
18

Last night we released a new beta feature for AIM called AIM Blast.  AIM Blast is a brand new feature that allows our users to have a group conversation, or send a broadcast IM to multiple people at once, without having to set up a bot or a chat room.

AIM Blast is groundbreaking functionality for the AIM Service, plus…

*No download required
*Fast & Easy setup of Blast groups at the AIM Blast website
*Access to your Blast groups anywhere and everywhere you can sign in to the AIM Service (including AIM Express, and any Open AIM services)

For more info on AIM Blast please check out the FAQ.

Since this is a beta product, we really would love to get feedback on this feature so we can fix any issues or complaints, and of course we never mind positive feedback as well. 🙂