Author Archives: Greg C.

About Greg C.

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

Userplane AIM Module

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When we launched AIM Modules and AIM 6.8 earlier this month we worked closely with the Userplane team out in Santa Monica so they could be a part of the AIM 6.8 client.  The AIM Module that Userplane wrote is available on the gallery.  It provides one click access to the Userplane chat rooms so you can chat on the most popular Userplane chats.  The module seemlessly injects you into the chat room.

When you install the Userplane modules, we add it to the bottom of the buddy list.  If you want to launch the AMO click the icon that is circled in red below.

Goowy AMOs

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A few people have pinged me this week asking me about two AIM plugins on the AIM Gallery, one called AOL iTunes, and the other called RSS.  They asked me if these plugins were copied from Goowy.  The answer is that these are actual Goowy widgets that we have made into AIM Modules.  Goowy is a widget company AOL acquired earlier this year, and Alex and his team have been churning out awesome widgets that can be distributed across dozens of different platforms, including AIM.

The AOL iTunes plugin shows you the top 10 songs being downloaded across specific music genres.  The RSS widget is a way you can host your RSS feeds directly in the AIM client.  These two widgets feature all the same customization you get today with Goowy’s YourMinis platform.

These two plugins are the first widgets we have from Goowy, and hopefully there will be more to come.

Off To Tel Aviv

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I am headed back to ICQ tonight for the week, to work with the team in Tel Aviv. I did want to share an update with Zune support in AIM MusicLink. I found on Dan Fernandez’s blog info that Zune does have a basic API, via the ZuneDBApi.dll found in your Zune install folder. The API is a COM based API, but cannot be registered in the COM registry. The interfaces can be viewed in the object viewer in Visual Studio 2005 but I cannot successfully implement the interfaces in MusicLink.

I am hoping Microsoft churns out some real documentation for the Zune API, so I can add support for the player in MusicLink.

Op-Ed On Filtering Content Based on Firefox/IE Plugins or Bandwidth

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Lately there have been an abundance of stories on the web describing how content providers and access points to the web will begin to control or filter content based on plugins you may have installed for your web browser, or if you are a bandwidth hog.

This got me wondering if we are headed to a time where the web becomes pay-per-view? If hulu.com or other sites stop allowing me to view content unless I remove AdBlock, a plugin for Firefox, this is understandable due to the fact that hulu.com gets their revenue from advertisements. If Comcast determines that I am using too much bandwidth because I am downloading HD Movies legally via my Apple TV, does that make me an abuser of their internet pipes?

I wonder if my Verizon FIOS connection will continue to be all you can eat a year from now, and will it or the websites I visit let me view the content on those sites if I have adblock installed?

AIM Express 7 Beta 2

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Last week was a busy week in the AIM world in Dulles, so I am still catching up on all the news we generated. We pushed a new update of AIM Express beta 2, which is an AIM application for people who do not want to download the AIM client or have issues connecting due to network configuration.

AIM Express 7 is built using the Web AIM APIs ActionScript3 library (wimas3, for short). In the latest release here is what we added:

  • Easily enter a custom status message or away message using the inline status field at the top of your Buddy List
  • View Buddy Info by right-clicking on a Buddy’s name and selecting “Get Buddy Info”
  • See when your Buddies are typing a message to you in the IM window
  • Hover over a name on your Buddy List to see your Buddy’s screen name and status message
  • A sound notification will play when you receive a new IM
  • Hyperlinks in the IM window are now clickable
  • The IM input field expands as you type to show all of your message
  • Tooltip support – descriptive text is displayed when hovering over buttons

Check it out here and as always feedback is appreciated.

Partners who are AIM-ing with AMOs

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When we launched AIM 6.8 last week, we shipped the client with a new type of AIM client extension or plugin, known as AIM Modules, AMOs for short. While Gus and I wrote a handful of AMOs to test the APIs early on, once we felt comfortable with the API we brought in a few launch partners to help get things kicked off right and to help them with reaching our audience. So with Vivaty, Goodreads, TenCent, blogTV, shopIt, and phonevite, we welcome you to the OpenAIM family.

TwitterMan updated

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I have a new version of TwitterMan that I posted to the AIM Gallery today. This version includes additional features like viewing your friends timeline and being notified of when your friends have posted a new status message. The flyout showing your friends timeline contains your friends icon, link back to your friends feed, status message, and of course the time the tweet was sent.

Download TwitterMan 0.5 here.

If you are new to Twitter, the first friend to add is the MarsPhoenix lander.  Its fun since the lander is tweeting in the first person.

Making some AIM Money

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When we launched Open AIM 2.0 in March this year we shared that we were going to be rewarding developers for building on the AIM network with advertising revenue. The ad revenue sharing program is called AIM Money and it is launching today. Signing up is free and incorporating a little bit of code will show an ad from the web’s most powerful ad network, AOL’s Platform-A.

Getting started is as easy 3 steps.

1. Register (you just need to be logged into the web page with an AIM screen name, same as getting a developer key)

2. Get the AIM Ad Money code and embed it into the app or website

3. Get Paid.

AIM Money is about rewarding developers for their hard work building on top of our platform, and by leveraging the same ad assets that we use at AOL gives developers a great path to make money!

Check out AIM Money here.

Taking AIM with AMO

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In the next evolution of Open AIM client extensions, today we are releasing as part of the AIM 6.8 client a new type of AIM plugin called AIM Modules. These AIM Modules, known as AMOs are client extensions written using HTML and JavaScript. These plugins have full access to the Open AIM APIs that so many of you use today, but it also provides hooks into the AIM client itself, so developers can now get specific information about the Buddy List window (location, height and width of the window) and other AIM application properties.

We have added lots of documentation and samples so you can get started building AMOs. AMOs are simply zipped up packages with an ‘AMO’ extension, instead of ‘ZIP’, so rename the package to ‘ZIP’ and unpack the file to view the code.

We have also helped out developers by adding a secure way of storing preferences via the Open AIM APIs. Developers who need users to enter in their credentials for their plugin can now store those credentials or other data securely.

AMOs are downloadable from the AIM Gallery and require AIM 6.8 or greater.