AOL reportedly has laid off more than 100 employees at its West Coast Offices, 40 of which have worked on AOL's Instant Messenger (AIM).
There is speculation that AOL will be shutting it down entirely, while there are reports that suggest that the company intends to squeeze more dollars out of the messenger platform. A New York Times article suggests that AOL intends to cut the annual cost of AIM from currently $25 million to about $2 to $3 million and will only employ support staff within the AIM unit. The report also notes that AIM generates about $50 million in revenue for AOL per year.
AOL's instant messenger was first released in May 1997 and is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac OS, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS. While AIM was once believed to have been the leading instant messenger, recent reports indicate that its worldwide market share has plunged to less than 1 percent and is trailing Microsoft's Live Messenger (41 percent), Skype (27 percent) Yahoo!Messenger (15 percent), tencentQQ (5 percent), Google Talk (4 percent), Gadu-Gadu (2 percent) and ICQ (2 percent).
Among the more prominent layoffs are SVP Eric van Miltenburg as well as AIM lead Jason Shellen. The remainder of the layoffs at AOL appear to be affecting Patch.com as well as in some other business units. In a statement provided to the NYT, AOL said that it is “making some strategic but very difficult changes to better align our resources with key areas of growth for us as a company.” It also said that AOL remains "committed to [its] presence in Silicon Valley and driving innovation in consumer products and mobile.”
AOL has not confirmed that it is shutting down IM.
no wonder facebook chat is horrid
And whats worse... Arriana huffpoo turned the whole thing into a schoolyard class fight on top of the political BS that she spews non stop like a broken sewage line....
And no. She is not a liberal, or a democrat, or ever a repub... she swings faster than a strip dancer on a pole that was just paid a hundred bucks....
Long live....... oh, nevermind.... just die quickly AOL/HuffPo...
Brain damaged? If its not either, perhaps its just news?
I have the ICQ "uh oh" sound for incoming text messages! whenever someone hears that for the first time in years, it always sparks up a convo about the good ole days!
I got so many people to use it too. I showed them how clean and solid AIM was (and back in the late 90's, it was THE most STABLE IM client available...
But once they upgraded their interface, one that was a resource HOG and contained obtrusive advertisements... I stopped using it.
When I found Google Chat (now Google Talk) I switched immediately. I tried to get people to switch, once they had Gmail accounts of their own, but people were set in their ways. It was AIM, or Yahoo! chat or nothing. Yahoo! chat I noticed had quite a following, one that I missed out on, but I only used it for school projects where I needed to work on the whiteboard remotely.
However, once Facebook became ubiquitous, all bets were off. People switched en masse to Facebook Messenger, despite how horrible it was, and apparently, still is.
I am glad that, for the most part, Google Talk still works with AIM. However, since Facebook Newsfeed (and the introduction of non-college students) to Facebook, I have reduced my usage drastically. I now no longer even have Facebook active on my new Android Phone. When I had Blackberry, I actually had a short resurgence, as BB is the only OS to fully integrate their FB client with the rest of their software. But in the end, I don't want to be given important invitations and communication via FB. I don't want chats from my FB friends. It is there if I need it.
Unlimited SMS texting from my no-contract Virgin Mobile phone... That is my main communication now. It is fairly reliable, instant, and doesn't crash my phone/computer.
Any former WallStreetSports 'alums' remember the mass chats?