Will AOL uphold its instant-messaging promise
SeattlePI | at | by Mike
As part of their $750 million peace treaty, AOL Time Warner Inc. and Microsoft Corp. promised to try to make their popular Internet instant-messaging programs work together. Don't hold your breath, however. AOL and its instant-messaging rivals have made similar pledges before.
AOL has said for years that it is reluctant to open its network to rivals because doing so might compromise its users' privacy and security. Competitors have said AOL mainly wants to preserve its dominance in instant messaging.
AOL's instant-messaging programs, including a service it owns called ICQ, had 59.2 million users in April, according to comScore Media Metrix, which measures Internet usage. MSN had 23.6 million and Yahoo! had 19.1 million.
The Federal Communications Commission tried to push AOL into interoperability by requiring, as a condition of its merger with Time Warner, that AOL make its network accessible to its competitors' services before it could offer video instant messaging, as MSN and Yahoo! now do. Now AOL is asking the FCC to rip up that requirement, saying it no longer has a dominant market share in messaging.