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	Open up, AOL, we want to chat The company that started the whole instant-messaging phenomenon could be the one to stifle it.

By Steve Fox
Editorial director, CNET.com
(4/4/02)

I discovered the joys of conversing online in an AOL chat room in 1993. I remember that almost illicit thrill of typing to strangers; of flinging spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and syntax to the winds; of mastering acronyms from LOL to IYKWIM. I wasn't alone. Back then, chat rooms were a national obsession, the CB radio and Cabbage Patch Kids of their day. From the squeaky clean to the downright raunchy, chat drove much of AOL's early meteoric growth.

Then one day, the thrill was gone. AOL chat was still going strong, still attracting users, but the novelty--"Gee, Mom, look what I can do"--had faded. Maybe it was the rise of cell phones; maybe it was the ascendance of e-mail. More likely, it was the realization that baring your soul to people named BobbyR49872 and ImTooSexyForYouBaby is ultimately unfulfilling.

The return of chat
Fast-forward to modern times. Chat has come roaring back, but this time as a productivity tool, with instant-messaging (IM) applications such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and ICQ leading the charge. To give you a sense of the numbers, Download.com visitors have downloaded ICQ roughly 187 million times. AIM, launched in May 1997, now has more than 100 million registered users.

At CNET, not to mention most other tech-savvy companies I've encountered lately, IM has become the de facto mode of communication.

I'm guessing this latest groundswell in IM popularity is built on the backs of office workers around the world. At CNET, not to mention most other tech-savvy companies I've encountered lately, IM has become the de facto mode of communication. Other methods simply aren't consistent enough. Phone calls get shuffled into the black hole of voicemail, e-mail has become so spam-bloated that quick turnaround is impossible, and the idea of getting up and walking over to someone's office has gone the way of the Razor scooter. But by using one of the big four IMs, you can tell if someone's sitting at the desk, send a short blast, and get an immediate response--just what businesses need.

Indeed, Ferris Research in San Francisco estimates there are already 5 million to 10 million corporate IM users, with 200 million projected by 2007. However you slice it, that's lots of potential business for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ.

But I'm not here to extol the virtues of the established IM programs. This column trucks in less obvious trends, and I have a doozy. It's called Trillian, a chat client from Cerulean Studios that lets its users communicate with users of Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, IRC, ICQ, and sometimes AIM (more on the "sometimes" later). Trillian earned its first kudos back in January and February, when it landed on the Buzz Meter--our index of the search terms with the highest percentage gains on CNET Networks--for three weeks, a Buzz Meter record.

For further evidence of adoption rates, just turn to Download.com, which has registered 2 million Trillian downloads, with upwards of 150,000 per week. Another chat client, PalTalk, is on a similar, if more modest, trajectory. As of this writing, PalTalk, which supports chat between PalTalk and AIM users, had made almost continuous search-term gains for 12 straight weeks. These sorts of online metrics suggest strongly that people are looking for ways to communicate with fellow users no matter what IM client they favor.

I'll take AOL to block
Unfortunately, AOL has other plans. According to AOL spokeswoman Kathy McKiernan, Trillian's software "hacks into our system, undermining [its] security...and making unauthorized use of our network." AOL insists it wants interoperability, but through a server-to-server approach that guarantees greater privacy and security.

*This entire act is beginning to feel like a high-tech version of Hollywood Squares,* where it's always AOL's turn to block.**

Cerulean Studios cofounder Scott Werndorfer scoffs at AOL's claims. "There is no difference between a Trillian client connecting to AIM servers and the AIM client connecting to AIM servers," he says. "They both use the same protocol, and we have no server-based connections to their network."

So a fascinating cat-and-mouse game has developed. AOL blocks access to Trillian; Trillian reworks its software and finds a way back in. AOL breaks it again; Trillian fixes it. Ditto for PalTalk, which also keeps finding ways around AOL's blockade.

All parties swear they'll keep at it until someone blinks. We'll see. This entire act is beginning to feel like a high-tech version of Hollywood Squares, where it's always AOL's turn to block.

"Our policy has always been to protect our network from those seeking to hack into it, and nothing has changed about that," notes McKiernan. That's certainly AOL's right, but virtually all the reader e-mail we've received here at CNET--much of it from disgruntled AIM users who want to chat with their IM brethren--backs Trillian. Wouldn't it be ironic if the company that kick-started the whole chat phenomenon ended up choking it off? Here's hoping corporate posturing doesn't ultimately stand in the way of real innovation.

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