“America Online today proposed instant messaging standards
that would clear the way for rival services to work together.
The submission comes on the final day for companies to hand their
proposals for open instant messaging standards to the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF), the industry’s standards body. The
IETF allows any company to submit a version for the standards. IETF
will review the proposals and eventually choose one.”
“The move is significant given AOL’s dominance in instant
messaging and its lead in the marketplace.”
“AOL has waged battles with rival instant messenger services
that have tried tapping into AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). It has
fought Microsoft, Prodigy, CMGI’s iCast and Tribal Voice, and
start-up Odigo after those services began communicating with AIM
users without consent.”