“The Internet Engineering Task Force has zeroed in on three
technical proposals for creating an instant messaging standard, but
the finalists do not include market leader AOL.
“The three proposals – developed by Cisco, Microsoft,
Fujitsu and others – were selected from a field of 10 proposals.
AOL’s last-minute submission was a general framework for instant
messaging interoperability rather than a full-fledged protocol, so
it was not chosen for further consideration.”
“IETF officials say all three of the selected protocols appear
to interoperate with AOL’s framework. AOL currently blocks instant
messaging traffic from competitors such as AT&T and
Microsoft.”