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Instant Messaging Can Kiss It!
You know I have had it up to freaking here with Instant Messaging programs. I now totally prefer good old regular email to Instant Messaging for a number of good reasons.
First and foremost is I do not trust MSN or AOL with my personal information and I do not want to install and use their questionable software. In fact of all the companies on the Internet AOL and Microsoft are the ones that I trust the least with my privacy. You see when you use a IM network like AIM and MSN the owners of the network have the right to record, track and sell what you say and do. If you were a bit more paranoid you could imaging a IM as a giant bar code tattooed to your forehead that marketers and ad men could use to gain even greater questionable personal data about you. I mean they can tell when you are on, who you talk to, what sites you send and talk about and the actual subjects of your conversations. I am sure there are some serious data mining projects going on trying to figure out how they can exploit your privacy and personal information that they gathered from the IM programs. I am sure when you sign a TOS to a IM network you are kissing your privacy rights good bye.
There is the danger of spyware and adware in commercial IM software either by accident or design.
I am never online consistently at the same times and I hate being interrupted when I am reading or doing something online.
There are so many different types, MSN, AIM, Trillian, Yahoo, ICQ, old versions of AIM, Apple Chat and they all pretty much do the same thing but they do mostly do not talk to one another for political and commercial reason.
Not all IM programs work with firewalls and they block access to all IM networks where I work. I have MSN messenger because I use Win XP at work and can not un-install it despite I can't actually use the damn IM program.
I have my email program always open and can receive emails whenever I am online almost as soon as they are sent. I don't like the synchronous requirement about how you both have to be on at the same time. It is a pain when multiple people try to IM you but I can have multiple people email me at the same time and not have a problem.
There is crappy cross platform IM support but I can use a Palm PDA, Linux PCs, and my Dreamcast can all use the same email account. Hell even fire up my old Mac SE and use telnet and PINE to check my email account if I wanted to. Also IMs require you to be constantly connected and it does not really work out well when you are between Wifi hot spots.
There are no spam filters on an IM program, no spell checker, no proof reading and it is still as impersonal as regular email. Then there are people like my mom who do not use the away settings so it is impossible to find out if she is actually there and wants to talk. If I wanted to trade files I would email or use a FTP, web server or P2P file sharing program.
I used to have GAIM the open source AIM client but I grew tired of the entire affair and un-installed it.
IM software are the bastard children of chat rooms, IRC, BBS, Adware and possibly Spyware. I don't think the idea is all that bad but it is poorly executed. I would love to see a W3C standard open format for IM chat protocol but I am not holding my breath. The bottom line is that if you really want to get a hold of me on the net just send an email.
Jake at February 12, 2004 
Nerd
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Comments
Just a couple points I'd like to make. I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I thought I'd play devil's advocate for a moment.
1. On synchronous IMing: If you've ever used the Yahoo! messenger you'd know that it supports sending messages to users who aren't on-line. The next time that user logs into the service they see any messages that were sent to them while they were off-line.
2. On cross platform: The new web enabled AIM client is supposed to be a big step in this direction. I've not used it, but my friend tells me it looks to be a ASP.NET application that runs in the browser (and this person uses a Mozilla based browser, so it's also not IE only). This might also solve some issues with moving between hotspots, as it shouldn't need to be "always connected".
3. I'm not sure what your complaint is with multiple IM conversations. If you used GAIM you must have tried out the tabbed IMs. This was a big feature enhancement for me (multiple IM sessions, one window).
Anyway, like I said, I don't necessarily disagree with you. However, I've been using IMs to keep in touch with my friends since the days of the first AIM client. In many ways it's replaced the telephone in being able to have an interactive conversation with someone some distance away, though nothing will ever replace hearing the sound of another human voice.
Posted by: Bob at February 12, 2004 4:24 AM
To this day I still prefer the good ol' ancient and archaic BBS form of communicating online, especially the Utopia Dammit! BBS. But what it comes down to is if privacy and security are paramount then you should just have a face to face conversation with the person you are in contact with. I use AIM myself when I need to chat online, simply because of the broad user base so I can pretty much get into contact instantly with anyone I need to. However, as you pretty much stated, anyone that trades anything in an IM conversation that they deem as personal information needs to remember it's just like yelling it out in a crowd where everyone has a microcassette recorder.
Posted by: InsaneDavid at February 12, 2004 7:05 AM
How to remove Windows Messenger from Windows XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_messenger_remove.htm
Posted by: HK at February 12, 2004 7:43 AM
Gaim has a spell checker =)
Posted by: roXet at February 12, 2004 8:05 AM
"There are so many different types, MSN, AIM, Trillian, Yahoo, ICQ, old versions of AIM, Apple Chat and they all pretty much do the same thing but they do mostly do not talk to one another for political and commercial reason."
You're in error there, Mr.Jake. Trillian is a program that handles MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and IRC. It's not it's own seperate chat medium. Tillian allows the user to use *one* program to use all of the above chat mediums.
Posted by: missy at February 12, 2004 2:10 PM
Ok Trillian handles Multiple formats but I would still like to see seperate W3C standards.
Posted by: Jake at February 12, 2004 2:32 PM
Jake, I was really surprised to read this about AIM's, especially since you are the one who got me to start using them in the first place. I've been using it a lot lately with your Aunt Carolyn to plan Grandma's 90th Birthday Party--I find IM takes a lot less time than talking on the phone--we seem to get right to the point. Besides I doubt that anyone would be interested in learning about the plans for a birthday party in a retirement home.
Posted by: mom at February 12, 2004 9:41 PM
Jake, I was really surprised to read this about AIM's, especially since you are the one who got me to start using them in the first place. I've been using it a lot lately with your Aunt Carolyn to plan Grandma's 90th Birthday Party--I find IM takes a lot less time than talking on the phone--we seem to get right to the point. Besides I doubt that anyone would be interested in learning about the plans for a birthday party in a retirement home.
Posted by: mom at February 12, 2004 9:42 PM
Oh my gosh, I sent this twice--why did it say that the post was rejected? Hey, did I tell you how cute little Gracie is? She got her 7 wk. old shot today and has already learned to use the dog door to go outside for you know what, which she does some of the time. Have a great weekend--I'll call you when we get back.
Posted by: mom at February 12, 2004 9:46 PM
Dont trust your IMs on the large networks? Want to ensure your IMs are encrypted? Want to manage the whole process? Your not alone, companies across the globe want the same as well.
And if you want that badly....start your own...http://www.microsoft.com/livecomm
Seems to work pretty well so far. :)
J.P.
Posted by: J.P. at February 12, 2004 11:09 PM
"I would love to see a W3C standard open format for IM chat protocol but I am not holding my breath."
maybe not W3C, but it appears that the IETF recently approved the jabber protocol as a proposed standard. i'm not sure of the long- or short-term significance of this will be, but i just thought i'd mention it.
here's one article about it:
http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/enterprise/article.php/3306801
jabber info at:
http://www.jabber.org/
Posted by: bunnyhero at February 18, 2004 5:28 AM
