Bob Woods

One of the hot new trends in the world of public instant messaging (IM) is giving users the ability to go beyond typed text. The most popular way lately to do this is to give people the ability to send video of themselves typing away in IM conversations. By doing this, emoticons essentially go “live,” […]

Do people want instant messaging and other interactive services to cross over from computers and wireless devices to the television? According to a new study, a market exists for such a move. Comverse Technology Inc.’s Comverse unit, which develops network-based multimedia enhanced communications services, contracted with market-research firm RoperASW to gauge the U.S. market demand […]

Critical Path Inc. is moving beyond short-message service (SMS – definition) into the world of wireless instant messaging (IM) by leveraging industry standards like SIP/SIMPLE, Wireless Village and SSL/TLS. San Francisco-based Critical Path, best known for its various e-mail and messaging platforms, also has an SMS solution for both wireless carriers and enterprises. Renee Stromberg, […]

America Online’s AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) — specifically, version 4.7 of the immensely popular IM client — can be forced into accepting new screen names or other functions from Web sites, e-mails and other venues that can use a specific HTTP tag, according to one IT group. Malicious hackers using the exploit can force users […]

An industry group responsible for defining and promoting the interoperability of mobile instant messaging and presence services (IMPS) said it has successfully completed testing of its new specifications. The Wireless Village initiative has today released version 1.1 of its specifications, with updates from the 1.0 version released last February. The 1.0 specifications are now being […]

Denver-based extensible IM developer Jabber Inc. said it is partnering with Malibu, Calif.-based Virtual Personalities to offer automated customer-service platforms that both improve customer relationship management (CRM) and cut costs. Both companies will create a knowledge-based system for automated IM response for customer service applications. Enterprises that license the Jabber platform will now be able […]

Instant-messaging (IM) bot developer ActiveBuddy Inc. has retired its SmarterChild automated information service from America Online’s AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) network, partly because its popularity became too troublesome for the New York City/Silicon Valley-based company. ActiveBuddy also said it retired SmarterChild because it proved what it set out to do — demonstrate ActiveBuddy’s capabilities in […]

If the latest results from a new survey by wireless-industry researcher Telephia Inc. are any indicator, consumers want to do much more than talk on their wireless phones. San Francisco-based Telephia, in conjunction with Harris Interactive , said its latest survey of consumers found a strong interest in a variety of features and services that […]

Microsoft Corp. is further extending the reach of its MSN Messenger service into Europe. And the software behemoth is cutting some wires to do it, too. Microsoft has confirmed that its free IM service will be made available on mobile phones via 2 way SMS text messaging in Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and […]

Chief financial officers (CFOs) at high-tech firms are more pessimistic about the state of the economy and about their own companies’ financial prospects than CFOs from other industries, according to a new study by Financial Executives International (FEI) and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. What’s more, one-third of all high-tech CFOs say their companies […]

America Online may be changing its mind about offering a fully hosted, secure version of its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service. Last month, InstantMessagingPlanet discovered a Web page and an Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) file that described the online Goliath’s intent to offer hosted “Secure AIM Services” for companies that want to implement confidential, fully hosted […]

AOL Time Warner Inc.’s America Online division has added a few features to its wildly popular AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) client. In the new version 4.8 of the program, IM’ers can now use a “Send Mail” feature directly from the Buddy List window. With the feature, a user can e-mail people on their Buddy List […]