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A form of messaging technology that
allows internet users to communicate in real time, rather than using
asynchronous tools such as e-mail or bulletin boards. The
technology behind instant messaging (im) has been available to users of
university networks and internet chat rooms for many years. But the
advent of stand-alone programs such as isq, microsoft's msn Messenger
and aol's aim has allowed anyone with an internet connection to chat
to friends, strangers and business acquaintances all over the world.
At
its simplest, Im software lest people communicate quickly, privately
and often anonymously by typing ordinary text messages into a small window
on the screen. IM has become one of the internet's most widely used
and important tools, and it is considered an essential part of the strategy
of all the big portal companies. As well as providing simple chat
facilities, most IM clients now include features that allow files to
be sent between users and even enable voice conversations and
videoconferencing applications.
The immediacy and simplicity of IM has attracted businesses
keen to find ways of communicating quickly and privately with colleagues and
clients, but there are some problems to solve before it becomes a completely
secure medium for these sorts of communications. Lawyers, doctors,
financiers and even the US navy have adopted IM on a wide scale as an
important adjunct to existing e-mail services, but they are aware that it is
subject to the same security issues as any other form of digital exchange.
With this in mind, several companies now sell products based on advanced
encryption algorithms that protect instant messaging exchanges from
eavesdroppers, authenticate the identity of the people involved in
discussions and record an irrefutable audit trail of conversations. Such
developments are becoming popular with some financial institutions, which
use them to manage communication among brokers, traders and clients.
Over 41m Americans used Im software from home in may 2002
(over 40% of the active internet population). and nearly 13m business
people sent messages from work. Idc, a research company, predicted
that businesses would spend $1 billion by 2005, Even allowing for
duplications and users of more than one product, these are numbers big
enough to attract the attention of not just software companies but industry
regulators too. One problem with Im software is the incompatibility
between products from different companies. Aol has fiercely resisted
all attempts to allow its software to communicate with that from other
vendors such as yahoo and Microsoft, a stand that aggrieved its competitors
and, in its merger with Time Warner, led to some stern words from the US
Federal Communications Commission (fcc) regarding unfair competition. After
some unseemly tit-for-tat "chat wars" between aol repeatedly rewrote
its software to block incoming messages from other sources, the opposition
took a different tack. Microsoft, Yahoo, at&t and several smaller
companies joined forces in 2000 to form a standards-based body called Imunified,
an alliance notable for the absence of aol. imunified's work has yet
to bear fruit.
Meanwhile, most companies developing Im programs are seeking
ways to integrate them successfully with the sms services available on mobile
phones, thus guaranteeing an exponential increase in the number of annoying
beeping sounds now heard in most public places. |
