AOL Offers Free Plug-in for Outlook

[Jeff]

Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY
February 27, 2005

AOL is taking dead AIM at Microsoft Outlook users. That's AIM, as in AOL Instant Messenger, the hugely popular instant-message service.
Starting Monday (at www.aimatwork.com), AIM customers can download a free plug-in that will let users of Microsoft Outlook see which of their contacts are online and available to chat by IM.

The program scans your Outlook address book to find friends, colleagues and clients who are AIM users; it will then ask if you want to add those names to your AIM buddy list.

What's more, inside the Outlook program, the plug-in (called AIM Sync by Intellisync) lets you detect the presence of your AIM contacts who are online. AOL's signature running-man icon shows up next to the address fields on e-mail messages and contact lists. If someone's available, a single click from within Outlook will launch an AIM session.

"The ability to integrate presence with e-mail is very important," says Michael Osterman, founder of the Osterman Research market research firm. "Right now, you have no clue whether a person is on vacation or at their desk."

Michael Gartenberg of researcher Jupiter Research says: "It's a natural extension. What took them so long?"

The AOL-Intellisync pairing reflects a push by AOL to bring instant messaging to places where users already congregate, rather than forcing them to communicate directly from AIM's software.

In January, ComScore Media Metrix says, AIM had 20 million users (nearly 40 million if AOL members are included). Rivals Yahoo Messenger had 19.6 million, and MSN Messenger, 14.9 million.

"This is just the beginning of a broader strategic approach with AIM — making sure our application is available where you are," says Chamath Palihapitiya, the America Online executive who handles the IM service.

Beyond Outlook, AOL is taking other steps to make AIM more readily accessible. Here's how:

• The company will announce today a relationship with CareerBuilder.com to bring together recruiters and online job applicants. A prospective employer who spots a job seeker's résumé with an AIM address can instantly send a message to the person in real time.
  
  The job seeker could presumably opt out at certain times.
  
  "It's very useful," Osterman says. "But be careful how it's used. Do you want a potential new employer to contact you at work?"

• AOL is teaming with the college-oriented Ruckus Network so students can chat via AIM about music, movies and other digital entertainment. Along with text, users might use AIM to swap musical play lists and video.

• AOL will partner with Thomson Financial. Traders and brokers can chat with clients or each other via AIM.

Source: USA Today