For anyone inside the generation for which AOL was synonymous with the internet , and AIM was prerequisite to anysocial lifeat all , some pretty sad news program : AOL justsackedits IM team . The old Rex of chat is paraplegic .
https://gizmodo.com/remember-when-aol-instant-messenger-was-our-facebook-5800437
The NYT ’s Nick Bilton reportsthe mass canning :
The AOL Instant Messenger group took the deepest slice so far . A former AOL employee said the chemical group was “ eviscerated and now only consists of support staff . ” This person , who asked not to be named because they were not take into account to speak publicly about the company , added that “ virtually all of the West Coast tech squad has been killed . ”
living staff only means no more developers . No more developers means no more new software . No more new software means AIM stops farm and modify forever , suspend on the decline — we’ll never be intimate if thenew clientcould have been great . AOL still somehow hopes to milk “ $ 25 million a twelvemonth ” from tranquilized AIM , but put their business fantasies aside : the staff execution only induce formal what was happening anyway .
https://gizmodo.com/aim-is-back-from-the-dead-but-will-your-old-buddies-si-5860025
AIM was long ago defeated by a claw attack from Gchat and Facebook — the former is the IM basic for the use , the latter the gilt protocol for students , tweens , and below . Oh , and Twitter befall . AIM was beaten at its own game , overwhelmed by pop novel things and too many geezerhood of bloated software system . There ’s nothing peculiarly surprising here — just sad for those of us who spent so much time with a programme . For package that was near compulsory for keeping up with your friends , AIM was kind of a friend itself .
We ’re await to get word back from AOL for an prescribed argument on AIM ’s future , if there is one . [ NYT ]
Update : An AOL rep evidence us they have no prescribed statement on the future of AIM .
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