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"AOL has significantly expanded their developer program for its AIM instant messaging software, releasing version 2.0 of Open AIM, with web-based chat servies eBuddy and Meebo signing on as initial partners.  \nWith today\u2019s announcements, the grey area that applications like Trillian on the client side and Meebo and eBuddy on the web side worked in has been removed, as AOL is now touting the ability for developers to build applications that allow users to sign-on to multiple IM networks with one application.   True IM interoperability has been something on many developer\u2019s wish lists for the better part of a decade, and today, it has officially arrived with the largest IM service opening up.  Competitors Microsoft and Yahoo had previously announced a partnership in 2005 to allow users of their respective IM services to talk to each other.  \nIn addition to embracing openness, AOL is announcing a few other additions to drive further developer adoption of their platform.  They are launching a revenue share program called AIM Money that developers can use to monetize their applications, while also eliminating the usage limits that were previously in place.  \nOther than a few companies like Meebo and eBuddy, who are now using the new Open AIM 2.0 APIs, we don\u2019t hear too much about new applications for IM, so it will be interesting to see if these changes lead to a flood of new applications, similar to what we\u2019ve seen with applications for Facebook and other social networks.  In reality, the opportunity for instant messaging applications is much larger \u2013 IM is an application that millions of people have open all day on their desktop or in their browser, and there is a built-in \u201Csocial graph\u201D \u2013 your buddy list, organized into various groups.    \nMeebo already sees a huge opportunity here, telling us \u201C\u2026 with official access to the API, we can do so many cool things we weren\u2019t able to do before \u2013 richer user profile information, increased personalization, the list goes on.\u201D\nAdditionally, unlike the social networks, the lock-in for IM networks is enormous \u2013 on par with that of email \u2013 because no one wants to change their screenname.  There is a huge opportunity for applications that create a better experience than the default IM programs, so Open AIM 2.0 is definitely something to keep an eye on."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/03/04/open-aim/>