Alejandra Rodriguez-Gitler: Publishing on the WWW
One of the most common uses and purposes of the computer has been to allow communication between people anywhere around the world, at anytime, instantaneously. Hence, the creation of instant messaging: “a form of real-time direct text-based communication between two or more personal computers or other devices, through shared software clients” (Wikipedia).
Though most people would assume that instant messaging appeared directly after and/or as a result of the popularization of the Internet in the mid-1990s, it actually took form thirty years before the Internet boom. In the mid-1960s, during the age of multi-user operating systems like the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) and the Multiplexed Information and Computing Service (Multics), instant messaging had a more serious application, being used as a notification system for printing and other departmental services. However, people quickly discovered the advantages of using instant messaging to converse with others logged in to the same computer/machine on a connected network. The peer-to-peer protocol of the 1970s, allowing users of the same computer to communicate, continued to stretch the range of communication (across buildings and towns) as more computers were linked to networks.
About fifteen years later, hints of the World Wide Web, the Internet, and future instant messaging characteristics became evident, especially in the Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) of the 1980s. People could login to the system and message each other via electronic mail, public message boards, and even chat rooms (if the BBSes had access to multiple phone lines). By the end of the 1980s, the online service Quantum Link, precursor to America Online, was offering On-Line Messages (OLMs) to Commodore 64 computer users. Anyone using the service was connected to the other users and would receive OLMs as yellow bars across their current active window that displayed the sender’s name and options for responding to or ignoring the message. However, online messages were not a free service; since they were not part of Quantum Link’s standard service, users were billed an extra per-minute fee each month. Talk, a similar system built in 1983 by high schooler Mark Jenks, also helped start the trend of social networking rooms where users could private message each other. As long as users signed into the application’s network, they could send messages from/to anywhere in the country; Talk became especially popular among private businesses and school networks up until the 1990s. The late 1980s saw Jarkko Oikarinen’s version of instant messaging open people’s eyes to the possibilities of communication through the Internet. His Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allowed users to talk through channels (multi-user groups), send private messages to other users, and even share files using a data transfer system. IRC helped journalists get information and share news during the wars and media blackouts of the early 90s.
The 1990s brought about some of the greatest and quickest changes in instant messaging. Along with the Internet boom, and the popularization of Graphical user interfaces (GUI), large corporations began to create their own versions of more advanced instant messaging systems. In 1992, CU-SeeMe began to offer users audio/video chat links that also allowed users to type messages to each other. Just four years later, instant messaging became available to the masses for free. Mirabilis’ ICQ (shorthand for I seek you) was the first free text-based messenger. ICQ used clients, a software application residing in the user’s computer that communicated with the servers whenever the users were online and the client was running. In the mid-1990s, Quantum Link became America Online (AOL) and acquired Mirabilis and two patents to create instant messaging systems: thus the birth of AOL Instant Messaging (AIM) and the start of the instant messaging revolution in 1997.
AIM is the first instant messaging system that I myself used when I started becoming a more active Internet user in the last years of elementary school. In fact, I still have the same screen name and many friends from my original “buddy list”. One of the best aspects of AIM, was the customization of messages. Instead of the boring yellow message bars of the 1980s, users were now able to choose among different fonts, colors, and sizes for their messages. People also started changing the way they spoke online; instant messaging users started creating abbreviations for everything and shortening words and messages as much as possible. The younger fanatics created code words to keep parents out of the loop, as well as creating and using emoticons (faces made out of characters) to symbolize when they were telling jokes or to simply show others how they were feeling. Users also spent a good amount of time creating or choosing icons to represent themselves visually to people online. The AIM default person icon (the little yellow running person) is still in use today and one of the most highly recognizable icons of the Internet and the 1990s. AIM allowed instant messaging to expand its purpose of just communicating with others, into a form of self-expression and fun. A new youth culture began to form around instant messaging.
Based on its immediate popularity, the other large companies soon followed AOL’s lead, creating their own versions of free instant messaging for their web-based services. Yahoo! created Yahoo! Messenger in 1998, followed by MSN in 1999, and Excite and Ubique in 2000. Though I’ve had a Yahoo! email account since the time I created my AIM screen name, I never used Yahoo! Messenger for instant messaging. I did, however, end up using MSN messenger in middle school to talk to my cousins and other people I knew living outside of the United States. MSN had a more definite international clientele than America Online, making it easier for family and friends across extremely long distances to communicate quickly and easily. Besides some differences in user demographics, each company also had its own protocols (formal descriptions of the digital message formats and the rules for exchanging those messages) and their own clients. There was no way to add friends using other instant messaging services to different networks. Users had to sign up for and run different programs to use each of their respective instant messaging networks.
Fortunately for multi-network users, the 2000’s brought about programs like Jabber, that allowed users to connect to multiple instant messaging services in one location, using only one client. The protocols were standardized under the name Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) allowing certain servers to act as a gateway to various IM protocols. These multi-protocol IMs, including Pidgin, Trillian, Adium, and Miranda, allowed users to access all of their different contacts within a single application by adding local libraries for each protocol.
Not all instant messaging services are still in use today, however. With the introduction of iChat for Mac Computers (which comes automatically installed into your computer and can assimilate your AIM contacts), Google Chat (a program that allows users to chat within Gmail, iGoogle, and orkut that works on PCs and Macs), Google Talk (which allows users to chat from their desktops, but only works on PCs), programs like Skype (that allows free voice and video calls, instant messaging, and unlimited file sharing for Macs) and even Social Networking sites like Facebook (with Facebook chat allowing users to talk with any of their Facebook friends) and Mobile Instant Messaging (for portable devices including mobile phones and smart phones), many simpler services that offer nothing in addition to instant messaging have become obsolete.
Right now, I am an avid user of Facebook chat and it is without a doubt my favorite instant messaging system in terms of its centralized services. None of my other instant messaging accounts have ever even come close to having 550 friends with whom I can chat in real time, while also allowing me to chunk friends into groups to contact at the same time, and making it so easy to identify who they are by using their profile pictures as their icons. Facebook has many great components, in that as soon as you add someone as a friend you can communicate and share information with them in so many different ways, including instant messaging. It still has many small usability issues that should be fixed, but the idea is good. In terms of video chatting, information sharing, and instant messaging (services a user can perform at the same time now, mind you), Skype is the clear winner. I mainly use this service with people I am a lot closer to than I am with my Facebook friends (like family members or best friends from home), especially since chatting could involve actually talking face to face.
Otherwise, I have been known to use my AIM (through iChat) from time to time, whenever I feel like having a good, long, old-fashioned instant message chat. AIM is great for talking with friends without the little blips and distractions of Facebook chat, or the hassle of looking up people through Skype’s wide network. Instant messaging has provided a great mode of communication, information sharing, self-expression, and identity for at least 4 generations of users; I can’t wait to see what else it morphs into in the future.
References:
communication.howstuffworks.com/instant-messaging1.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging-cite_note-1
im.about.com/od/imbasics/a/imhistory_2.htm
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