AOL has been seriously testing lifestreaming in various betas for AIM and AIM Connect for a few months now. At TechCrunch50, AOL just announced that lifestreaming will come out of beta on September 22 and will be part of the AIM product portfolio across Windows, Macs, the Web, iPhones and Windows Mobile.
Last week, the paid version of AIM for the iPhone was updated with lifestreaming capabilities. Today, lifestreaming is coming out of beta across AIM 7 for Windows, AIM for Mac, AIM for the Web, and AIM for Windows Mobile.
The lifestream is AOL’s way of melding instant messaging with social streams from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Digg, and Flickr. Initially it was just one-way, but recently AOL turned on two-way communications for Twitter and Facebook in the AIM beta so that you can update your status on those two services from within AIM. The beta is being used by about 150,000 people. On September 22, those features will be rolled out across the entire AIM user base of 20 million people.
David Liu, the senior vice-president who’s been leading the lifestreaming charge within AOL, notes that on average users in the AIM 7 beta send 20 percent more IMs than other users. The increased engagement is partly because the lifestream draws them in and gives them another reason to open the app. But the new AIM is also far zippier. “It is faster and lighter than all the major competitors via lab testing,” claims Liu (the competitors being Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and Skype).
As part of the launch, AIM Connect will also be integrated with AddThis across all AOL Media sites to hook back into their lifestreams on AIM, so that they can share content and web pages with their AIM buddies.
Video:
Other Coverage:
AOL embraces Twitter, Facebook with AIM Lifestream CNET.
AOL Integrates LifeStream into AIM AppScout.
TC50: AIM opens up; pegs its future on mobile apps VentureBeat.
AIM Debuts Lifestream Twitter Client ReadWriteWeb.
I was a loyal customer of AOL for years from day one, paying that monthly fee, that’s when AOL was a cool name, but I just don’t feel it any more since that merger mess with TimeWarner. So, for me, it won’t make a difference for AOL whatever it does from here. Its web site AOL.com also needs a complete make over to meet industry standard, just as Yahoo! did with its homepage.
What’s wrong with their website?
You do realize that AOL upgraded their homepage “to meet industry standards” (what specifically do you mean by this?) before Yahoo did.
you mean when they had one time cloned Yahoo’s homepage?
AOL.com launched two updates since. Did you actually look at aol.com lately? Or any other sites within their network?
“By Industry standard” I mean a homepage design and layout that meet today’s high demand for the best possible online experience. Yahoo!’s homepage as well as that of MSN are setting the bar high and that’s partly why AOL is trailing behind them in usage. AOL’s homepage is dull and blunt. They need to get an outside designer and I know a great team that can best redesign their homepage for them at the lowest fee possible. DM me @ Twitter or email simon(at)rentersq.com.
can AOL please just die already
AOL won’t die. It’s the most popular IM service.
No great deal.
Facebook + Myspace + Youtube = Knoyce.com http://bit.ly/ZPSXh
Again, stop with the Knoyce spam…
Congradualtions they are only catching up yo Digsby and all the other 3rd party apps out there. Anyone see any reason to actually use the real AIM app?
I think this illustrates the error in geeky blog readers thinking that they even partly represent mainstream ineternet users.
I bet most people just download the original chat client for whatever service they use, and most people don’t even know the name of any all-in-one alternatives.
i agree driftwood, this thought that digsby even has 0.01% what aim has is hilarious
AIM didn’t just catch up with Digsby- it just left it in the dust. Try it if you don’t believe me.
P-P-P-Pidgin!
Wow, it looks so much like Yoono interface…
Did AOL just buy Yoono or what ?