Dulles, Va.-based AOL is beta testing a product known internally as "Photon," which supports POP3, IMAP and AOL's proprietary e-mail formats, as well as its ICQ IM network and an encrypted version of AOL Instant Messenger.

According to sources at the company, America Online is exploring the possibility of bringing Photon to market under the now-defunct Communicator product name, revisiting a similar offering previously marketed by the company's Netscape unit.

The original Communicator centered around Internet applications attached to the company's flagship Navigator Web browser, including an integrated e-mail client, newsreader, and Web page design tool. Beginning with version 6.0, the combined product simply became known as "Netscape."

Sources said that Photon's development began as an unofficial effort to create an standalone e-mail and IM client after Netscape 6.0's troubled launch in late 2000.

At the time, some at AOL began fretting that the sluggish performance of Netscape 6.0 would dampen its uptake in the market -- hurting AOL's chances of successfully fielding an alternative to Outlook, which was being distributed in bundles with Microsoft's competing Internet Explorer browser, and its Windows operating system.

Indeed, some thought that the lackluster release of 6.0 heralded the end of Netscape's days as a significant power in Web browsing -- a prospect that seemed entirely realistic considering that Internet Explorer had eclipsed Navigator in popularity during the previous year, and Netscape maintained only about a 15 percent share of the market by the time of 6.0.

According to sources at AOL, the groups decided to respond by quietly developing a messaging client independent of Netscape's ailing Web browser.

Bridging E-Mail and IM

The result of that effort, Photon, marks a new level of integration between the services.

In a holdover from Netscape 6.0 and 7.0, Photon will house AIM and ICQ Buddy Lists in a sidebar attached to the application. (Users can be active on only one network at a time, and the two aren't interoperable. AOL has said that it is pursuing a strategy of migrating ICQ features over to AIM.)

New features added to AOL Communicator include links between e-mail address books and Buddy Lists. Buddy List members can be given customized names based on their address book entries, while address book entries can include Buddy Names. The application also integrates presence-awareness with Communicator's unified Buddy Lists and address book, being able to recognize when a Buddy List member is offline, and can automatically send e-mail in lieu of an instant message.

Not coincidentally, these features are reminiscent of the way in which Microsoft's Windows Messenger meshes with Outlook Express -- with linked address book entries and a contact list residing in an Outlook Express panel.

AOL is already signaling its intent to challenge the Outlook-Messenger relationship with version 5.1 of its standalone AIM client, released last week. During installation, the client replaces Windows Messenger in Outlook Express.

America Online also has shown a recent eagerness to develop products that target the business market, such as its announced Enterprise AIM Gateway. Sources say that the company is considering positioning Photon as a replacement for the enterprise edition of Microsoft Outlook, Redmond's staggeringly popular combined e-mail and calendaring app, deployed by many businesses in connection with Microsoft Exchange Server.

Despite the new features, it's not clear whether Communicator will see the light of day as a full release. For one thing, the launch of Netscape 7.0 in October addressed many of the problems in Netscape 6.0, such as its slowness in loading. Netscape 7.0's Mail component also offers several new features, such as enhanced filters.

To some at AOL, the launch of 7.0 thus obviates a need for a standalone e-mail and IM product. Supporters of Photo, however, still see a need for the application.

AOL, meanwhile ,declined to comment officially on its plans for Photon, saying that the product is only in an early experimental phase.

Nevertheless, at least some of the features unique to Photon are likely to find their way into other AOL releases. The application's encrypted instant messaging component mirrors AOL's efforts to roll out a secure version of the standalone AIM client, as part of its enterprise messaging strategy. An encrypted version of AIM is expected sometime in first quarter.

Christopher Saunders is managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.com.