www.instantmessagingplanet.com/public/article.php/2231511
By Christopher Saunders July 3, 2003 Instant messaging and Web logs, or blogs, are often found mentioned in the same breath -- by pundits as examples of hot new trends in Internet-age communications, or by tech writers, as two of the things that all the kids seem to be doing these days. We all know that kids aren't the only ones using either technology. Both blogging and IM have attracted the attention of Corporate America. Both are increasingly viewed by business as an opportunity. And in recent months, the two technologies have even begun to merge. Blogging giant Pyra Labs, which began offering the API to its Blogger service in 2001, sparked a great deal of the trend, prompting developers to create their own interfaces to the system using a variety of applications, including IM interactive agents, or bots. One of the best known came about from Philip Fibiger, who runs BloggerBot. After configuring the agent, users can simply IM BloggerBot whenever they wish with updates to their Blogger blogs, which are posted almost immediately. Another major blogging power that's been long dabbling in the IM space is UserLand Software, makers of the Radio and Manila content management tools. Last year, the company unveiled the public beta of its tcp.im instant messaging client and server framework for its Frontier application server. Users of the company's tools then gained the ability to create services on their desktops that can be delivered to anyone that has an AOL Instant Messenger or Jabber IM client, or a tcp-im enabled version of Radio. For instance, users can post to their Radio blog or Manilla site via IM. They also can embed the technology in Radio applications that users could query using IM -- creating Radio-based IM bots. Users also could create systems to notify readers about Web log updates, with alerts delivered via instant messaging. While tcp.im supports Jabber and AIM, the system is designed to be open, enabling developers to write their own gateways to connect to any IM network or to use any IM protocol. New blood: AOL, MindSay, Mo'time Eying the white-hot blogging space, Internet giant America Online is planning to launch its own blog initiative in coming months, offering tools to its subscribers to use templates to set up and maintain their own Web logs, branded AOL Journals. Leveraging the company's massive reach in instant messaging, the company plans to enable users to post to their blog by sending an instant message to the "AOL Journals" bot, or by sending a wireless message (courtesy of the Short Messaging Service) to the system. America Online spokespeople said the offering will come as part of the new version of the company's flagship online service software, AOL 9.0 Optimized, debuting this summer as part of a sneak preview for current subscribers, and publicly available in fall. The company also said it plans to allow only AOL subscribers to access the feature, as opposed to users of the free AIM service (who can pay a fee to use AOL IM features like AIM Expressions.) Smaller players also aim to get in on the game. Last month, a new startup launched its own IM-to-blog interface, which revolves around templated Web pages and posting through public IM. Silver Spring, Md.-based MindSay provides all the tools necessary for a user to launch and maintain their on Web log -- blog owners need only IM a posting to a bot on AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger, which in turn publishes instantly to their site. The idea is to enable millions of Internet users to create and maintain a blog without any programming or additional software. MindSay plans to rope in users with its ease-of-use, and eventually, charge for premium features like domain hosting. Tipic, a player in Jabber-based (that is Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, or XMPP) enterprise instant messaging, is similarly poised to launch a new foray into merging IM with blogging. With offices in New York and Milan, the firm is already known for its popular Splinder.it blog service in Italy. Now, Tipic plans to debut Mo'time, it's English-language service, in coming weeks. The launch represents a culmination in learning about the intersection of blogs and messaging for the company. While Tipic has experimented with IM bots to enable users to post to their blogs, the company is wagering that the real interest is in instant notifications about blog updates, or when a visitor leaves a comment on a Web log. As a result, Mo'time users can get notified about changes in their blogs or friends' via the company's desktop instant messenger, or its IM clients for mobile phones and PDAs. Because the system can automatically detect users' presence and availability, it can also send e-mails instead of instant messages -- if a user is offline, for instance. So far, the multi-channel notification scheme used in Splinder has worked wonders in Europe, where users are used to instant messaging on PCs as well as messaging from mobile devices. "The nice thing about this is when you have your mobile phone on a GPRS network, you're always on and you have your mobile IM client," said Tipic chief executive Marco Palombi. "If you have a blog on Mo'time, the next time someone leaves you a comment on your blog, or updates a blog that you subscribe to, you get a notification right there in your pocket." Like MindSay, Tipic hopes to charge users for premium features beyond blog-posting. Additionally, Tipic plans to approach wireless carriers -- who generally charge per message, or bytes transferred -- about getting in on the action. "For operators, this is a tool that makes for lots of bits being transferred and lots of messages sent," Palombi said. "You'd go to operators and say this is a wonderful tool, why don't you adopt it, because at the end of the day, we're increasing utilization of your resources, so your revenues go up." For the players working to merge IM and blogging, the ramifications can be profound. "Given the popularity of instant messaging, we see it as a way to bring in a lot more people to blogging," said MindSay co-founder Adam Ostrow. "Most people have a friend who blogs but might not know how to do it. We think we can really open it up to a much larger audience. People like using instant messaging, it's very convenient ... and it's in more than 40 percent of American households. We see an opportunity to bring blogging more into the mainstream." Similarly, Tipic's Palombi said he's already noticing new modes of communications taking shape. "We're seeing beta testers using [Mo'time] in very interesting ways. If you're a teenager and you're thinking about going out, and you have a group blog on Mo'time, you can use that blog for organizing a night out or a soccer match -- you just post on your blog and everybody gets a notification." "It kind of merges the two words," he added. "People used to go online and see if their counter has increased or if other people posted on their blog -- if they've left a comment or something. With this, it's very instant. You instantly get a notification, so you can react. You start a conversation there, which is an instant conversation ... but in a public archive." And while players like AOL, MindSay and Mo'time are new to the blogging services space, they say they're coming to the table with features comparable to the big names -- and banking that a close focus on instant messaging can help set them apart. "What we're adding to the equation is instant notification and connection to the IM world," Palombi said. "That's where we think we have an advantage. We came out of the dark in June last year with Splinder.it and went from zero blogs to 15,000 blogs in nine months. We think with tools like these that merge the two things and actually give you more features. People will be tempted to open up a blog there and people will be fascinated." For Tipic, a member of the Jabber Software Foundation, the experience with Mo'time also is expected to show off the flexibility of the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol. "I strongly believe in XMPP, and I think that this kind of platform really does show people how powerful it is to work with XMPP and in general, open technology," Palombi said. Christopher Saunders is managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.com. |
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