AIM And Gmail Partner On Integration Feature

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 6, 2007

Two years ago, Google announced that they were planning on making a way to enable AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users to communicate via Gmail as powered by Google Talk. The partnership was put together shortly after Google invested $1 billion into Time Warner’s AOL LLC in December 2005.

“Starting today, Gmail users can sign into their AIM accounts via Gmail chat and talk with AIM buddies just as they do with their Google Talk friends. Best of all, the features you love most about Gmail chat, such as chat history and automatic sorting of your buddies based on frequency of communication, work seamlessly across your Google and AIM buddies,” said Google senior product manager Mike Jazayeri in a blog post.

The synergy between the Gmail-AIM partnership is a direct hit to Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo’s Messenger instant message services.

Below are the numbers of users according to an Associated Press release provide by comScore metrics:

E-mail:
Gmail had 87 million users worldwide in October 2007 (64% increase from last year).
Yahoo’s e-mail: 262 million users
Microsoft’s Windows Live Mail: 256 million users

Instant Messaging:
AOL Instant Messenger: 35.4 million users in October 2007
Microsoft Windows Live Messenger: 223 million users
Yahoo! Messenger: 97 million