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Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Nostalgia / Tech/Games AOL Instant Messenger Is (Mostly) Dead
Posted by David Mendez on Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 2:00 PM
According to a news report by the New York Times' "Bits" blog, AOL has slashed the team for its long-time instant messaging program, AIM.
Nick Bilton reported that a former AOL employee told him that “nearly all of the West Coast tech team has been killed," effectively ending the upcoming development for the software.
In the age of Facebook chat, Google Chat and Skype, AIM is a bloated, decrepit dinosaur that tries to install too much crap into your browser. Its death is long overdue, to be honest.
But at the same time, I feel like my generation owes it a debt of gratitude — particularly because I know that many of my longest friendships wouldn't exist had I not been able to connect with those people using AIM to talk outside of class (yes, I'm of the generation of kids who didn't go outside, lay off me).
And I'm pretty sure that NBC's To Catch a Predator would have had to work twice as hard to snag the same number of potential pedophiles had AIM chat rooms not been around.
So my fellow Millennials, let's take the time to pour one out for AIM — may its alert tones ring in our hearts forevermore.
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