A group of America Online's instant messaging rivals today accused the Internet giant of using inflated security and privacy concerns to stall progress on technology standards that would allow its services to work with those of competitors. The charges challenge recent actions and statements by AOL aimed at easing concerns that it intends to use its massive lead in the instant messaging market to indefinitely lock out rivals. AOL has said it is not opposed to interoperability in principle, but it will not open its network without reasonable security guarantees. The paper is the latest shot at AOL in light of the federal government's ongoing examination of its proposed acquisition of Time Warner. Proponents of the technology compare its importance to that of the telephone.
Instant messaging allows people to send real-time text messages and files.
Newer versions even allow people to place phone calls through the network. AIM, which can be downloaded for free off the Web, has more than 61 million registered members. That figure does not include the instant messenger screen names in AOL's proprietary service. AOL previously reported a total of 91 million screen names for AIM and AOL's proprietary service. AOL also owns ICQ, which topped 70 million registered members.