Instant messaging is a fast and inexpensive method of communication that has been part of the Internet since the early days. While most are familiar with proprietary instant messaging protocols like AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, some may not be familiar with XMPP, even if they use it. It powers Google Talk and Facebook Chat, and it is free and open source.

Because XMPP is an open standard, you can implement on your server and have your own instant messaging system. This does not mean you will be able to compete with AOL, Google, or Yahoo. What it does mean, however, is that your organization can create its own instant messaging platform for internal communication.

There are more than a dozen server software applications that can run the XMPP standard protocol. Some of them are paid solutions, while others are free and can be implemented with little cost. XMPP supports encrypted transmissions so your communications will remain private, and it also supports voice and other data streams to allow for a fully connected communication experience. XMPP protocols are defined by the XMPP Standards Foundations.

Continue reading: Benefits of Your Own XMPP Server

Do you use ICQ? Probably not, and neither do I. It makes sense then that AOL announced the sale of the service today to Digital Sky Technologies for $187.5 million– a fraction of the $407 million the firm originally paid for it in 1998.

ICQ was created by Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996 and is the first Internet instant messaging client. The name is a homephone for “I seek you.” Maybe the service is more popular than I think, because according to Time Warner, it has 100 million accounts registered.

Most of the users are between 13-29 years old and spend an average of five hours a day connected to ICQ. The service is widely used in Russia, Germany, Czech Republic and Israel.

AOL sold ICQ in order to make itself more lean. It is also in the process of either shutting down or selling its social networking site, Bebo.

Continue reading: AOL sells ICQ for $187.5 million.

American web media giant and ISP AOL has won a dispute at the National Arbitration Forum over the domain 4ngadget.com. AOL claimed the name violated the trademark of its gadget blog Engadget.

At first glance, but two may not seem confusingly similar, but because “4″ is located right next to “e” on most keyboards, some visitors to Engadget probably ended up at 4ngadget.com by mistake. AOL asserts that because the registrant displayed PPC advertisements on the site, he or she was essentially profiting from typo-prone Engadget users . This is commonly known as typosquatting.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: AOL wins domain dispute