Word: instants
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...Chairman Robert Pitofsky calls the wave of mergers "unprecedented," regulators are scrutinizing matchups like AOL-Time Warner for indications that the partners might use their clout to deny rivals access to their networks. In part to fend off regulators, AOL last week filed plans to open its wildly popular instant-messaging system to other Internet providers. A Vivendi-Seagram deal would probably face less U.S. scrutiny, since most of its distribution channels would be in Europe. European regulators, however, will take a hard look, just as they said they would do last week with Time Warner's proposed...
...Europe with my friends, had navigated foreign train stations and surly hostelkeepers with aplomb. But as soon as I arrived at Harvard, I met Dave and Andre, and I was humbled like the ninth grader I had been. I had met Dave online that in-between summer. The instant I decided to go to Harvard I added that fact to my AOL profile, and he sent me a congratulatory note, having searched "Harvard" and "gay" and found a new name. He offered to show me around Cambridge when I arrived--"don't worry, I know plenty of cool people...
...promises it will behave. It has been a strong defender of "open access" in the past. But its promises are not binding, its slowness in allowing other instant-messaging services onto its platform is troubling, and last month's squabble over access to ABC on Time Warner's network is positively chilling. These are not signs that the principle that built the Internet thrives...
America Online learns its p.r. lessons quickly. Even as it continues to deny competitors such as Microsoft, Tribal Voice and Odigo (blocked, Odigo says, six times in the past two weeks) access to its teeming Instant Messaging network, the online giant floated a proposal that would throw open the doors. Politically, the proposal is perfect for softening the scowl of trustbusters eyeing the AOL-Time Warner merger, and it's also very handy technically in that it doesn't offer any details whatsoever on how outside linkups would be allowed. That, according to AOL, is a security issue...
...cybercrap that litter their traditional e-mail accounts. AOL's proposal, besides being in the play-nice-with-Washington mold that Microsoft eschewed to its peril, has the added advantage of being utterly theoretical for the foreseeable future. Said IETF co-chairman Vijay Saraswat, whose group has been mulling instant-messaging standards proposals for two years: "It will provide a lot of food for thought." Sounds like AOL's stranglehold is safe for a while; meanwhile, its image gets a nice buffing...