(COMTEX) A: AOL Blocks Microsoft Messages
A: AOL Blocks Microsoft Messages
NEW YORK, Jul 24, 1999 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- America Online Inc.
responded to the release of instant messaging software from Microsoft
Inc. by electronically jamming messages that users of the Microsoft
software tried to send to people who use AOL's service.
Microsoft's MSN Messenger Service, released Thursday, works through the
Microsoft Network site, allowing instant message exchanges with the 40
million users of MSN Hotmail.
Instant messengers allow Internet users to chat in ''real time'' by
sending messages that recipients see instantly, without having to go
through e-mail. While common enough on the Web, few messenger programs
are compatible with others.
The Microsoft program was designed to allow messages to be sent to
users of the popular AOL Instant Messenger System, or AIM. That aspect
of the new software angered AOL, which late Thursday blocked MSN users
from interacting with AIM users, The New York Times reported today.
Seattle-based Microsoft said it had revised its program late Friday to
get around the AOL block. But Dulles, Va.-based AOL responded within
hours by issuing a second block, the Times said. The story also was
reported today by The Washington Post.
To determine which AOL users are online, Microsoft's product enters
AOL's servers in a way that the company says violates its copyrights
and trademarks.
Among AOL's complaints is that Microsoft requires AOL users to enter
their password, AOL spokeswoman Ann Brackbill said Thursday.
''It raises significant and serious privacy and security issues,''
Brackbill said. ''Its unauthorized access to the AOL namespace is akin
to hacking.''
Analysts say the new software as a key step in the ever-escalating
battle among Internet companies to obtain Web traffic to help them sell
advertisements.
By designing its messaging service to work with AOL's system, Microsoft
Network could position itself to draw more users to its Web site and
keep them there longer, said Emily Meehan, an analyst with The Yankee
Group research firm of Boston.
Deanna Sanford, MSN lead product manager, said Messenger was just one
of the services MSN wanted to offer its users and wasn't directed
towards competing with AOL.
''This is just part of our continuing efforts to provide consumers with
a place they can go to get information no matter where they are,'' she
said.
Copyright 1999 Associated Press, All rights reserved.
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