Why AIM Sucks

AIM (AOL Instant Messanger) is obviously very popular amongst the kids these days, but it sucks. Most people don’t realize it sucks because they either haven’t been exposed to other clients or don’t know they exist. Among programs that can log on to AIM’s network (so you can still instant message all your AIM friends) both Trillian and Gaim for Windows and iChat for Apple are 1,000 times better.

AIM, realizing their software sucks, has started work on their new AIM Program called Triton. I’ve been beta testing it for a few months now and guess what….it too sucks. AOL can’t even pull a Microsoft and rip-off features from competitors (see: Windows new Longhorn operating system due out next year with it’s “gadgets”….sounds and looks strangely similar to Apple’s “widgets”….oh and Microsoft’s sidebar looks a little similar to the current sidebar Google is offering for free), instead AOL supposedly “rebuilt” AIM from the ground up with Triton…but basically it’s the EXACT SAME THING. Oh wait, here’s a new feature, you can see advertisements in your IM window, that’s awesome!

Perhaps my favorite thing about AIM is their buddy icons. Now using iChat you can easily make any picture you have on your computer or you find on the internet your buddy icon simply by dragging it into the iChat buddy icon window….on AIM you need to manually resize any picture you want to use to the exact size of a buddy icon (which of course they don’t bother to tell you and most people won’t know). Why do they make this so hard? So they can SELL you a damn buddy icon of course. Oh look I can pay $1.95 for a buddy icon…or $4.95 for 3…what a steal! Better yet I can get some really lame ‘expression’ from AIM for $1.95 a month or $9.95 for the year! Jesus Christ these are great deals! Seriously, who the hell would PAY for a buddy icon? Yes, I’d like to PAY to advertise for the new Chicken Little movie or the Black Eyed Peas.

AIM also recently launched a service where you can leave comments on a website for your friend’s away messages. Wow that is a really great idea AOL, uh…can’t you just IM your friends and tell them whatever the hell you were going to post on their stupid ass comment section. That’s some real innovation there.

Other services out there are so much better then AIM, it’s just that no one uses them. Google Talk is Google’s brand new IM/Voice Chat client…it’s very basic, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing…it’s so simple to use. I’ve had a few voice conversations on it and they are clearer then on my cell phone. Plus, like iChat, Google Talk uses Available Messages which is such a simple nice little feature that AIM can’t seem to figure out how to do for some reason. Yahoo’s Messanger has a similar voice chat system, though it’s IM client is a bit more involved. Still, Yahoo’s is leaps and bounds ahead of AIM, it looks a lot nicer and has more features (like making your own buddy avatar). I haven’t used Microsoft’s Messanger, but it’s probably better as well…it’s probably just a rip-off of someone else’s.

AIM promises to have features like user-created ad-ons for Triton when it launches in a few weeks, but at this point I have seen nothing good about it. The only thing AIM has going for it is that it started out with a HUGE network of people using it, thanks mostly to those people who at one time had AOL (like myself) but have now quit because it too is useless. AIM exists because it’s such a hassle to switch to another IM client AND have ALL your friends switch as well. Perhaps no company has ever dropped the proverbial ‘ball’ as badly as AOL. In the 1990s they were on the top of the world, now everything they touch turns to suck.

I almost exclusively use iChat now on my Apple to log onto AIM’s network…the presentation is so much nicer with the buddy icons with talk bubbles coming out of them as you chat….but when I do use AIM on my Windows PC I will only use either Trillian to log on or a program called AIM Ad-Hack which gets rid of all the advertisements and unnessary crap in the AIM software (a must have, google it).

AIM, it sucks, and…it sucks.

update: 8/27/10

This article is nearly 5 years old. Aim has died.