Instant Messaging
IM
(instant messaging) has become a top choice for online communication.
It is estimated that there are 100 million IM users worldwide
and that by 2004, the total will reach 180 million. So whether
you already use IM or you're just curious about the technology,
we'll fill you in and let you know what the future holds for IM.
IM For Everyone
IM has many
benefits that other forms of communication don't. For example,
traditional mail, telephones, fax machines, and email clients
can't tell you when a buddy is online and ready to talk. With
IM, as soon as you use your computer or portable device to connect
to the Internet and log on to your IM account, you see a buddy
list (or contacts list, a list you create that consists of other
IM users you wish to communicate with via IM). This lets you know
who is online and, in turn, lets the members of your buddy list
know that you're online. Most current IM services have a host
of other bells and whistles, but the meat and potatoes of IM is
exactly this kind of instant gratification.
Most IM services
are freely available on the Internet (for example, Yahoo! Messenger
is available for free download at http://messenger.yahoo.com).
After you download and install an IM client (the IM program that
runs on your computer) and establish an Internet connection, the
client automatically connects to the IM server (the set of computers
that keeps track of IM users and buddy lists and takes care of
establishing connections between users).
The IM server
uses a series of dialog boxes or a setup wizard that lets you
establish a username, password, and a profile (information about
yourself that the IM service requests). IM services don't require
much personal information; some only require your name and email
address. But typically the setup procedure gives you an opportunity
to submit a great deal of information. Be careful what personal
information you submit, however, because some of it might be available
for other IM users (not just your IM buddies) to see. Read the
IM service's privacy policy (sometimes accessible during installation)
before giving out more than the required personal information.
A Brief History
Of IM
You could
refer to IM as an emerging technology if it weren't for the fact
that so many people have begun using IM in such a short span of
time. Like CD burners and, more recently, DVD players, when IM
software appeared on the computing landscape in the mid-'90s,
it gained almost immediate widespread acceptance, and the number
of IM users continues to proliferate.
ICQ. Mirabilis
put the IM scene on the map in November 1996 when it debuted ICQ,
a free IM service named after the coy email shorthand for the
phrase "I seek you." AOL (America Online) acquired Mirabilis
in June 1998 and promptly integrated ICQ into AOL's Internet service
suite. But despite AOL's involvement and the fact that AOL has
a competing product called AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), ICQ has
kept its own identity and maintained a significant following.
Today, according to ICQ Inc. (the AOL subsidiary that manages
ICQ services), ICQ has more than 12 million users around the globe.
However, the
latest ICQ incarnation, ICQ 2002b, shows that, slowly but surely,
AOL is having an influence on how ICQ works. The telltale proof
is the vertical channel (labeled "Topics") toolbar that
runs along the left side of the ICQ 2002b window and includes
instant access buttons aptly labeled Games, Life & Love, Money,
Movies & TV, Music, and Shopping. This move edges ICQ closer
to commercial status, but ICQ is still free and works just as
well as it always has.
IM's Insecurities
For all of
IM's benefits, most IM services presently lack the security that
most other forms of communication (especially email) provide.
Because of this, businesses have to carefully weigh the risks
that go along with using IM vs. the benefits. According to Grey,
most IM services offer no encryption or logging, and in some cases,
offer no security measures at all. But after all, IM is a free
service, so in that sense, you get what you pay for. That's fine,
Grey says, when it comes to using IM for casual chatting, but
it's "not so good if the company's CEO is talking to the
CIO about a proposed merger, which is not something you would
want to go over the public airwaves. For that reason, many organizations
are starting to look at behind-the-firewall secure IM."
Businesses
wishing to use IM company-wide should also set up best practice
guidelines. In a research note about corporate IM use, Grey writes,
"IM's basic foundation is its freewheeling nature, and, as
enterprise IM deployment grows, individual management techniques
will fail without direction." Because IM is, by nature, an
"in your face" form of communication, companies' best
practice guidelines should include using IM as a means for getting
quick answers, team problem-solving, and breaking down location
barriers by linking remote users with a method for instant communication.
IM services
will undoubtedly overcome security issues, and as they do, corporations
will likely embrace IM more willingly. As IM features advance,
Grey says, companies that use IM will have to decide whether to
store and archive instant messages (many companies already do
this with email messages), and determine the best way to mandate
policies for logging on and off without making employees feel
like they're under constant surveillance. If employees feel insecure
about using IM, it probably won't be as effective as companies
would like.
Say "Bye-Bye"
To Email?
Based on some
of the existing research, it might look as if IM is likely to
supplant email as the world's chief form of electronic communication.
For example, research company Insight Express reported in August
2001 that 35% of IM users say they prefer using IM to using email.
The legacy of Alexander Graham Bell fared even worse than email:
49% of the survey's respondents said they prefer to use IM instead
of the phone.
However, we
should "think about IM as augmenting traditional forms of
communication," says Grey, "not replacing them."
Security issues present the largest obstacle against widespread
enterprise adoption of IM services (see "Keep Your Chats
Invulnerable To Cracks" for more on IM security), but even
as security problems are solved, there will still be a need for
different forms of communication. Additionally, although a customer
care center might use IM effectively, there are numerous instances
where using email and standard mail are more effective.
IM Tomorrow
We've seen
how a powerful youth market drove IM into the spotlight to become
widely popular with adults and businesses, but what's next? If
we're to take our youth's technological passions as any indication
of what'll be hot in the coming months and years, we should expect
mobile messaging to explode any time now.
Today close
to 30 million people in Japan, most of them teens, college students,
and young professionals, use NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, a wireless service
that packs Internet access, email, IM, games, and more into a
cellular phone. AT&T Wireless launched a very similar service
in April and planned to add more IM options, including digital
photo messaging, by year's end.
