Plans to develop technology that would allow users of AIM and GoogleTalk to communicate with each other were originally announced in December of 2005, and have yet to provide any tangible results.
The venture, however, may be edging closer to fruition.
It’s been over a year since the original partnership announcement, but now it seems that more details about how the two applications will communicate is hitting the blogosphere.
This leads many analysts to believe that an AIM/GoogleTalk communication interface is not too far away.
Justin Uberti, resident Googler who has been working on the project, commented on the progress in his personal blog last week. He released some of the technical details on how things would work on the AOL side allowing Google Talk to function with AIM:
AOL also appears to be working on an XMPP gateway for AIM, which would allow XMPP/Jabber clients to access the AIM network using AIM screen names. Based on the public information, it seems that this should be available in the near future.
Uberti joined Google back in October, after his publicized departure from the AIM development team.
Immediately after the move, speculation ran wild that Uberti would be pivotal in Google’s participation in the Open AIM Initiative, and that developing Google Talk to achieve interoperability with AIM would be one of the top items on his agenda.
AOL and Google are still standing firm behind their official statements regarding the project, so it’s unlikely that any other development news will become available until it’s leaked by someone into the blogosphere, or by a company representative to a major news outlet.
So, it looks like GoogleTalk and AIM users will have to hold out a little bit longer in waiting for this instant messaging courtship to blossom into a full blown marriage.
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Joe is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
