mediajunk

AOL have begun testing a video component to their instant messaging software. The idea is that users will be able to communicate via bursts of short video messages as well as text.

AOL's move may seem like a big step forward but we've been waiting for desktop videoconferencing ever since the internet came into the public domain, a decade ago. The technologies that were popular back then -- notably CU-SeeMe -- were (and still are) more sophisticated than AOL's current prototype. CU-SeeMe is a videoconferencing application whereby the video stream stays alive for the duration of the call. With AIM's video component, you send video clips as messages; image flow is intermittent, not quite real-time, and user-controlled.

AOL can't transform their IM product into a bona fide videoconferencing one due to US government restrictions, designed to ensure that the company does not gain a monopoly on software products in the huge and still growing IM community.

The restrictions may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Users who send snippets of video rather than a continuous stream are less likely to suffer from the vagaries of bandwidth. And the proposed "press to send" button will give users control over any images they send, a feature with which they may feel more comfortable (no need to worry about who might walk into the room while the cam is on, for example).

As IM's popularity spreads from the US to other parts of the world, and as "always-on" connections become the norm, AIM may yet prove to be the killer app that finally brings videoconferencing to the general public.