Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) America Online unit continues to aggressively pursue users -- and revenues. Latest case in point is Tuesday's official launch of its AIM Triton product. Of course, many of us feel that given its history, while AOL needs to be aggressive in offering users the features that will keep them in the stable, I'd say it certainly needs to guard against being too aggressive in its initiatives given some recent maneuvers.
As you may very well already know, AOL's instant messaging client, AIM, is one of the business's most popular products. Not only is it very popular with teens, but it has also gotten a foothold in business usage. AOL has been trying very hard here lately to leverage that popularity with new products and services that bring in ad revenues.
Triton is meant to capitalize on some of the hottest trends around -- features like video chat, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), and sms text messaging will be prominent. In addition, the company says that it will be enabled with the Plaxo address book function and give users one-click access to many of its other features in the AOL universe, like AOL Explorer, AOL Mail, AIM Mail, AIM Talk, and AOL Radio. The company's press release said that with its TotalTalk VoIP service, it seeks to be a "front door" to digital communications.
AOL's efforts to make AIM more relevant than ever are not lost on any investors who follow Time Warner. However, it stands to reason that with this new service, AOL must make sure that it doesn't junk up the program. After all, there was a bit of an uproar recently about AIM's automatic addition of several bots, which made many users feel their Buddy Lists had been gate-crashed.
I went ahead and downloaded AIM Triton, and so far, it does look pretty futuristic, with big changes from previous versions of AIM. I'd say that it seems much more elegant than the old version of AIM that I was using. I can see that I may very well be doing some experimentation with it over the Thanksgiving holiday.
If the new features catch on, they will do a lot to help AOL protect its user base from defection to the big rivals who also want to give Internet users similar capabilities. Internet giants Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) all want a piece of the messaging action. (And it doesn't hurt to mention that the recent agreement between Yahoo! and Microsoft shows these companies mean business.)
One of many memorable quotes from the movie This is Spinal Tap is "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." Change is good, if not essential, especially in these evolving times, when many big Internet names are hoping to offer the thoroughly modern way to communicate with others. As long as AOL can give its users the goods without cluttering up or confusing its wildly popular AIM service, Triton sounds like one of its most important steps.
For some related stories, see the following Foolish content:
- Yes, AIM bots attacked Buddy Lists not long ago.
- Sony (NYSE:SNE) wants in on VoIP, too.
- Classic video comes to AOL.
Microsoft is one of Philip Durell's Motley Fool Inside Value picks. Time Warner is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick. To check out more of Stock Advisor, click herefor a 30-day free trial.
Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.
