Instant Messaging Goes Graphical

Found on Wired on Wednesday, 15 September 2004
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The recent launch of two services -- a brand new, fully three-dimensional chat-room product known as IMVU, and AOL Instant Messenger's new 3-D SuperBuddy icons -- is putting the spotlight on a major shift by the leading IM providers toward making graphical avatars a fundamental personalization feature.

According to a study by comScore MediaMetrix, more than 250 million people use instant messaging regularly. And IDC estimates that more than 7 billion instant messages are sent every day. According to AOL senior director of corporate communications Krista Thomas, AIM's users are known to spend six hours a day on average with their IM client open.

"Avatar-based IM is a curiosity right now," said Jeff Hester, who runs the instant-messaging watchdog site, BigBlueBall.com. "It's cute, but I don't think many people have embraced it as something they couldn't live without. It feels a little like a solution in search of a problem."

Well hello Mr. Fancy Pants. What's up with that eyecandy stuff? The first thing I do is to turn off graphical smilies; same goes for html emails. The end of this IM client is something I won't notice for sure.