Gmail and AIM finally unite with full integration!
Posted by absorbation on Wed 05 Dec 2007 (21:21 GMT) (2838 views)
We already knew it was under development, but today Google have finally release integration with AIM. Now you can use Gmail to chat to your AIM buddies:

From the beginning, Google has been committed to open standards and interoperation for instant messaging. So when our friends at AOL agreed to let Gmail users talk to users on their network, we jumped at the chance.

Today we are happy to tell you about a new feature we've started to roll out which will enable you to sign into your AIM account and chat with your AIM buddies right inside Gmail. When you log in to AIM through Gmail chat, your AOL buddies will appear in your chat list with friends from your Google Talk network, and you will see the yellow 'running man' logo to the right of your AIM friends' screen names. To your AIM friends it will look like you are logged in to AIM as usual.



Google look committed to expanding this onto several IM networks and who knows, one day Google Talk could be used to talk to friends using several IM clients. The only thing stopping this from ever happening is from a business perspective. I just can't see Microsoft handing over its users potentially to use Google Talk.

Source: Official Gmail blog