[jdev] Google to Connect to Other IM Networks Using Jabber Transports?

[Justin Karneges]

On Wednesday 05 December 2007 1:45 pm, Ernest Nova wrote:
> Note that an AIM account is required to use this feature. AIM in Gmail
> is not a Google Talk and AIM federation; it's the ability to sign in to
> your AIM messaging account from Gmail. Gmail uses Open AIM to provide
> this feature.

Right, so... not very interesting.

But, let's consider some positives...

According to the article, AIM connectivity presumably only works through the 
gmail web interface.  I predict this will eventually work via the Google Talk 
desktop client.  We can *hope* that this would be implemented (or eventually 
be implemented) using a Jabber-transport mechanism, so that non-Google Talk 
clients connecting to the Google Talk network can use AIM.  I suspect that 
we'll never see a publically accessible transport though.  You'd probably 
always need a Google Talk account to access AIM.

In any case, Jabber-transport or not, if Google can provide a good user 
experience for AIM within the Google Talk client, then we may be willing to 
convince more users to use Google Talk (and thus XMPP).  I know a lot of 
people who have gmail accounts and use only AIM for IM.  If they could use 
Google Talk for AIM, they might be compelled to switch to it since it is a 
nice client and they already enjoy google services.  This puts users in the 
same position as iChat does, with XMPP right under their nose.

Totally random thought: I wonder if Google is legally required (say, by 
contract with AOL) to thwart attempts by third-parties to access the AIM 
integration.  What if someone wrote a new Jabber transport that required 4 
fields: gmail account name, gmail password, aim account name, aim password?  
Would this give the rest of the XMPP world legit access to AIM via 
double-transporting?

-Justin