After 20 long years, the pioneering AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service will be shutting down.
First released as a standalone program in May of 1997, AIM was a behemoth of the early web, battling with competitors like ICQ and MSN Messenger for supremacy, and coming out mostly on top in the at least here in the United States.
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AIM ✔@aim
All good things come to an end. On Dec 15, we'll bid farewell to AIM. Thank you to all our users! #AIMemories http://bit.ly/eolaim
6:15 AM - Oct 6, 2017
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AIM's supremacy was ultimately undermined by the rise of chat services like Gchat, which operated using the Gmail address you almost assuredly already had, as well as more robust social networks like Facebook which allowed for far more advanced media sharing and far more complex online social interactions than simple 1-to-1 chats with friends or the occasional impromptu chat room.
Despite its almost complete irrelevance now, AIM was a defining proto-social network and, for millennials of a certain age like myself, effectively the only part of the internet that actually mattered for a span of years covering high school and extending into college. Before there was sinking into Facebook and seething at Twitter, there was harassing your crush on AIM and posting cryptic, passive-aggressive away messages.
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your away message @YourAwayMessage
all I want is a
drama free summer.
8:51 PM - Jun 10, 2015
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It's been a good run. You'll be missed.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/apps/news/a28536/aol-instant-messenger-is-shutting-down-after-decades/
