Messaging Blues

The Magic of Messaging: This blog contains stuff related to E-Mail, SMS,Text Messaging, Instant messaging, MMS etc (Mobile/Internet/Wireless/Text/IM)

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Name:Telecoms

Sunday, February 26, 2006

AOL, WebEx Build At-Work IM

For most of the millions of people around the world who regularly use instant messaging, the communications tool has largely been a text-only experience in which typed emoticons offer only minimal clues to someone's state of mind.

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.

IMVU is the new service from Will Harvey, founder of There. Harvey is riffing on some of the core communications features he developed for There's metaverse and devoting them to instant messaging. In IMVU, people talk to each other in 3-D chat rooms using avatars that display a wide range of emotional cues and do so through a client that is compatible with the leading IM applications.

"IMVU gives you the sense that you are in the presence of the person you are chatting with," said Harvey. "What I think we understand better than anyone else is that the killer app is something that lets people feel like they are with the person they are chatting with."

People seem to see something in IMVU -- Harvey said the service is getting 1,000 new users per day.

AIM's 3-D SuperBuddy icons appear alongside the service's traditional chat boxes and display emotional cues in response to commands typed by the service's users. AOL subscribers have used SuperBuddies since mid-2003, but their release in AIM follows a trend of graphical avatar-based instant messaging started by Yahoo and ICQ.

"It's really an extension to the conversation," said Drew Weaver, AOL's director of marketing for expressions and greetings. "It really adds a layer of fun and interactivity to the conversation without getting in the way of the actual conversation itself."

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.

READ MORE

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

3GSM: International operators push global Mobile IM service

3GSM World Congress, Barcelona:

Several of the globe's largest operators are pushing initiatives to make instant messaging as pervasive as SMS. Vodafone, China Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, Orange and T-Mobile International are part of 15 operators trying to create a parallel value stream to their lucrative SMS businesses. Unlike text messaging, mobile IM offers a familiar messaging platform because it's commonly used on PCs. In addition, mobile IM allows users to manage a list of contacts, check their availability online and send one message to groups of users. Operators believe customers will be willing to pay for these features in a mobile environment, even though IM is free on PC connections.

The group also hopes to cooperate with Internet-based IM service providers , such as America Online, Microsoft's MSN, and Yahoo, according to Arun Sarin, Vodafone's chief executive officer. "We want to extend this service and make it a bigger experience for users," he said.

AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo already provide wireless access to their IM services, but this initiative's goal is to extend the availability and interoperability of wireless IM globally. AIM, AOL, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger don't interoperate, though Yahoo and Microsoft are working to build links between their services.

In the first phase, the mobile operators aim to extend IM--a widely popular service among PC users in the fixed-line telecommunications market--to their combined customer base of 700 million users. Over the coming months, they expect other GSM operators to join the initiative, representing a potential global market of more than 2.2 billion people.

On the Internet, more than 300 million people around the world use IM, and around 12 billion messages are sent every day, according to the GSMA.

Unlike the free IM service available on fixed-line networks, however, the IM service planned by the GSM community will cost money, with the calling party picking up the tab.

A key requirement for providing an IM service to mobile phone users is interoperability, to ensure that messages can be sent across networks around the world, said Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of European carrier Orange. Operators within the GSM community have agreed to IM interoperability standards, he said.

Most high-end smart phones and many low-end phones are already IM-enabled, according to Orange's Ahuja. He expects IM to become a standard feature of GSM phones moving ahead.

The operators expect to begin rolling out IM services over the next several months.

It is good sign interms of IM convergence. We need to wait for few months to see it in practical use.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Send free SMS/Text Messages from websites

Here is a list of websites offering free SMS/Text Messages from their websites.
(Note: You may need to register / and some websites have limitations)

www.atrochatro.com
www.krify.com - sms/text India for free.
www.cbfsms.com - Send SMS/Text messages to UK networks, No registration needed.
www.motocrew.com.au
www.sms.ac - SMS to Europe/UK/USA and many countries
www.uboot.com - Send SMS and MMS.
www.nonstopsms.com - You can send only 2 SMSs free upon registration.
www.sms-india.com - SMS to India
www.textmefree.com - Send SMS to USA

And... there is a trick:
Install ICQ, add any user (add for example test@aol.com) as a buddy, modify the user settings and add cell number. On the buddy list, right click the user and send sms! Thats it! Easy, free and unlimited!!!!

Let me know if you know any other good FREE SMS/Text messaging providers.
I will add tho the web site list. Thanks.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Pay Per Click Ads Go Mobile with AdMob

After the success of the pay per click (PPC) ad programs Yahoo YPN, Google Adsense, Chitika Minimalls and others , now they are reaching mobiles also. AdMob brings mobile advertisers together with content publishers. Advertisers reach consumers right on their phone and target by region, manufacturer, platform, or device capability level. Publishers can monetize their existing mobile products and services.

This is what AdMob says about the program:

"To put it bluntly, we simply feel that it's about time that everyone had an easy and cost-effective way to reach out to people on mobile devices. That's what AdMob is all about.

We actively partner with high quality, high traffic, independent mobile sites to carry our ads. This is not about a carrier deal or a proprietary portal; this is the open mobile web, the way it should be.

To make your ads as effective as possible we have developed a number of unique technologies that will change the way you think about mobile advertising.

You get what you pay for :
But in a good way. Everyone is familiar with pay-per-click advertising on the web, but AdMob is the first time this concept has been taken mobile. With AdMob, there is finally a way to reach a highly desireable audience of mobile users who are active on the mobile web."

Read More on AdMob

Sunday, February 05, 2006

All about texting, SMS and MMS.

Here is a blog titled all about Texting, SMS and MMS.
textually.org/
Its been there for a long time. it has lot of posts related to mobile messaging.
Checkit if you havent already.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Review: GAIM - Open Source Messenger for Yahoo/ MSN/ ICQ/ AOL/ Jabber/ Gadu-Gadu

Gaim

Then there's Gaim, a multi-protocol IM client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows originally developed by devotees of the penguin sitting around in an Auburn University college dorm room trying to emulate AOL's instant messenger. Like most Linux-based programs, GAIM is free and is kept current by programmers who work on it in their spare time. It interacts with a range of IM networks both large and small, including AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr IM networks.

The program is easy to install and easy to use. A simplified interface allows a user to add and edit buddy names, initiate conversations, and even carry on multiple chats simultaneously.

Additional features include Buddy Pouncing (the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle); support for customizable away messages; typing notification alerts; MSN window closing notifications; support for the SILC (Secure Internet Live Conferencing) protocol; and support for plug-ins, with current plug-in offerings such as text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, and iconify on away.

In some respects, this is open source at its best. Launched as a solo effort, the program now involves a number of programmers working diligently to improve the application. Updates have been coming as often as every two weeks, with the latest iteration fixing some 240 minor bugs that had been identified in prior versions.

Still, free open-source software can have its own frustrations. Take for instance this item from Gaim's FAQ page: "Does Gaim support file transfer?" The response: "Somewhat, yeah." The reply then goes on to list some supported transfer types, adding, "If you would like file transfer to work better or be more complete, get CVS and submit a patch using the generic file transfer API." For the non-developer crowd, um, what?

Overall, these products make sense for heavy IM users. They simplify the process of tracking and communicating with multiple buddies over diverse platforms. Is that a plus or a minus in your life? It all depends on how much time you have on your hands.

Pros: Freeware/open source; handles a wide range of IM services, both major and minor; frequent updates

Cons: Subject to changes in the proprietary APIs of IM networks such as AOL and Yahoo! that could lead to temporary inability to connect to these networks, free and open source status begs question of Gaim's long-term availability (continued development depends on continued interest of programmers)

DOWNLAOD GAIM here: http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

IBM and Instant messaging Convergence

It is interesting to see IBMs new step to integrate AOL, Yahoo and Google Talk messengers with its instant messaging platform(Lotus Sametime). IBMs secure messaging system is used in many of the big companies for Instant Messaging. And certainly adding AOL, Yahoo and google talk, it will enhance the Lotus Sametime usablity and obviously more corporates who are not yet using Lotus Sametime will look into it.

Missing from the deal is Microsoft Corp., the most direct rival of IBM in the corporate instant messaging market, where customers often demand greater security and want IT managers to have the ability to audit what users say.

IBM claims that Lotus Sametime has 20 million users inside companies worldwide, including more than 25 companies with more than 100,000 users apiece. IBM said 60% of the world's 100 largest companies use Sametime.

AOL Instant Messenger, the most popular instant messaging system, has more than 40 million users in the U.S. alone, according to a Commscore Media Metrix survey.

Yahoo had roughly 20 million instant messaging users, and Microsoft had around 15 million, according to midyear 2005 data.

Google had far fewer instant messaging users, but it just introduced its IM offering midway through 2005.

Link

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

History Of SMS.

As for most other services and modules of functionality of the GSM system, no individual can claim the fatherhood of SMS. The idea of adding text messaging to the services of mobile users was latent in many communities of mobile communication services at the beginning of the 1980s. Experts from several of those communities contributed in the discussions on which should be the GSM services. Most thought of SMS as a means to alert the individual mobile user e.g. on incoming voice mail, whereas others had more sophisticated applications in their minds, e.g. telemetry. However, few believed that SMS would be used as a means for sending text messages from a mobile user to another. One factor in the takeup of SMS was that operators were slow to eliminate billing fraud which was possible by changing SMSC settings on individual handsets to the SMSC's of other operators. Over time, this issue was eliminated by switch-billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSC's to allow blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it.

As early as February 1985, after having already been discussed in GSM subgroup WP3, chaired by J Audestad, SMS was considered in the main GSM group as a possible service for the new digital cellular system. In GSM document 'Services and Facilities to be provided in the GSM System' (GSM Doc 28/85 rev2, June 1985), both mobile originated and mobile terminated, including point-to-point and point-to-multipoint, short messages appear on the table of GSM teleservices.

The discussions on the GSM services were then concluded in e.g. the recommendation GSM 02.03 'TeleServices supported by a GSM PLMN'. Here, a rudimentary description of the three services 1) Short message Mobile Terminated / Point-to-Point, 2) Short message Mobile Originated / Point-to-Point and 3) Short message Cell Broadcast was given. This was handed over to a new GSM body called IDEG (the Implementation of Data and Telematic Services Experts Group), which had its kickoff in May 1987 under the chairmanship of Friedhelm Hillebrand. The technical standard known today was largely created by IDEG (later WP4) as of the two recommendations GSM 03.40 (the two point-to-point services merged together) and GSM 03.41 (cell broadcast).

The first commercial short message was sent on 3 December 1992 by Neil Papworth of Sema Group from a personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone on the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom.

SMS was originally designed as part of GSM, but is now available on a wide range of networks, including 3G networks. However, not all text messaging systems use SMS, and some notable alternate implementations of the concept include J-Phone's SkyMail and NTT Docomo's Short Mail, both in Japan. E-mail messaging from phones, as popularized by NTT Docomo's i-mode and the RIM BlackBerry, also typically use standard mail protocols such as SMTP over TCP/IP.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service