AOL tool links AIM buddies to Microsoft Outlook

IDG News Service - America Online Inc. is offering a beta tool that allows AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users to see when contacts are online and available to chat through Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail application.
The new application was unveiled today along with a string of partnerships that seek to weave AIM into various online sites and applications from CareerBuilder.com Inc., Ruckus Network Inc. and Thomson Corp.
The Outlook integration is aimed directly at business users' desktops using technology from Intellisync Corp.
"This is a big deal," said IDC research manager of collaborative computing Robert Mahowald. "Outlook is a wildly popular client, so it puts AIM front and center with users."
The program is available for free download from the Aim.com Web site for users of AIM Version 5.9 or higher who use Outlook 2002 or 2003, offering a new level of integration between the two companies' products. Microsoft already offers integrated messaging features in Outlook through its own IM services.
The new tool, called AIM Sync, allows users to add contacts from Outlook to their AIM buddy list and matches e-mail addresses with AIM screen names. It then shows the "presence," or availability of contacts to chat online, by placing the AOL "running man" icon in e-mail, address book and phone list views of Outlook. Users who click on an icon can launch a chat or access the buddy's phone number and send a text message to a mobile phone by Short Message Service.
The integration of presence into e-mail applications underscores the need for users to be able to easily switch between IM and e-mail functions depending on the urgency of information, AOL said.
The beta tool is also a way for AOL to gain more users for its IM service, since users can invite Outlook contacts who do not have AIM to join up.
While the functionality could be seen as a threat to Microsoft's own MSN Messenger, Mahowald sees it as a minor concern.
"Microsoft's current push is into business IM, and they have more eggs in that basket," he said. The company will soon be launching its enterprise IM client for Live Communications Server 2005, code-named Istanbul, which will allow users to exchange messages with contacts on public IM networks for Yahoo Inc., AOL and MSN.
Meanwhile, AOL is spreading its reach through partnerships with business sites and applications. This is good strategy given that roughly 30% of consumer IM accounts are used for business purposes, according to Mahowald.
Under the deal with CareerBuilder.com, AIM users will be able