Wednesday, January 10, 2007

AIMSPLAXO - or AIM 6.0

Today I got a notice that AIM wanted to upgrade on my laptop to version 6.0 something. In the last several upgrades I have become annoyed with the embedded pieces in the client. Don't get me wrong, I love AIM and it is my primary chat client, but I just want that. The way it is on my Sidekick. Pure and Simple. The way it was meant to be. I went ahead and upgraded and saw the new web 2.0ish, ajaxy look and feel AIM client. While going through the install I saw a dreaded word, Plaxo. Me no like Plaxo. Sorry. I just don't.

During the registration, the reg screen offered to do a proctological exam of my various contacts in Yahoo mail, Hotmail and Outlook. Fortunately, it said powered by Plaxo which was really thoughtful in that it was full disclosure and I resisted any urge to scan my hard drive.

Its difficult to improve on something that is good and for me the chat clients are all they are supposed to be. As a software developer I understand the urge to upgrade and extend, but I think that you do so with a risk of alienating your core users. And if you are a Plaxo user, you just got a great new upgrade with the new AIM.

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