Many of you are aware of my lack of love for AOL’s products, most particularly its AIM client software. It does all the nasty things that good software just shouldn’t do. The outgoing version that most people have been using for some time, version 5.9, has adware, installs things you don’t ask for (ViewPoint media player, for example), contains spyware, and installs a half dozen shortcuts for “Try AOL Free for 30 Days!” on your desktop, two places in your start menu, in your favorites, and in your links list. It also tries to hijack your browser’s home page to Netscape.com unless you specifically tell it not to during installation. All of these things are horrible tactics, at best poor decisions from a crappy software developer and at worst malicious attempts to control/brand your computing experience as much as possible.So it should be no surprise to any of you that I personally have not had an official AIM client installed on any of my computers for years now. If I want to get on AIM in Windows, I use Trillian, and if I’m in Linux I use Gaim (which also has Windows version). However, when I’ve tried to inform others about the inherent dangers of the official AIM client and what their alternatives are, some people find Trillian too difficult to setup (it’s really not that hard, just different) or the free version too limited (you have to pay to get stuff like video), and many (justly) don’t think Gaim has enough features (it can’t do voice/video and the file transfers are iffy). Long story short, many of you will only use the real AIM client. Which is exactly what makes the recent release of the new official AIM client (which AOL calls “Triton”) so important.

Most of you have used it by now, so I’ll just hit on the highlights: it features a shiny new interface which I think actually works quite well in most cases. The interface sports tabs and subtle animations for many windows — for example, when talking to several people at once they can all be contained in a single window with tabs for each conversation, sort of like FireFox does for web pages — although you can “tear off” the conversations into separate windows if you like it the old way. All other IM clients (Trillian, Gaim, Miranda) have had this for years, but it’s nice to see AOL officially join the 21st century. It also has tons of new features, including upgraded audio/video conferencing, an RSS aggregator, streaming radio stations, and access to the new AIM Mail service (AOL’s answer to Google Mail). If you want to see some screenshots of the new interface in action, take the tour on AIM.com.

Now for the not so good news. I admit, when I first installed Triton I was pretty excited. I thought, “Wow, AOL has made a good-looking IM client that works well and doesn’t install those stupid AOL shortcuts all over the place!” Unfortunately, my exuberance was short-lived. I quickly discovered that AOL was up to its old tricks again, just in different ways.

The first thing I noticed was the advertisements (which you never have to deal with in third-party clients), but at least those can be removed now – keep reading for more on that. And although Triton didn’t stick a million “Try AOL” shortcuts everywhere, it did something worse – it installed even more software that I didn’t ask for. AOL Browser is a junky, stripped-down version of Internet Explorer (which we already have little love for) that gets set as the default browser for links in Triton. That means that when someone sends you a link, it will open in AOL Browser rather than your default browser you have set in your operating system! That is just a huge, big, no-no. We set default applications for a reason – and Triton totally ignores it and tries to make you use their stupid browser.

Next, it also installs something called Plaxo. Plaxo is apparently an online contact-management service. Some people really like it, and I can respect that. But I can manage my own contacts, and I didn’t ask for it to be installed. If AOL wants to ask if I want to add that feature at installation, that would be great. But it didn’t ask, and I wound up with Plaxo shortcuts in my Start Menu, a Plaxo toolbar in Outlook that I could NOT make go away, and a wizard harassing me for personal information when I first started Triton.

Finally, closing the program is even worse than before. I thought the last AIM (version 5.9) was bad, in that if you clicked “X” on your buddy list window it didn’t actually close the program (here again we have AOL violating standards of operation – they effectively make the “X” like the minimize “-” button). Now, not only do you have to go down to the AIM icon in the system tray (by the clock), right click it and select “Exit”, but you have to do it twice! And even then, once the icon is gone, there’s still a process called “aolsoftware.exe” running in the background that cannot be stopped unless you use your task manager to terminate it.

So, all in all, a better looking AIM client with more features but with even more annoyances and inconsiderate violations of your right to control your computer. So, should you upgrade? Last week, I would have said probably not.

Now, there’s an answer.

AIM Ad Hack

I discovered this remarkable piece of software just a few days ago, and it is what inspired me to write this article. With me having switched to using Linux most of the time in recent weeks, Chris graciously tried out AIM Ad Hack on his computer so we could observe the results. And the results are fantastic.

AIM Ad Hack works as an intermediary during installation of Triton, and basically removes all the extra crap that AOL tries to install. It gives you the option to block the installation of ViewPoint media player, Plaxo, and (best of all) that damn AOL Browser – which means that when you click on links in IMs, they’ll open in your real browser!

Last, but certainly not least, AIM Ad Hack does exactly what the name suggests – gives you the option to remove the ads from Triton. After installation, go to Edit -> Preferences and then go to the “Ads” tab. You’ll see a setting for no ads. Brilliant!

So finally, you can have the full official AIM client with all of the features but with none of the advertisements and backdoor tactics that AOL usually uses.

Installation

If you do not have Triton installed already, just download AIM Ad Hack and run the file.

If you do already have Triton installed, you must exit it first (make sure the AIM Triton icon is gone from the system tray). Then press Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Windows Task Manager, and on the Processes tab look for “aolsoftware.exe”. Select it, and press “End Process.” Now you’re ready to download and run AIM Ad Hack.

I encourage everyone to try this out – don’t let AOL control your computer! Post here if you have any questions or leave feedback on how it worked for you.

Download AIM Ad Hack | View AIM Ad Hack web site

The search company that spawned from a couple of college kids has been busy. Busy making sure that they’re not just known as a search company, that is. Google’s recently released Beta (that means experimental) version of Google Talk is a latecomer to the IM wars, the field of battle already crowded with AIM (41 million users), MSN Messenger (14 million), and Yahoo! Messenger (20 million). However, every clue points to what will eventually become an awesome piece of the incredible fabric Google is weaving across the web and your desktop. What? Well, let’s have a look…

GTalk vs. AIM

“Why do I want this?” “What makes it better?” “But it doesn’t have [feature]!!!”

Ah, the inevitable questions of change. And truthfully, all entirely valid. Here’s what we think the high points of GTalk are:

• Clean interface. There are no ads, no goofy buttons everywhere, no ads, slick menus, no ads, and did I mention no ads?
• Easy on your system. Resources, that is. On all observed systems so far, GTalk takes significantly less resources to run than AIM.
• Integration with GMail. GTalk automatically uses the same contact list you have for your GMail account! This means no more maintenance of separate user/address lists. And, you can have the “GName” (Google screen name) or the person’s real name displayed in GTalk.
• Window docking. Chat windows can be grouped together and can slide over top of each other to save screen space. It’s hard to describe, but just get two or more chats going and you’ll see how it works. It’s cool.
• Voice calling. Simply click the “call” button on any IM window, and if you have a microphone you can talk to your buddy. GTalk automatically adjusts microphone levels.
• Custom away and available messages. Every IM client has customizable away messages, but available messages? What’re those? Simple: you can have a message underneath your name even when you’re there and chatting. Kind of like a tag line. I use it a lot.
• No crap. No stupid news popups, stock tickers, banner ads, indecipherable options, gigantic menus, or a plethora of confusing and ultimately useless icons like certain programs from AOL Time Warner

There are tons of tiny little thoughtful items throughout the program that you just have to use to discover. The two most noticeably absent features are emoticons and formatted (colored) text. However, those are rumored to be coming in a later release (remember, this is BETA software right now).

The Bigger picture

Why is this so significant? Well, Google Talk itself, while a very nice program, is not. What makes it special, and what will drive Google to new heights and truly break it out of being just a web-search company, is Google Talk’s integration with Google’s other services. And GTalk is just one example.

How do these services connect? What is the central hub, the backbone? Simple: Google’s incredible search technology. We know Google all but axed the early search engines like AltaVista, AskJeeves, and DogPile with its efficient, fast, no-frills searching, and the company’s name has become synonymous with “to search.” Off of this foundation Google has begun building a series of interconnected tools designed to leverage the power of their search technology to do much more than just scour the web. GMail was Google’s first well-known foray beyond web searching, and it has been wildly successful. And what are GMail’s most attractive features? Its enormous storage space (currently 2GB), fast and clean interface, and the ability to search your emails with the same speed and accuracy with which you search the web. Which, when you get around 5,000 emails per year (like yours truly), would be a wonderful feature to have.

OK, great, you say, that’s nice. But so what? Well, the picture really comes together once you try out Google Desktop 2. This nifty little program resides on your desktop, in your taskbar, or, what I prefer, docked at the side of your screen where it can display the most information. Once installed, Google Talk and a number of other little applets (news, weather, automatic RSS feeds from the sites you visit [that’s über-cool]) are integrated right into it. It also indexes just about everything under the sun, according to your preferences, so that with just one little innocent-looking search box at the bottom of the screen you can simultaneously search your documents, pictures, music, movies, web sites, web history, email (GMail AND Outlook accounts), chat transcripts, everything. And it’s instantaneous. And I do mean instantaneous. You type, and there it is. No waiting. It makes poking through your My Documents folder for some long-lost file a thing of the past. Looking for that research paper on human spaceflight from 2002? You know it’s in there somewhere, but trying to decipher your own organization system after three or more years just isn’t your idea of fun. Just type “NASA spaceflight 2002” into your Google Desktop search box, and instantly your document is available.

The real power and importance of this technology will probably be lost on most people until they realize they’ve already been hooked. Not many think they need this, or know that they want it. But let’s look back to the mid- to late-90s, when there were a bunch of different search engines, each of which had different strengths and none of which were especially fast. Then Google came along. Today, most of us take Google for granted and don’t know what we would do without it. The fast, aggregated searching provided by Google Desktop 2 will now do the same for all of our documents, media, and email. It has the power to relegate the very act of browsing for files to the same distant corners of our memory as rooting through piles of CDs for a certain song. We just don’t do it anymore; we have massive digital music collections (usually) neatly organized on our computers and iPods.

It should be clear by this point that Google’s search technology touches every one of their products in a significant way. Now let’s look at your typical day on the computer and you’ll see that Google is slowly but surely starting to touch every part of your daily life as well. Web searching? Google.com. Email? Gmail. Instant messaging? Google Talk. News? Google News and News RSS feeds in Google Desktop. Searching your own documents and files? Google Desktop. There’s not much more most of us do each day than search the web, read news and email, and work on some sort of document on our PCs. There’s other tools I haven’t even mentioned, like Google’s photo database software Picasa.

Suddenly, Google is no longer just a search engine but an impressive presence on our desktops that leverages the power of interconnected tools and simplicity to deliver a truly revolutionary experience. None of these software programs by themselves are astoundingly innovative, and none of the technology is new, but combined with Google’s search technology and connected with each other, they really start to shine. Do yourself a favor and try some of them out. You should be able to find at least one feature that makes you say, “Oooh, that’s cool!”

Forget Microsoft. Google is going to rule the world.