Poor AOL. They've been a step slow and a day late for almost a decade. The one bright spot was AIM. They were the big name in instant messaging and everybody else was playing catch-up.
Along comes Twitter. It's not exactly new, but of late has been growing by leaps in acceptance and usage.
Twitter is sometimes called a "microblog." Most posts are one line. Including a link is popular. People use them as status updates or even marketing channels.
You can grab the feed and display it on a standard web page. Your "tweets" go out to all those who are "following you" just like friends on Facebook or Contacts on Flickr and Linked In. But you can also "direct message" individual contacts. Which is where AOL gets in to trouble.
Why do I need an IM client (like AIM) open on my desktop hogging up RAM and real estate when all my pals are on Twitter now? I can just "dm" them from Twirl or Tweekdeck.
You can follow me on Twitter @hal990. I probably won't be AIM so much anymore.
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