AIM Secrets

When thinking about AIM secrets, you can't escape feeling the urge to look back in the dark past of instant messaging. Just thinking that you're using a technology that appeared in mid-1960s, while thousands of many others appeared and slowly died in the meantime is quite a thrill for me, despite the fact I didn't manage to use any instant messaging software older and more basic than the UNIX "talk" command. Anyway, modern GUI-based messaging clients, as we all know them now, started with ICQ, in 1996, followed next year by AOL Instant Messenger, shortly known as AIM...


...and the rest of it is history! To be honest, the above should be just enough, because we arrived exactly where I intended: AIM secrets! For me, one of the secrets of this instant messenger is its market share. Back in 2006, there were over 50 million active users, and AIM had over 50% of the US instant messaging market. Now...I have no idea, but I don't think it went down too much, either. If you have some info about this AIM secret, please go ahead and enlighten me, you will surely get my eternal gratitude!

This may not be a secret for experienced users, but if you're just getting started with AIM, you should know that AOL's instant messenger is freely available for Mac, Windows and Linux users. Even more, if you want to take full advantage of your AOL account without installing any software, AIM Express is a very good option, only that you have to feel comfortable using Beta software. Other than that, everything's just fine, I can bet on that(I am also an AIM user, I have to mention that).

As it happens with almost every decent piece of code, the AIM client supports plugins. Be sure to use them! If you don't know where to find them, just start with the AIM homepage - in my opinion, it's the best place to get'em - just look at the top AIM plugins located to the right side of the page!

I know this is not one of those well guarded AIM secrets, but using the bots can be quite fun, and even useful, in most cases. To learn how to give commands to a bot, simply open a dialog box with the one of your choice, and say something. I usually say "Hello," but it works with anything. If you have too much time to waste, you can even type a 2000 words story and send it to a bot, it won't make any difference...:)

Well guarded or not, I hope you enjoyed these AIM secrets I have been able to find and sort out for you today. Obviously, you know more than I do, so I am waiting for your tips and tricks. After all, I am only one, and you're an entire legion of current and future AIM users, hunting for AIM secrets, right? Let's make this only a first step in our joint effort to seek and retrieve as many AIM secrets as possible!