Instant messaging system

Name

Instant Messaging (IM, instant messages, the Internet pager) appeared in the mid-nineties as the means of communication alternative to e-mail. The online chats which are used since the beginning of the 1990th years (from them the basic principle of work - instant delivery of messages from the interlocutor to the interlocutor was taken) were a prototype of IM. The first Internet pager - ICQ (the reduced abbreviation from an English-speaking phrase of "I seek you" (I look for you), a Russian-speaking form - "ася", "ICQ") as soon began to call similar services and software clients, it was started in November, 1996 by Mirabilis company. The solution had the client-server architecture (became classical for the similar systems) - the user loaded the free client program which was connected to the server on which registration data (the six-digit number assigned by a system and the password) and the contact list were stored.

Functions of IM clients

Traditional functions of software clients for instant messaging are:

• acceptance and sending simple text messages, messages with the formatted text (a certain length);
  
• acceptance and sending URL;
  
• acceptance and sending files (both in the p2p mode, and via the ICQ server if direct transmission of files is blocked);
  
• video conferences;
  
• support of graphic avatars (static, animated, including Flash-animation);
  
• calls on the computer and also VoIP-telephony on stationary phones;
  
• sending SMS;
  
• support of presence statuses of the interlocutor;
  
• maintaining history of correspondence.

Also in some programs (the possibility of obtaining notifications on incoming messages of e-mail registered on the same service as the messenger is Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Mail.Ru Agent and others); network multiplayer games (for example, ICQ Open Xtraz); readings news and other functions (including, and at the expense of the installed plug-ins).

Development History

Practically at once (at the beginning of 1997) after emergence of the ICQ service developed by Mirabilis company, the similar instant messaging system was implemented by the America Online (AOL) portal, having called its AIM. An opportunity not only text messagings, but also support of chats with other users unregistered in AOL network became distinctive feature of the last. In 1998 AOL purchased Mirabilis company, having continued development of ICQ. In parallel with development of AOL the projects in this area began to develop Microsoft and Yahoo which released, respectively, MSN (later - Windows Live) Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. The same principles were the basis for these programs (communication in real time in the form of text messages, later - in the form of voice communication, file sharing and video), but unlike AIM/ICQ these services were strictly tied to registration for MSN.com and Yahoo.com. In 2001 the America Online company passed under control of Time Warner - in the client of ICQ advertizing began to appear. In parallel with the commercial project also non-commercial, mainly, open-source began to develop. The most known of them - the Jabber project was based by Jeremy Miller at the beginning of 1998 (the first message about the project is dated on January 4, 1999). Soon after that several main developers who began to work on the jabberd server, clients of Jabber for Windows and GNU/Linux and also gateways in main systems of IM joined the project (AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo). In 2001 - 2007 several sales of the server were released, software clients for different operating systems including Microsoft Windows are created. In 2005 appearance of the IM client from Google - Google Talk became a milestone event for the industry. On January 17, 2006 Google developers connected the service to Jabber network, thus having unified interpersonal messaging of any Jabber and GTalk servers.

In 2005 ICQ (the first of all IM systems) appeared in Russia. In Russia the Internet Holding began to represent the interests of ICQ company "Rambler", and the Russian users had an opportunity to work in the localized software client (on the basis of the version of ICQ 5). At that time time the largest IM services (ICQ, Yahoo!, MSN) allowed users to exchange not only text information and voice, but also to transfer files, the SMS, to play multiplayer games, to arrange video conferences. Both emergence and the followed growth of alternative software clients (QIP, &RQ, Miranda IM) falls on the same period in which persuasive advertizing from ICQ was not displayed, and degree of a usability was above (the multistowage mode of a chat instead of a one-window interface in the corporate client of ICQ (QIP, Trillian), chat history in normal TXT files (QIP) or in the uniform file profile (&RQ, Miranda IM), expansibility plug-ins (Miranda IM)).

The history of advertizing in Russian began ICQ in October, 2001. Then in the client of ICQ98b the Russian users saw the advertizing of the domestic Toka.Ru or Damochka.Ru resources placed there without approval of AOL instead of the button of SMS service. The cost of a contact to the Russian audience of users of ICQ in 2004 was estimated at $2 - $3 for 1000 demonstrations. According to in AMK Interactive, CTR of such placement at the moment was at the level of 1%, or in recalculation - $0.2 - $0.3 for click.

Dynamics of connections to ICQ

May 1997 — 1 million registration, 100.000 people online;
February 1999 — 1 million simultaneous connections;
December of 1999 — 50 million users;
March, 2007 - active users — 22 million, all — 150 million.

Principle of system operation of instant messaging

For work in an IM system the user needs to get the ID (for ICQ is the UIN consisting of digits; for Jabber - it is Jabber ID consisting of a user name and the server, for example, of user@qip.ru; other systems are mainly tied to the e-mail addresses) and to load the software client on the computer. After input of registration data it will be connected to the system server, using this or that protocol (OSCAR for ICQ, for example), sending on it the login and the password and also the computer IP address. In response to it on the server the temporary file containing optional data of the user which it entered at registration (for example, the country of accommodation), the statuses of the user ("online", "it is invisible to all" and so on) and also the contact list and the messages sent to the time spent of the user out of network is created. Search of all users from a contact list is in parallel run and the notification on their status is transferred by the server to the software client. Communication is conducted at the same time between two interlocutors, at the same time other users from a contact list or just other participants of network can also send messages which will be displayed in windows of a chat of the software client. In a number of programs (Skype) multi-user chats are allowed. A method of display of other elements of the interface differ in different clients, but, as a rule, in the list instead of number of contact can be shown or the name appropriated to the interlocutor by the IM client's user or a nickname which the user specified at registration or change of personal data (it appears in the list of messages). Upon termination of a conversation the user can close an active window of a chat and also go offline. The server automatically changes the status in contact lists of other participants, but continues to accept text messages (the truth, the term of their storage is limited).

Protocols

Most of the existing IM clients use closed (Skype) or proprietary (ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!) exchange protocols information. It means that, despite existence of alternative clients, the developer company can change data processing algorithms at any time that will lead, on the one hand, to obligatory loading of updates for software clients, and on the other hand, to nonserviceability of third-party programs for communication. Recently similar cases happen at users of ICQ, and in the latest time, on January 21, 2009, users from Russia and a number of the CIS countries postaradat. Similar actions are directed against abuse of regulations ((the client whom over 100 thousand people use, should show advertizing as well as official ICQ) uses of the OSCAR protocol opened in 2008. At the same time, some developers integrate several protocols in one version of the software client, applying for increase in loyalty of users (common examples - Yahoo! and MSN Messenger, fring and Skype, Mail.ru Agent and ICQ).

Popularity of IM programs According to the MASMI agency, in April, 2006 in Russia the following instant messengers were used: ICQ (41.6%), Mail.ru Agent (15.4%), Rambler ICQ (8.5%), Miranda (3.2%), Skype (2.2%), MSN Messenger (1.9%), Google Talk (0.7%), Jabber (0.7%), Yahoo Messenger (0.6%), AOL Instant Messenger (0.4%), Trillian (0.3%).
In same it is a high time in the world according to comScore Networks MSN Messenger occupied 61% of the world market of instant messaging systems.

Future

Now IM systems are under pressure from outside not only various alternative clients, but also from social networks. Really, the inclination of audience to use of internal systems of message exchange on similar resources, plays a bad joke with such systems as Windows Live, Yahoo! Messenger and ICQ. Analysts believe that in the future users will refuse use of software clients which will be replaced with web versions of "ICQ" (an example - Meebo). On the other hand, developers already declare plans for integration of support of social networks in clients - Microsoft and AOL is going to take such steps.