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AIM Sync beta [AIM utility]
By Gearhead, NetworkWorld.com, 03/01/05
Obviously AOL isn't going to rest on its laurels with all these upstart IM outfits getting in on the action. A new tool, AIM Sync, does a good job of making their IM client more useful ... AIM Sync was engineered by Intellisync and its purpose is straightforward: To scan your Microsoft Outlook address book and match the entries up to the identities of registered AIM users. Voila! Your AIM buddy list doubles or trebles in minutes. We found the AIM screen names of dozens of friends and colleagues who we would never have even thought were IM users!
With AIM Sync installed and using the AIM client you can display the contact information of any online member of your Buddy List by clicking on their email message, address card, or phone listing. AIM Sync also lets you add people to your Buddy List from your Microsoft Outlook contact list and invite non-AIM users from your Outlook contact list to register for free AIM Service (just what we all need, more viral marketing spam).
Integration with AIM compatible IM clients such as Trillian doesn't exist yet but as AIM Sync populates your buddy list in your online profile with the newly found contacts they are also available to non-AIM clients. This leads to a big irritation: Because there's no link to the Outlook address book entry for a newly found screen name under the likes of Trillian so you'll have to search Outlook.
But there's another problem: In Outlook, AIM Sync doesn't populate the in-built IM Address field but rather creates its own called Screen Name. But this is, of course, not visible in any available "view" -- oh no, you'll have to go into View | Arrange By | Current View | Customize Current View ... | Fields | New Field ... and then create a new text field named Screen Name.
Now you can search using the Advanced tab and specify the new field which is listed under User Defined Fields in Folder .... Whew. We think a little work is needed to get around this obvious integration problem.
AIM Sync is free and works with AIM version 5.9 or higher and Microsoft Outlook version 2002 or 2003. While AIM Sync will give AOL a short term advantage you can bet that all of the other IM vendors will produce me-too solutions that will be similarly effective.
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