AIM 6.5, 6.8, and 6.9 Beta:
15/100: A Waste of Time. Not worth even trying.
AIM: AOL Instant "Messing-ger"
Why the harsh rating? Being a large company and serving so many flashy ads is one thing, but force installing adware products, and being adware itself, is unacceptable.
Real Time IM:
Version 6.8 and above have a nice unique new feature known as Real Time IM. When enabled, you literally get to see what your buddy is typing in real time. There are several bugs with this including occasionally counting each keystroke as a new message, causing a huge pyramid of messages.
Status Messages:
Version 6 emphasizes status messages....... Not much to say about this. Other clients had status messages forever.
Color Chooser:
Version 6 emphasizes colors. Pick between 10 different colors on black or white. Not much to say about this either. Not very customizable.
Now on to the things that caused me to give this such a low rating:
Force Install Software:
Read more here. This is completely unacceptable. Anyone who has installed AIM normally may notice that something called Viewpoint Media Player has been installed onto their computer. Coincidence? Accident? NO. It was no accident. It is bundled with AIM as well as other AOL Applications. Viewpoint Media Player has a unique tracker ID and will eventually track user activities. Whats even worse? Try uninstalling it. If you're using an account that has admin install rights without User Account Control (Vista and 7), launch your AIM again, Viewpoint Media Player.... may magically reinstall itself! They mention Viewpoint in the license how its required to view the media (which IT IS NOT. I uninstalled and blocked it and everything works FINE). They don't mention anything else about Viewpoint.
Thats not all. Something called WildTangent, also adware and can track user activites, is installed. It is used to play various media and is used by other companies as well. The problem is... Force installed and the auto-updater is on by default. The updater transmits data about the computer that it is installed on, including hardware specifications, installed software, and more. QQ Games and Aim Tunes can be optionally installed during setup. But even if you choose not to install them, ever realized that numerous copies of these two setup files are scattered throughout your hard drive? But wait! Thats not all...
Ads... ads.... oh look new version! EVEN MORE ADS!!!
Ads ads ads. Almost every client has ads (including Windows Live and Yahoo!). Aim, however, has simply too much. First of all, most ads are meant to be helpful and persuade users to buy, try, or use products. The ads on AIM, are a different story. It is known to take advantage of user bandwidth to download large movie trailers randomly then playing them. When users mouse over certain banner ads, it expands like a popup window then starts playing the ad as a movie.
Oh look Version 6.9 Beta is here.... Whats new? New buttons.... and.... guess what? Huge flashy ads on Settings. We can't even change our settings without downloading ads.
Buddy info... celebrity gossip ads on the bottom. Pretty useless and annoying.
The ad server: *.atwola.com is a MAJOR source of tracking cookies. The domain is used for not only AIM ads, but ads on AOL sites, and signature ads on outgoing mail.
I tested AIM 6.5, 6.8, and 6.9 and most of this is completely unacceptable behavior.
AOL has also lost a lot of subscribers and will probably continue to lose even more if they don't clean up their behavior here. This not only applies to AIM, but their AOL Desktop Client as well.
Other AOL Software is known to add their own sites to Internet Explorer's Trusted Zone. What does this do? That would allow anything from their site to download and install without contacting the user at all.
Would you trust such behavior? You decide. Force installing software? Company that adds sites to trusted zone? Is AIM worth it?
There are MUCH better clients out there including Digsby (many offers, but there're all optional and the company needs revenue money to run... plus this keeps it 100% ad free too-they're a small company), Pidgin, and Trillian. If they need revenue money, they give you optional offers where theres a clear DECLINE button. AIM, however, simply forces the junk to be installed without telling the user at all. I highly do not recommend AIM.
I highly recommend Digsby. If you don't want the parade of offers to even show up on Digsby install, simply click the link saying that you had trouble with the above installer. Digsby is kept 100% ad free and supports the most protocols (IM, Email, and Social Network) of all. If you choose to use the original installer, remember that theres a DECLINE button to the offers.
If you really want to use AIM, consider using AIM Ad Hack. It allows you to REMOVE and BLOCK Viewpoint, WildTangent, Ads, and all the other junkware (you can choose what to remove). Theres even an option to install AIM during Ad Hack so you would never have to even face the junk installed. Click here to install from Softpedia. Unlike other programs, this actually modifies the entire AIM source code to remove ads and stuff. I tested this and it works perfectly. I uninstalled AIM and will never go back. I now use Digsby for everything.
AIM Ad Hack!! Screenshots below on AIM 6.9 Beta 3 (Released on March 16, 2009). The first image in each pair is the original and the second is the ad hacked. I chose to remove everything during AIM Ad Hack. As always, click to enlarge
About AIM Versions:
Buddy List:
Buddy Info:
Can we change our settings without download ads?? (Version 6.9 and above)
Hey look its adware installed!
It also does not uninstall cleanly. Even if you choose to remove everything, including data, it will still leave behind some registry keys and folders in hidden user directories such as C:\Users\~USER~\AppData\* on Vista/7 and C:\Documents and Settings\~USER~\Application Data\* on older operating systems. Viewpoint and WildTangent also leave registry behind and must be manually deleted or through using uninstallers like Revo Uninstaller (highly recommended). WildTangent does not leave an uninstaller, however, it leaves numerous folders and files on your disk especially in hidden folders.
Alternatives: Digsby, Integrated with Gmail Google Talk (Logs with Gmail), Pidgin, Trillian, Meebo (EV SSL Here), and more. If any of these have offers, its mainly to keep it ad free. All of these alternatives provide a DECLINE to the offers, and nothing is force installed. I recommend Digsby or Gmail (Google Talk) Integration.
I don't trust this type of behavior. Do you?
Email me any questions at: free...@gmail.com
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