For those that use an @aol.com email address, you might have noticed an email that appeared to be spam, but it wasn’t. It came from the sender "FooterSettlement" with subject line "OFFICIAL NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND PROPSED SETTLEMENT", and looked like this:

This is not spam. In short, what it means is that you now have the ability to opt out of footer advertisements in the emails you send. All you have to do it login to your AOL Mail first, then go to the web address http://footer.aol.com and simply uncheck the box, like this:

..then click the Save button.

From that point, no footer ads will be sent in the mail you send from your AOL email account.

It’s about time.

If you use AIM for instant messaging, any AIM account has the ability to send email. Your email address would be your-AIM-screen-name@aim.com. This has the same ability to opt out of footer ads just like @aol.com addresses do. To access and start using mail for an AIM account, the address to go to is http://webmail.aol.com. Login using your AIM credentials.

Are footer ads in outgoing emails good revenue generators anymore?

No. In order for free email providers to keep existing users and moreover attract new ones, the content of the communication sent to and from people must be absolutely ad-free. The biggest reason for this is SMS (Short Message Service) compatibility. Many of us use our email to send in the form of a short text message to cell phones. An email system that forces footer ads on all outgoing mail literally prevents you from sending any SMS at all, due to the fact you trip the 180-character-or-less limit every time you attempt to send a message.

Yahoo! Mail hasn’t had any footer ads on outgoing mail for some time and Gmail never has. Hotmail/Windows Live Mail does but only if you use the free web-based version. However I’m certain Hotmail will eventually drop the footer ads as well; it’s only a matter of time.

Any free email provider today that uses footer ads on outgoing messages is, pun intended, shooting themselves in the foot. Ad-supported free email should show ads in the web interface only and nowhere in the body of any message. This allows the user to send mail to anybody on any device, including mobile devices, without restriction.

At present, the most SMS-friendly free email providers are Google, Yahoo! and now AOL. Hotmail isn’t SMS-friendly only for the reason their free web-based version forces footer ads on outgoing messages. You can get around this by using the Windows Live Mail email client (mail sent from the client does not include footer ads at all) or by having a Hotmail Plus account, but it would be nice if Microsoft followed the lead of Yahoo! and AOL and dropped the footer crapola altogether.

The time for footer ads in email is over. The companies who choose to remain with it will have their users abandon the service in favor of footer-free email.

More people these days are getting away from instant messenger programs and using the in-browser way, because there really isn’t too much reason to use an IM app these days. Years ago a large chunk of the IM functionality was provided by the application, but that’s not the case anymore. You can do voice, webcam, manage your buddy/contact list and just about everything else right from the browser.

With web-based IM you have from-service and multi-protocol.

Multi-Protocol

The one most people know is Meebo. It has a fantastic interface and is super-easy to set up and use. However there’s also eBuddy,ILoveIM, IMhaha, IMUnitive, KoolIM, mabber, MSN2Go, radiusIM and Wablet.

Needless to say you’ve got a lot of choice.

Do you have a review of one of the above? Leave a comment. I haven’t had the time to test all the above, so if you’ve got a few moments to spare, let us know what you think of one or more of the above.

From-Service

These are web-based versions of IM from the service providers themselves.

Yahoo: http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/
Windows Live: http://messidog.live.com or http://webmessenger.msn.com
AIM: http://www.aim.com/aimexpress.adp

Here are the rating from best to worst:

Best: AIM

AIM has updated their web interface and said honestly it’s the best there is. Flash-based, smooth animations, no weirdness with extraneous pop-ups (other than just one for the IM window itself), in-window tabbed conversations, familiar friendly sounds – this one has got the works. If you use AIM you will take to this like a fish to water.

Good: Yahoo

This looks very similar to the Yahoo Messenger app itself. However the problem is that it takes up the whole browser and I could not find any way to "detach" the IM. But other than that this is a solid performer. It has tabs, very friendly interface and a simple clean design. If you use Yahoo Messenger you’ll definitely want to try this.

Worst: Windows Live

Where Microsoft excels with it’s Windows Live Messenger client, their web messenger is a joke. It’s absolutely awful. The "messidog" address almost never works. You’ll get "An error has occurred" and be left flat on attempt to login.

The other address does work, but the interface looks like MSN Messenger 7. That’s bad. Bear in mind the current client is version 2009 (version 9). It’s also plagued with pop-up warnings left and right. This is a web messenger designed for 2002, not 2009. I have no idea why Microsoft keeps such a horrible web IM around like this. They’ve made such a huge effort to make all the Live services better and more friendly but haven’t touched the IM portion whatsoever. Very strange.

You’re far better off just using one of the multi-protocol services above.

What’s your take? App or Web?

Have IM web apps come far enough to make you give up your IM client or are there specific features that keep you "local", so to speak? Let us know.

From the "I didn’t know AOL had blogs" dept., AOL’s journal service at journals.aol.com is going to the digital graveyard as of October 31, 2008.

Another place called peopleconnectionblog.com, winner of a "domain name that’s too frickin’ long" award, has an article stating that if you happen to be one of the poor saps using AOL Journals, that AOL is:

"…working on a way to easily move your Journal to another blogging service — you can expect an email within the next week with more details about how to do it.."

So.. yeah. Yet another reason not to use AOL products (as if we didn’t have enough already).

AOL Instant Messenger, better known as simply AIM, is my preferred way of instant messaging simply due to the fact it’s the most reliable chat network. Out of all the things AOL does wrong, AIM is the only thing they do right.

Windows Live (formerly MSN) and Yahoo both have routine small outages on their networks that can get really irritating really quickly – but this doesn’t happen on AIM. Ever.

And for those that say "What about Google Talk?", yes, GTalk’s Jabber way of doing things is extremely reliable but unfortunately doesn’t have as much of an established presence like AIM does.

AIM Lite is an AIM chat client released the AIM team themselves. It is available for both Windows and Mac. AIM Lite one of the absolute fastest and lightest graphical clients I’ve ever used. The fastest I’ve ever used was Miranda, but AIM Lite comes darn close.

For those who are all about speed (or if you just have a slower computer) and use AIM, I strongly recommend getting AIM Lite.

If you like the software, see the plugins available. These plugins add in features like sound notification, toaster pop-ups (the good kind of pop-up) and a few other options.