LGR - AIM Retrospective: 1997-2017

THE X10 AD MAKES ANOTHER APPEARANCE

Peter Metzger

"Some people never really let go of their AIM name and still use it to this day." ...No idea what you're talking about, no sir.

Ungh, AOL n00b5. ICQ is for the 13375.

I’d just taken a job as a network technician at AOL when AIM was released, crazy to think it’s been 20 years since we were asked to install this new software that’ll let anyone chat with you without the AOL client.

Pidgin was my fav, it was like a free Trillian. No network, but could chat with MSN, ICQ, IRC & AIM all at once! So futuristic. Also ah, it let me turn off all the fonts people used ^_^

JennaKay

Reminds me of the movie "You've Got Mail". I didn't use AIM much, but when Hanks elevated that plot to instant message, the film captured what a big deal that was at the time.

Paul

I never used AIM much.. But I did use ICQ. But what I actually used to use before that was a program called "PowWow" and what made it a bit different is that you could actually see your friends typing in realtime, letter-by-letter.

The 8-Bit Guy

I was an ICQ man in college but the video brought back a lot of memories. Thanks Phreakindee

Joon Choi

The early 2000's were a magical time.

ICQ ruled around the 90's for Malaysia, before overtaken by MSN by the new millennium.... that takes me back

Wallace Fung Wooh Sheen

msn was king in australia in the mid-2000s, had so much fun with winks and the built in games

timic83

man i remember using everything mentioned in your video. I remember Trillian being the first program I ever bought. AIM and ICQ were my two main chat programs. All of my friends could never choose just one to stick with.

David Pruitt

Awesome video as always. For me it all started with ICQ, and oddly I can still remember my ICQ number off by heart - and I can barely remember where I left my socks.

BaudBand

This video gave me the feels. Reminds of growing up and chatting with my friends after school on AIM. Simpler times, smartphones have really changed everything

Haha, MySpace but in a tiny square. Yeah that pretty much sums up those things. Such loud visuals in such a small area.

LGR

Sure thing! Seems like pretty much all of those additional programs I mentioned could be their own video someday

LGR

That'd be PushingUpRoses, haha

LGR

I only used it when I had to, haha. Had one long distance friend who refused to use anything else.

LGR

Thanks a lot!

LGR

Thanks, I'm hoping this is one of the more sharable videos I do this month :)

LGR

Now THAT was a short-lived product. AOL just snapped it up and put it to rest so I didn't do much with it. I did however use AIM+ back then which did some similar things.

LGR

This brought back all sorts of memories. I used AOL so much as a kid back in the mid to late 90s and looking at all of those buddy icons... It's like looking at Myspace but in a tiny square.

Justin Dotson

ICQ ruled in Canada but I almost shouted "yah" at my monitor numerous times for Trillian, Limewire etc.. thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Loved this.. I remmeber using all of those services.. even Trillian back in the day

Evan B

With the latest version of Skype, you need a third party program to even add new phone numbers to it. Hard to imagine who thought that was a good idea.

Gary Leigh

Damn... I was just about to start using it.

Gary Leigh

Great video, it gave me nostalgia feels! I was an ICQ guy at the time, I can't forget it's iconic coo-coo. Proud to support you

I was always an MSN guy since that's what my friends used back in 2003-6. If AIM was like a word scramble, then the custom emoticons of MSN made codebreakers of all of us.

Tim

Whoever you were chatting to was totally into it.

Tim

I was an ICQ person, then I started using Skype in the mid-2000s until Skype got bought up by Microsoft and they slowly started destroying every shred of perfection Skype was, but by then, all but one person I chatted with was already using Steam routinely, so I just use Steam to chat with friends now. The whole AOL thing passed me by because I was on the internet before AOL was a thing and by the time I heard about AOL the jokes about it and their gazillions of free hours discs were already rampant. ;)

Kris Asick

My favourite chat client was MSN messenger. I miss the creative custom smileys/emoji some of my friends drew or come across. The newer chat clients such as WhatsApp and Skype don't support custom emoji.

Seán Byrne

yahoo chat ftw?

Flushing Noodle

Most of my IM'ing memories are around ICQ & MS Messenger (mainly 'cause by the time AOL attempted to launch in Oz, they were too late and we were all enjoying regular ISPs) - so the take up wasn't connected to the network. But IM's as a platform… in that way, gosh, it meant so much. Limited dial-up hours meant there were only those small windows of chat time. I think seeing another service go down… certainly doesn't help this mid-30-something-dork feel even older at times. I do kind of miss those small curated network kind of days… especially seeing some of the _downsides_ to social media in Space Year 2017… that's for sure.

Rob Caporetto

Wow, Emily is away... Awesome game! And great video! I never used AOL IM, I only ever used MSN, but it's nice to learn about stuff like that, even though, in a few days, it'll be history.

László Viktor Lajos

And IRC is still one of best chat protocols available, after all why Twitch would use it for their chat if there were anything better available.

Ossi K

I was one of those odd IRC kids, never used AIM or any other IM tool more widely.

BastetFurry

This was fantastic! Terrific look back and I'm so nostalgic towards the late 90s, it really took me back to being a young kid again. Thanks for putting this together LGR, retrospectives like this are why I'm a Patreon supporter :)

I love this! Thank you. I also enjoyed Emily Is Away (& Emily Is Away Too)... but now I feel a fierce need to revive ICQ so it doesn't peace out, too. Looking forward to when this one is public so I can share it!

evistre

Man, where do I even start? I feel like AIM is a goldmine of memories, especially for millennials growing up during AIM's heyday. Everything you said definitely gave me nostalgia feels, especially the whole thing about selecting a buddy icon from one of those websites... oh man. I will probably be playing Emily is Away 1 and 2 this month in memory of AIM :P

Lindsay Michelle

ahh makes remember my verry first screen name online "OSCollector" i was tinkering w/ all sorts of PC's back then and need to keep on-hold a wide array copies of windows3, 3.1 95, and 98.. and even started messing around w/ linux, got a older mac... and even started looking at these homegrown OS's i wont cry for the loss of the service neither but i will weep for the end of an Era. AIM was one of the last remaining Archaic services from Web 1.0

Cael Thunderwing

No DeadAIM? If I remember correctly, I actually bought it. It'd remove the ads and add some other features, but I don't remember what. And the chat bots.. I remember writing one with perl and the Net::OSCAR library haha

Jason Wellband

I've been so stoked for this! I'm going to watch it as soon as I get home from hitting some Goodwills 😁

Retail Archaeology

I still have mine. Doesn't HAVE NUMBERS! I am keeping it for that reason. It is even my email.

IRC was all the rage in Norway. EFNet and Undernet mostly. And I had ICQ of course, who didn't? :D Memory lane.... :D

Anders Enger Jensen

AOL is where my main username came from. I created the name BesterP12 for use in the Babylon 5 chat and that wound up being where I met a lot of friends including my partner. When we did role-playing in private chats, the multiple tabs (that may have come with power tools) helped whoever was the DM.

Jessie Cook