Gmail Integrates AOL's AIM

Gmail users who love the ease of chatting with their buddies from right within the Gmail interface have one more reason to be happy. Starting today Gmail users can sign into their AIM accounts via Gmail chat and talk with AIM buddies just as they do with their Google Talk friends.

Apart from that, features such as chat history and automatic sorting of buddies based on frequency of communication, will work seamlessly across Google and AIM buddies. This roll out today is in the newest English version of Gmail and will be available in other languages soon.

Gmail users can just click on the upside-down triangle next to "set status here" in their Gmail chat and select "Sign into AIM" from the drop down menu. Once they've entered their AIM log-in information, their AIM contacts will appear intermingled among Gmail contacts, and they can select an AIM contact and chat with them directly.

In February 2006, Google integrated real-time chat into the Gmail email service letting users switch between email and instant messaging without having to think about which they were using. Google also allowed users to keep a history of chats and emails together in conversation threads.