December 14, 1999 Web posted at: 9:04 a.m. EST (1404 GMT) by Carolyn Duffy Marsan

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(IDG) -- The on-again, off-again instant messaging wars flared anew last week, as America Online attempted to block traffic from AT&T WorldNet's I M Here service, a gambit that worked only sporadically and quickly garnered criticism.

The flap between the two ISPs could raise the profile of ongoing efforts to standardize instant messaging, according to industry observers who say interoperability is required if corporations are ever to adopt the technology on a widespread basis.

"Enterprise customers already have e-mail interoperability. As they move toward instant messaging, they're going to ask the obvious question of 'Why doesn't this stuff work together?' " says Mark Day, senior scientist at SightPath and a leader in the instant messaging standardization effort. "If AOL is really not going to give interoperability to most of the companies trying to sell into the corporate space, then there will be additional incentive for these companies to work it out on their own."

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Adoption of an instant messaging standard would put an end to skirmishes such as the one last week and allow end users to communicate in real time over the Internet regardless of the type of client software they use.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) formed a working group in February to develop such a standard, known as the Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol (IMPP). IMPP would allow end users of compliant software packages to see when people on their "buddy lists" are online and chat with them instantaneously. The IMPP working group is almost done defining the protocol requirements and plans to have a draft written by the middle of next year.

"The IMPP work was already very important," says Keith Moore, co-director of the IETF's applications area, which oversees the IMPP working group. "The recent AOL action might reinforce public perception that a standard is needed, but I think the public already realized this."

The visibility of the AOL-AT&T WorldNet flap may push customers to request instant messaging standards, says Patrik Falstrom, the other director of the IETF's applications area. "The fact that a specification exists might make it possible for various players -- ISPs, for example -- to set up their own servers for instant messaging and point to the spec," he says. "So the pure existence of a spec might mean that the market asks for this instead of proprietary protocols."

The latest flap over instant messaging interoperability began last Wednesday, when AT&T WorldNet released a new version of its I M Here service. Powered by Tribal Voice's PowWow technology, AT&T WorldNet's I M Here supports real-time communications with users of AOL Instant Messenger and Microsoft MSN Messenger. A few hours after Version 3.9 of I M Here was released, AOL began blocking the instant messaging traffic from AT&T WorldNet users. Tribal Voice responded Thursday evening with a work-around that reinstated communications with AOL Instant Messenger.

AOL made the next move at about 1 a.m. Friday when it again began blocking AT&T WorldNet traffic. Whereas AOL had earlier prevented I M Here users from even registering with the AOL Instant Messenger server, this time those users were allowed to register but were prevented from receiving "buddy list" information. That move meant that AT&T WorldNet users were unable to see who was online at any given time, an essential feature of such products.

With more than 37 million users, AOL Instant Messenger is the most popular software used for instant messaging. AT&T WorldNet's I M Here serves 1.8 million users.

An AOL reversal?

An AOL spokeswoman did not return calls for this story.

"It just amazes me that AOL can be so intransigent," says David Strom, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based industry analyst. "AOL Instant Messenger is the industry standard. It's used by millions of people.... It would be in their best interest to see that everyone else adopts their instant messaging standards. All they're doing by blocking traffic is encouraging people to have their own instant messaging clients."

Tribal Voice officials say they have tried repeatedly to get AOL's cooperation on interoperability with their instant messaging software.

"We used the protocols and source code that were published on AOL's Web site," says Beth Nagengast, instant messaging product manager at Tribal Voice. "We looked at the documentation on the Web site, and we believe we are in full compliance. We tried to contact AOL [about our product plans], but they did not return any of our phone calls or e-mails."

Nagengast says AOL officials have not returned calls from Tribal Voice about why they are blocking I M Here.

"We're surprised that AOL is blocking a company that is using their standard," she says.

Some observers say AOL's actions are less about standards than they are about business models.

"It's kind of a textbook case that when you are ... the leader in a field, standardization is not necessarily good," SightPath's Day says. "You don't want to be seen as blocking it, but you don't want to go out of your way to aid it, either."