AIM Connect

Frequently Asked Questions Back to Main »

For Users

Q. What is AIM Connect?

A. AIM Connect is a social tool that you can use to broadcast the things you're doing on the sites that support it. Your activities on the site get published to your AIM Buddy Feed, AIM Buddy Info and more! AIM Connect also enables you to see what your friends are doing elsewhere and chat with other people on the site.

Q. What kinds of things can I do with AIM Connect?

A. Share articles with your buddies by clicking on the "I Like This" button on pages that support it. Instant Message with buddies on your AIM Buddy List. Chat with other people that are on the site at the same time as you. You can share your activities on the site so that your buddies and other people on the site can see the things you're doing (like commenting on articles).

Q. Can I share the page that I am on to my buddies?

A. Yes, this can be done in two ways. There may be a button on pages that allows you to share the current page with your buddies. This will appear in the "Buddy Updates" section of the toolbar for you and all of your IM buddies. Alternatively, if you are instant messaging with a friend, you can tell that friend what page you are on with an easy click action.

Q. If I am IM'ing with someone on my desktop, why do the instant messages appear on the AIM Connect toolbar?

A. This occurs as a result of being logged into IM from both the toolbar and the desktop simultaneously. In the meantime, you can minimize instant message windows you want to "ignore" in the website. We are looking at alternative ways to handle this situation.

For Site Owners

Q. What is AIM Connect?

A. AIM Connect is an advanced suite of social networking services that enable site owners to keep users engaged wherever they are.

Q. What things does it do to engage my users?

A. Adding social features to your site mean that users spend more time on the site. By having capabilities like chatting with other users, broadcasting activities and instant messaging with their friends, you're able to keep the users on your site longer.

Q. What do you mean "broadcast"? How are activities shared?

A. Using our APIs, a partner site defines an "activity". This may be commenting on an article, watching a video, etc. After the activity is done, we present the user with a "sharing consent" dialog that asks the user if they'd like to publish that action into their feed. They can also choose not to share the information. These activities get published to AIM's client, Bebo and more!. You can also embed an "I Like This" button on your site to allow users to individually send articles to their AIM Buddies.

Q. Does it bring new unique visitors to my site?

A. AIM Connect allows users to tell their buddies what pages they are on at any given time using the "I Like This" button as well as an "easy click action" to send via instant message. It also enables to broadcast activities that they perform on your site to their AIM Buddies. With this combination, their AIM buddies will see these activities and will be enticed to come to your site.

Q. Is there a way for users to see what other things are going on in the site?

A. Any action that your users explicitly do that create an API action can be seen through the Site Updates tab on the toolbar.

Q. Can I publish things into the "Site Updates" section?

A. Yes, we accept an RSS feed and will publish anything in that RSS feed to the Site Updates tab. You can use this feature to keep users informed on what's going on with your site.

Q. Who can a user IM with on my site?

A. We provide users with their AIM buddy list. This is the same AIM buddy list that exists when they open the AIM client. In the future, we will allow users to IM with other people on the site at that time.

Q. How do I add AIM Connect to my website?

A. Click here to contact us.

Q. Do I have to do anything special to my site to use it?

A. Installing AIM Connect involves Javascript and a few API calls to tell us various things about what is going on with your site.

Q. Do you charge for the use of AIM Connect (is there a fee to deploy it?)?

A. Not currently

Q. Can I administrate my own chat room?

A. Yes, partners are granted an "admin" user for every chat room they create to be able to moderate the chat and remove users, if necessary.

Q. What information on users is shared with partners?

A. This feature is planned for the future. Currently AIM Connect uses AOL's OpenAuth API to log users in. See it at http://dev.aol.com/api/openauth

Q. Can I implement these features outside of the "toolbar"?

A. Yes, available soon.

Q. Do you put advertisements into the product?

A. Not currently, but this is an area that we are exploring and would look to share revenue with our partners who participate in this program.

Q. Do you provide metrics for how AIM Connect is performing on our site?

A. Yes, we give you things like how many times articles were shared, how many comments were posted, etc. The idea is that we can provide you with perspective on how AIM Connect is affecting your site for the better.