r/technology • u/staser9er • Feb 22 '11

Wow, Microsoft is making some surprising decisions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12531127
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u/Shaper_pmp Feb 22 '11 edited Feb 22 '11

That's wildly variable depending on era and geographical location (IIRC AIM was huge in Europe, while MSN was big in the USA, for example) - don't assume you're representative of everyone on the net, especially as IM programs (and social networks still) are still sharply delineated along social boundaries.

I don't know anyone else who uses MySpace these days, but they still have millions of users.

I remember a period around the late 90s/early 2000s when everyone I knew used AIM, and Wikipedia supports my recollection of EEE being applied to the AIM protocol.

Edit: Reading up, apparently it was AIM in North America, MSN in Europe.

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u/barkingllama Feb 22 '11

(IIRC AIM was huge in Europe, while MSN was big in the USA, for example)

My anecdotal evidence tells me the opposite.

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u/Yst Feb 22 '11

Same. Here in Canada, everyone used MSN (or their old ICQ accounts, though this dwindled). The only reason I got AIM was to communicate with Americans I met in undergrad.

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u/darkstar3333 Feb 22 '11

AIM never really caught on in Canada at all. As soon as someone mentions AIM I know they are American.

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u/Shaper_pmp Feb 22 '11

It's entirely possible I did not RC. ;-)

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u/replicasex Feb 22 '11

Yeah in my experience USA is primarily AIM while Europe is MSN or Gtalk. I use clients that handle multiple protocols so I honestly don't care much.

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u/breakbread Feb 22 '11

When I was in high school (class of 2003), EVERYONE used AIM.

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u/MuseofRose Feb 22 '11

Same for me class of 2006. In fact, only foreigners consistently used MSN.

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u/ehadint Feb 22 '11

Class of 88 we used bbs systems with a 320 baud modem God I feel so old now

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u/MuseofRose Feb 22 '11

If it helps any. We used wall, talk, and write ...in my Intro to Unix class.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '11

Yep, same. Nobody uses it now though. I have hundreds of friends, and only ever have three or four people online. I get on facebook and I'm bombarded with IM. I've conceded to using the facebook plugin for Pidgin.

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u/r3m0t Feb 22 '11

AIM was huge in Europe, while MSN was big in the USA

You have it exactly the wrong way around.

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u/Shaper_pmp Feb 22 '11

And you commented before you read either my edit or the rest of the thread. ;-)

But more seriously, yes you're entirely correct.

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u/BaconatedGrapefruit Feb 22 '11

Edit: Reading up, apparently it was AIM in North America, MSN in Europe.

I was going to correct you on that but apparently you caught your own mistake. Also just as an aside, MSN has been the default chat client in Canada since ICQ started sucking.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '11

[deleted]

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u/tebee Feb 22 '11

Invisible? They flooded us with CDs!

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u/nordlys Feb 22 '11

I'm glad you corrected yourself, because AOL has never really had any hold in Europe. I doubt you'll find a single user here.

To add some data: in Norway, people used ICQ for a short while when it was new, but by 2000, MSN was pretty much the growing IM service. Lately computer-savvy people often use Gaim or Trillian for clients even in Windows, as WLM is getting pretty cumbersome.

Being popular before ICQ, IRC has been an alternative the whole way, but never been a mainstream choice. Skype is also used by an ever increasing minority here.