HISTORY AND STATISTICS

             Instant messaging is a relatively recent technology which allows two individuals to privately converse in real time over the internet. The technology has its roots in the original UNIX utilities such as talk and zephyr, and to some degree IRC (Internet Relay Chat). The immediate predecessors of instant messaging technologies were online chat rooms and e-mail. Instant messaging is therefore often considered to be a hybrid of both. IM distinguishes itself from previous text messaging technologies by users' predominant messaging with known others, and it distinguishes itself from e-mail by allowing instantaneous real-time communication. The study entitled, "Usefulness of instant messaging among young users: Social vs. work perspective" by Albert H. Haung and David C. Yen, provides the following comparison summary of the three applications.

             Instant messaging first became widely popular with introduction of ICQ by Mirabilis in November 1996. ICQ (“I Seek You”) was a stand-alone client which allowed anyone to freely communicate with other individuals in real-time, while also allowing users to compile a list of friends, and see whether they were online or not. Soon after the introduction of ICQ by Mirabilis, AOL introduced AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), and eventually supplanted ICQ as the most popular IM service in the US Instant Messaging scene. Other notable competitors are MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. While the specific features of each programs differs to some extent, all provide essentially the same service—they allow users to create a list of friends with whom they can view information about and engage in communication with.

             All major instant messaging programs use a proprietary protocol that is not understood by other competing messaging services. As a result, none of the programs interoperate as there is no standard for instant messaging communication. A key reason AIM became the most popular instant messaging service was that it allows for communication between the AOL network and other internet users who download AIM. At the time of its introduction, the AOL network was considerably large, and both those who had AOL at one time or never did began to use AIM so they could converse with their AOL friends. As a result of the inability of IM services to interoperate due to lack of standardization, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) created the Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol (IMPP) Working Group in 1998. The two most common standardized protocols being worked on by the IETF are SIMPLE and XMPP.

             The future of Instant Messaging is largely unknown, with extensive usage but equally extensive disagreement about the benefits of usage. It is also beginning to see implentation outside of the "teen/student network" and is being used in the workplace and in education. Overall, the Instant Messaging market continues to enjoy rapid growth. According to IDC Research, the IM market will reach $4.2 billion dollars by 2006. NetRatings estimated that by May 2002, 41 million Internet users had some type of instant messaging application available to them.

Current specific usage by service breaks down as follows:

• AOL Instant Messenger: 53 million active users, 195 million total
• ICQ (“I Seek You”): 15 million active users, 400 million total
• MSN Messenger: 29 million active users, 155 million total
• Yahoo! Messenger: 21 million active users

             According to the "Pilot Study into the Use and Usefulness of Instant Messaging Within an Educational Context," conducted by Rachel Cunliffe, "In 2003 there was an estimated 600 million active IM accounts int he world with users sending 582 billion messages per day. market research firm The Radicati Group (2003) predicts this will soar to 1.4 billion accounts and 1,380 billion messages per day by 2007. Gartner Research (2001) foresees that, at its current rate, IM will surpass email usage by the end of 2005."

             Students (the main focus of our research) have been especially attracted to instant messaging, and in a national study of teenage online behavior (The Pew Internet Project Report, 2001a) it was reported that 74% of adolescents in the US who have internet access used IM, and 35% used it every single day. It was even considered the primary method of communication by 19%, compared to the 8% who said e-mail was the primary method of communication.