AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), the chat app that was the go-to communication platform for Internet users in the 90s and early 2000s is officially shutting down on Friday. AIM's closure means users will have to say goodbye to their screen name and buddy lists that helped them navigate the early years on the web. There is no way to save or export your buddy list. The company says the users can save all their chat logs but it must be done by Friday. All personal data associated with AIM will be deleted after December 15, 2017. While AIM has been a shadow of its former self in the last decade, its death marks the end of an important cultural touchstone for the web. But in the two decades since its launch, AIM’s popularity has dwindled in favour of mobile-focused platforms for communicating, like Facebook, Whatsapp, and Slack. At its peak in 2001, AIM had 36 million active users; as of this summer, it had just 500,000 unique visitors a month. The platform's closure was announced in early October, by Verizon-owned Oath (which is made up of AOL and Yahoo). The proto-social network Many see AIM as an early prototype of modern social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. A post on MIT Technology Review by Julia Sklar highlights some of the innovations and influences of AIM. Sklar mentions how the Buddy List wasn’t an AIM feature from the start; at first, users had to request information about their contacts’ online status…
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