I just found this on gmail's servers...

https://mail.google.com/mail/im/aim_online.png
https://mail.google.com/mail/im/aim_offline.png

Would tie in with the new GTalk being speculated at another thread

The answer is yes. I don't know how soon, but some people already have this integration with AIM.

How did you come up with this Daniel?

Ionut, do you have more details about the AIM integration? How does it work, and since when do those people have it?

I wonder is this just a normal Jabber transport, or something proprietary.

This one too for AIM mobile devices:

http://mail.google.com/mail/im/aim_mobile.png

Ludwik, Ionut already found some code related to transports:

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/10/google-to-connect-to-other-im-networks.html

I guess it's only a matter of time...

As pointed out in the comments of that post, the code Ionut found was about transporting messages between Gmail and the Talk server. Jabber transports don't use IFrames. :-)

I don't know if they use transports, but since only AIM is supported, they probably don't use them. Gmail Trusted Testers have this feature.

How do you know some people already have this integration Ionut?

David, I found this out by using the web developer extension of firefox and then using the image information feature.

For some reason these images(the two I showed not the mobile one) are loaded into the default gmail interface. Bit odd isn't it? Especially when you consider they were trying to cut down on what was loaded.

<<How do you know some people already have this integration Ionut?>>

Somebody told me.

It seem like they use one of the AIM APIs to get buddy icons too:

http://api.oscar.aol.com/expressions/get?f=native&type=buddyIcon&t=tonyruscoe

Do you have screenshots Ionut, or could you get them?

Finally. They promised this years ago, didn't they?

Yes. They also showed signed on it being integrated into Gmail via GIYL.

"NAME will be removed from your AIM buddy list":
http://mpwebwizard.com/2007/04/29/multi-user-chat-in-google-talk/

Screenshots:

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/11/screenshots-of-google-talks-integration.html

I guess some Trusted Tested shouldn't really be trusted...

I Always Thought Google Talk Usernames Would Be Able To Talk To AIM Usernames. Not That You Would Be Signing In To AIM.

To further elaborate on my last post. I thought it was supposed to be interoperable (i.e. Google Talk and Gizmo) and Gmail/Talk wouldn't become a client for your AIM account.

What about ICQ?

<<OSCAR is AOL's instant messaging and presence information protocol standing for Open System for CommunicAtion in Realtime. Currently OSCAR is in use for AOL's two main instant messaging systems: ICQ and AIM.>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSCAR_protocol

Well, I never knew that AOL owned ICQ!

How did I not know that?

yeah, even i knew that!!!

Jared, yes but don't assume that isn't true yet. It would make sense that that is true but shouldn't you be able to sign into aim and gtalk separately if you wish?

Yeah i knew it too.

I'm impressed Tony.. :P

DPic . Yes I guess you should be able to do that. But I thought one of Google Talk's reasons for existence was interoperability leading to why they chose the Jabber protocol. There's just something about signing into AIM from GMail that doesn't feel Googly... ha ha.

Well that's because it isn't. They're just doing it because of the partnership. The best think would be if AIM would adopt Jabber!

TechCrunch posted a small writeup about this today. Also includes a screenshot from gmail that shows the AIM options.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/09/thats-your-aim-in-my-gtalk/