The developers at Google are keeping my little corner of the G-Verse busy the last few weeks. Today is no exception! Not only did Google add colored labels to Gmail, but also AOL Instant Messenger buddies to the chat feature.
Once again, you need to be using the new version of the Gmail user interface (IE 7, Firefox 2.0 recognize this automatically.) On the lower left side of the “Chat” box (on the left) you’ll notice a link labeled “options”. I didn’t notice that before, did you? Click that link and up pops a menu. You can sign in to AOL Instant Messenger. A window will pop up and ask for credentials and import you buddy list. That’s it.
And yes, AIM chat transcripts are saved in Gmail like Gtalk transcripts!
Not to be one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it sure would be nice if we could have a few more protocols and add other accounts (e.g. Yahoo!, XMPP/Jabber, etc). C’mon, how difficult can it be? 😉