Getting Google Enabled: Chat With AIM Users From Gmail

Today, we have a twofer, Google has added multi colored labels and access to AIM to Gmail, and the blogs went wild. Check out this sampling of blog posts:

Blogoscoped - Chat With AIM Users From Gmail:

After introducing colored labels earlier this week, Google now seems to be rolling out a web-based client for AOL Instant Messenger chatting as part of Gmail. You will still need an AIM account, as Google Talk and AOL are not joining forces, but Google is merely using the Open AIM framework. Ionut Alex. Chitu foreshadowed this functionality in his blog a while ago.

To see if you’ve already got this feature, log-in to Gmail and open the chat box status menu by clicking the arrow icon next to your name in that box. You should be seeing a menu entry reading “Sign into AIM.” Also, your Settings -> Chat options dialog in Gmail will contain a new section labeled “AIM” at the bottom, as above picture from Luka of French Google blog Zorgloob shows.

Note that Google on their Gmail/ AIM help pages mention that you will have to periodically re-enter your AIM password, as they are not saving it but just using it to get a token from AOL.

I don’t have this feature yet, but I think as soon as I get it I’ll uninstall the AIM desktop client. It might be neat if Google rolls out their AIM functionality to the standalone Google Talk web app as well (I’m using that one instead of Gmail chat).

Download Squad - AIM in Gmail:

Today sure is the day for little Gmail tweaks. First they announced Colored Labels, and now AIM integration.

With Google's Gmail you can now chat with friends that have an AIM account through the Google Talk interface. When you sign into your AIM account through Gmail, your AIM buddies will be populated in your Contact list. Of course you need an AIM account to use this feature.

To check to see if you have a lucky account (we're sure they'll be rolling this out to all users soon) logout, then log back into your account and click on Settings, from there visit the Chat tab and look at the bottom of the list for the section named AIM. Sign in, and your ready to go.

UPDATE; TIP: Make sure you are signed into Gmail chat in order for AIM chat to be activated.

Lifehacker - Gmail Adds AIM Support to Chat:

Not only did Google add colored labels to Gmail today, they're rolling out AIM compatibility in chat, too. The new AOL Instant Messenger support lets you log into your AIM account to chat with your AIM buddies right inside Gmail. Not sure yet if your AIM chat history is stored in your Gmail account the way GTalk convo's are. To try it out you've got to be using the new version of Gmail in IE7 or Firefox 2. Sign into Chat and hit the Options menu to see the "Sign into AIM" option. Any readers out there get AIM in Gmail yet? Let us know how you like it. Image via Zoorgloob.

PC World - Google Gmail Integrates AOL's AIM:

Google has integrated AOL's popular AIM instant-messaging service into its Gmail Web-based e-mail client, the company announced on Tuesday.
Gmail has had its own chat service since February 2006, but now Gmail users will be able to connect to AIM through a drop-down menu on the Gmail Web page, Google said. Gmail users can sign into AIM through the "set status here" menu, Google said. AIM contacts and Gmail chat will appear on the same menu.
Google said it was rolling out the new feature on the English version of Gmail on Tuesday. AIM access will be available on other language versions of Gmail soon, the company said.
"We're always looking for new and useful ways to help our users connect with friends, family, and coworkers," Google said in a statement.
The ability to connect to AIM through Gmail is a "very big deal," said Michael Osterman, founder of messaging analysis firm Osterman Research. About 75 percent of people who use IM in business settings use AIM or the AIM enterprise product, he said.
Now, when people are using Gmail, they can see if the people they're sending e-mail to are available for live chat on AIM instead, he said. "You've been given another option for communicating with people," he said. "It's one more way to talk to them."
Gmail users can keep a history of chats and e-mails together in so-called conversation threads.

Gadgetell - Google updates Gmail, adds label colors:

Google seems to always be adding little, however useful improvements to Gmail. This time is not any different, what may seem like a small update is actually a very handy new feature. The newest feature is label colors, which will allow you to set a unique color for each label, which in turn will make it quicker and easier to judge which emails can wait and which must be read.

A nice feature to have especially for those who get more than their fair share of email. Similar to other Gmail updates, this is being rolled out over time, so as of this writing you may or may not be able to use your label colors just yet.

Official Gmail Blog - The next evolution of labels:

Back in the Paleolithic Era, the world was a very different kind of place. People were hunter-gatherers, lived in caves, and kept all their email in folders*. You can't really blame them. Between tracking woolly mammoths, fashioning crude stone tools, and auditioning for commercials, having a highly tuned system for organizing email wasn't their highest priority.

But people changed. We moved out of caves and into skyscrapers. We hunt for bargains at the corner grocery. And we play video games simulating ourselves playing video games.

As we've changed, so too have our demands for email. Out of the email primordial ooze, Gmail was born with evolutionarily advantageous features like threaded conversations, a mitochondrial symbiosis between mail and chat, and labels. Most email solutions make users slot their emails into bland manila folders, classifying their contents as either black or white, with no subtle shades of gray. But where do you put the heated debate about M&M color superiority: the "ridiculous philosophical discussions," "all things brown," or "chats with mom" folder? With labels, you no longer have to choose. You can sort it all three ways.

Today, we're happy to announce the next evolution of labels: the colored label. Until now the label has been a little inconspicuous creature, subtly suggesting categorical associations in its simple green coat. Oh, we've seen the colored label here and there, its precursors surfacing in various experiments and Greasemonkey scripts; but the label has never before been so brazen, so bold. How will it use its new colors? Will it disguise itself with the chameleon's camouflage or clamor for attention with the monarch butterfly's vivid contrast?

Me? I'm subscribed to a lot of mailing lists: "The Britney Spears Fanboy Club," "Foie Gras Lovers Anonymous," and "UFO Sightings Daily," just to name a few. I get so much mail from my lists, I filter and archive most of it right away but I add labels just in case I need to find it again later. Those labels are my chameleons draped in subtle tones of green and blue. They're there doing their job, but I barely notice them. Every once in a while I get mail that's really important. These emails get my monarch butterfly labels, sporting bright red and yellow. Thanks to colored labels, it's easy to scan my inbox and immediately find all the emails that are really important to me.

Evolution is a great thing.

*P.S. We actually kinda like folders. In fact, we're doing some work to add some folder-y-ish functionality. Stay tuned.

P.P.S. Several new features we've launched, including colored labels, only work in the newest version of Gmail, currently available for IE7 and Firefox 2. Please upgrade your browser to start using those features now.