AIM 6 Adds RSS, Social Networking Features

AOL has rolled out AIM 6.0, adding offline messaging, logging, RSS support, and social networking features to its instant messaging client.

AOL has released AIM 6.0, the latest version of its free instant messaging client

“AIM is where our users go to chat with friends, share experiences and stay in constant touch with friends and family,” said Marcien Jenckes, AOL’s VP and General Manager for AIM & Social Networking. “We built this brand new client with the needs of our users in mind. AIM keeps our users connected and so we gave them the features that help them best manage their lives and their relationships within AOL’s messaging community that is more than 42 million users strong in the U.S.”

Among the new features in AIM 6.0 is offline messaging, which enables users to send instant messages to Buddy List recipients will see when they log back into the AIM network. The new release also offers conversation logging (so users can save the text of AIM conversations as HTML documents), and one-click access to the mobile dashboard from the base of the Buddy List, so users can configure mobile alerts, reminders, instant message forwarding, and have AIM messages sent to their cell phones once thhey log off the service.

AOL has also expanded the AIM Buddy list so it can handle up to 1,000 of your closest friends (we realize this will still cramp some people’s style), and implements “Buddy Updates” which enables AIM users to set up RSS feeds which let their friends know when they’ve updated their accounts or profiles on popular online destinations like YouTube, Xanga, and Digg—but not, apparently, on the ever-more-popular MySpace. Of course, AOL wants to be the center of your social networking universe, and so AIM now integrates with AIM Pages—now, every AIM user has an AIM Page, which acts as a profile, sharing any information entered into the Buddy Info mage as well as the amount of time they’ve spent with AIM, any buddy updates, and, um, their AIM Fight score.

AIM 6.0 is a free download, and requires Windows 2000 or XP and IE 6.