AOL’s Instant Messenger Was the Unsung Hero of the Early-Aughts

Matthew Haughey: I want to say between the years of 2000 and about 2010, I always had an AIM client running on any computer I was using while I was sitting at it. It was kind of like using Slack at a workplace today, but you’d glance over at your list to see who was online currently and catch up with people constantly throughout the day, or even just read their away messages. Back in the early days of blogging, people who read blogs used to joke that everyone with a blog seemed to know everyone else with a blog and they linked to one another and talked on their blogs like some sort of “secret cabal” or “cult”. And yeah, we had annual gatherings like SXSW where bloggers met up in person but the simple fact was we also had AIM running on our desktops. Maybe it was 9am and I was procrastinating before starting work, and I’d see my friend Dan in Wisconsin that also ran a blog was online and I could tell him how much I enjoyed a recent post of his, or ask him what he was doing for the…