Why do more people have AIM then Yahoo Messenger?

[Pokekid]

When I look at peoples profiles I see that everybody has AOL instent messaanger, why not yahoo, yahoo is like 50x better than AOL im. Why do people prefer aol than yahoo? Anybody know???

Edit:Fixed title to be more descriptive and clear-`Sensei

[Marril]

Because they do? IMO it's just a matter of preference.

[Captain Obviousx1]

Maybe it's because almost everyone has AIM, but not YIM? Plus, I'm not a fan of Yahoo, and not many people I know are either. I would be talking to myself if I had YIM...

[Dek]

Okay, lets not be on the cruel side...
Anyways, I think AIM is used the most because when it probably has the most features. I really cant give an EXACT answer since I dont have MSN or YIM, but a lot of people told me that AIM has more features. And its simple to use :D

[sjmp]

I Just Hate Everything To Do With AOL, I HATE Them! But I Also Think Yahoo Is Very Slow And, Well Just Almost As Bad.

[chadwick_the_ignoramas2]

I dislike AOL very much. But Y!IM is just horible, IMO...

[onederlnd]

Keep in mind that AOL is NOT AIM.

I use AIM for one main reason, not everyone uses IRC :) At the same time, I run Gaim to use MSN Messanger, AIM and Yahoo. All of which are the same screenname.

When it comes to other users, it's probably because the fact that most of their friends don't use Y!.

[Shinji Ikari]

I use ICQ myself... Though I do have AIM and Yahoo! IM... I has MSN but I forgot my password...

[UncleBob]

I personally think ICQ is the best.

But anywhoo, that's why I use Trillian. It lets you connect to YIM, AIM, ICQ, and MSN! Great program...

[League Leader Terry]

I use Trillian, but the Yahoo and MSN parts don't work anymore due to the recent updates those two programs got. And seeing how I kind of didn't pay for Trillian, I can't figure out how to get those parts working again.

[tyais]

I'm actually considering doing a study on this. From what I can tell, a lot of it has to do with region.

For example, when I lived in Northern Virginia, all I used was AIM. That's what everyone used. AOL had the biggest installed userbase, and having an AOL base right there helped a lot.

However, I moved to Northern AZ and just about everybody there uses MSN. So I switched.

Now I'm at college where people from all over have come together. People use AIM, MSN, ICQ, and various other messengers. So now I use Trillian. And I know quite a few others who swtiched to it too... it or Gaim.

But here are some things I've noticed...

-Not a single foreigner uses AIM. Go figure....
-Most foreigners use MSN
-The majority of US raised students that use MSN are from the West Coast,
where as anyone and everyone I've met from the East Coast uses AOL.
-AOL was the first. It has an installed user base. It was the first company to target families for the Internet and in consequence, it got into a lot of homes quickly.
-The reasoning above explains why MSN is so popular abroad. MSN comes loaded on any Windows machine. Where AOL doesn't have an installed user base, Microsoft took a quick hold on that market by getting its product into homes.

[onederlnd]

-Not a single foreigner uses AIM. Go figure....
Are you talking AOL or AIM? Because AIM is used by people all around the world.

[SD PokeMom]

Reason I chose one over the other was that the people I WANTED to talk to were on the one I chose...:p

As for the 'foreigners' thing..I beg to differ, Tyais, but I know several non-US folk who use AIM...

'mom

[PokePop]

But it would not be surprising if less international people used America Online's Instant Messenger.

[SD PokeMom]

But remember, there's a difference between AOL (the ISP) and AIM; one does NOT need to use AOL as one's ISP to have AIM. I should know; I use AIM, but there's no way we'd use AOL as our ISP...so it's quite easy for 'foreign' users to use AIM for messaging.

'mom

[UncleBob]

League Leader Terry:
There is a free version of Trillian that you can download without fear of ripping off the fine folks that make the program. It has all the tweaks and peaks a normal user could ever hope to need. And the latest update of it hos the YIM and MSN problems fixed. :)

[PokePop]

But remember, there's a difference between AOL (the ISP) and AIM; one does NOT need to use AOL as one's ISP to have AIM. I should know; I use AIM, but there's no way we'd use AOL as our ISP...so it's quite easy for 'foreign' users to use AIM for messaging.

'mom
True, but it certainly shifts the odds away from using AIM unless you are trying to chat with people who do use it.

I dropped AOL years ago but kept my AIM via their shareware program.

[onederlnd]

I could name about 30,000 non Americans who use AIM :) (and dont even TRY to ask me to really do it)

Yes, there is a free version of Trillian, yet it does NOT have "all the bells and whistles" of Trillian 2.0 Pro. First obvious way of telling is the filesize. 5,036 KB vs. 2,748 KB under the same compression. But yeah, all the basics are there.

[Sensei]

But remember, there's a difference between AOL (the ISP) and AIM; one does NOT need to use AOL as one's ISP to have AIM. I should know; I use AIM, but there's no way we'd use AOL as our ISP...so it's quite easy for 'foreign' users to use AIM for messaging.

'mom

Exactly...I`m not ever going to use AOL but I originally got AIM because everyone else I knew had AIM as well.I also had ICQ for awhilebut not many people had it so I eventually dropped it.AIM is the most popular from what i`ve seen.

`Sensei

[Otaku]

In my area, YM seems dominant. I use all three, but I started with Yahoo first since a) AOL is just not a happy thing-one of my Professors had a brother-in-law they hired, and he, a reasonably high-up employee, does not use AOL, b)MSN, at least at the time, required a hotmail account, and I didn't feel like having a third e-mail address at the time.

In terms of features, its weird. AIM appears to have the most... but they never work, at least for me. This might just be due to the people I am dealing with though. MSN and Yahoo's seem to work about half the time.

[Baboon]

I just think it's because it's like the original.
It's a program that was made by the first major company for the internet.
Because of this, and its simple age, AIM is far more widespread than the others.
When you've got AOL also, like me, you can either have AIM run in the same program as the internet, or download AIM by itself, and run the 2 separately. I personally like how you can run the 2 simultaneously without having to keep switching between programs. The AIM that comes along with AOL doesn't have all the extra features like File Share, etc, but that's why you can download AIM by itself. ;)
I don't have any plans of getting any other program than AIM.

[djcati]

I used to use Yahoo all the time, cause everyone I knew did.. But, now everyone IRL uses MSN, and everyone (I know) online uses AIM. SO I use both
I still sign into Yahoo (very) occasionally.. But don't like it much

[Pokekid]

ILC here, to lazy to log out :/. Don't get me wrong all 3 are cool, but Trillian iz the shiznit ;). Lets you use AIM, MSN, YAHOO and ICQ all in one :P.

~ilc

[tyais]

This is more interesting to me. Because, as of yet, I haven't found a single person from a foreign country who attends BYU who used AIM before coming here. Someone really needs to do a study on this.