TABLE OF CONTENTS ICQ can be considered the first modern,freely available instant messaging client for Microsoft Windows-based workstations. Although therewere several clients for UNIX systems (such as talk), and IRC, which allowed for communication withothers, ICQ was the first popular client produced for Microsoft Windows. ICQ was the work of anIsraeli-based company, Mirabilis, which was formed in the middle of 1996. Its sole product was metwith immediate success after its launch in November 1996, with an impressive 850,000 subscribersfor the service within six months. Part of the product s popularity was due to the softwareproviding a way for users to send invitations to their friends to join them in online messaging.This viral distribution of its software was also successful due to its ability to work on currentcomputer systems, and only required a connection to the Internet to begin chatting. Any PC user,with any ISP (Internet Service Provider), was able to install ICQ and begin sending messages totheir friends. Being the only program of its kind for Windows-based workstations was helpful aswell in boosting the software s popularity. All this activity was noticed by larger companies,including AOL, who were interested in the massive and rapidly growing userbase that ICQ generated.
AOL already had multiple chat systems available to members for a few years, and evenintroduced a system similar to ICQ for its members. This was not as successful as ICQ since it wasavailable exclusively to AOL subscribers, and did not allow AOL to increase its membership andadvertising potential. In 1997, AOL...
