AOL OpenVoice API - Is it news, or fluff?
My good friend Alec Saunders posted about AOL's latest announcement this morning.
AOL announces AOL OpenVoice API. CAVEAT DEVELOPER.Alec's story of pain at the hands of AOL isn't a lone one. It was far wider reaching than the three early adopters he mentioned.
AOL announced Tuesday that it has opened the API to AIM Call Out, a move designed to let programmers more easily build products that tap into AIM for making calls over the net. The API is freely available, and applications built with it can let people call using AOL's network to bypass the ordinary telephony infrastructure.
[Read Alec's full post]
There are two issues here. One is the issue Alec raises about the issue of trust and whether developers should trust AOL not to abuse their efforts and investment of time/money/resources once again. My knee-jerk reaction to that is simply no. Woe be to the developer who puts their eggs in the AOL basket.
On the flip side is the announcement itself. If you want to, you can now use a SIP phone to make outbound calls via AOL services at a higher than normal rate. Yep, you can make VoIP calls and get to pay extra for the pleasure thanks to AOL.
It's too little. It's too late. It's me too. And not done with an apology for being woefully behind the times, but with the pride in belief that they've innovated.
AOL truly needs to be walloped with a clue by four, and this story highlights their shortcomings and failures.
Email This!
Digg it!
Sphere it!
Del.icio.us
Reddit!
Newsvine