LOCAL FIRMS JOIN INSTANT MESSAGE DUEL: COMPANIES ALIGN WITH MICROSOFT, AOL IN SCRAMBLE FOR WEB TRAFFIC.

Crain's New York Business, August, 1999 by walsh, mark

At an Internet conference last year, an America Online executive derided Manhattan's Juno Online Services Inc. as a ``soup kitchen'' because Juno has historically enticed members with its free e-mail service. But the companies appear to have patched things up. Earlier this month, they announced that Juno will offer its subscribers a co-branded version of AOL's proprietary instant messaging service.

Juno's approach The turnabout highlights how local Internet companies are jumping into the heated battle between AOL and Microsoft Corp. over competing technologies for instant messaging, a hot method for communicating on-line in real time. In this clash of the Internet titans, smaller Web companies in Silicon Alley hope to benefit by aligning themselves with...