AOL launched this morning a Flash-based Web version of its instant messaging AIM service. It is called AIM Express and you need not install any software to make it run.

AIM Express includes as features tabbed IM conversations, status message indicator, text messages to cell phones, rollovers of friend names to see status and compatibility with most popular browsers. The company also unveiled AIM for Windows Mobile, offering functions for phones like the Motorola Q, Samsung BlackJack and many Palm Treos such as status messages, buddy icons and text messaging. It works with devices using the Windows Mobile 5 and 6 operating systems.

AOL

Sing it with me. “Bang bang i-Knock’s silver hammer came down upon his head…”. If you’re looking for a different kind of IM notifier, this might be for you. That is if you don’t mind watching this little guy whack himself on the head every time you get a message. With a really creepy voice I might add.

You can customize it with mp3 files for any of your contacts. Hear a different mp3 song when your different contacts send you a message. It works with Skype, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger. Check out the video of this thing in action. I’m confident it will thoroughly creep you out and make you thank the great gadget God in the sky that you do not own one.

AOL is giving those who are deaf and hard of hearing a new avenue for instant messaging which will let them watch text conversations unfold one letter at a time. This feature is currently available in the just released beta version 6.8 of AOL’s AIM software.

This new feature, developed in conjunction with Gallaudet University and the Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, lets users see “each letter that a buddy types rather than waiting for a friend to press the send button to view and read a message. This enables deaf users to respond and react to words as they are typed just as hearing people would do as words are spoken in a voice conversation.”

You know that little pixellated figure that pops up on screen every time a contact logs on? Kinda cute right? And you feel safe and warm, knowing that human contact is on the way. After all, it gets lonely on the computer. Well, set your engines for creep factor 10. Engage.

This rather ominous and somewhat tubby i-Buddy wants to be your new friend. Just sit i-Buddy on your monitor or desktop and it will respond to incoming MSN messages. His head will glow and his wings will flap. You can almost feel the tension as this thing seems to be looking at you, no matter where you are in the room, like some velvet Jesus painting, but twice as sinister. You aren’t sure what he wants from you, but you are positive he can rip thoughts from your mind if he so wishes. The i-buddy manages to be even stranger then the Availabot we showed you in October. And he was a tiny man who went flaccid when the IM contact leaves.