"From our standpoint, this is not a happy day", said Odigo Inc. CEO Shai Buber. "In one sense, however, AOL's blocking of user access has give us validation. Up until now, AOL didn't bother dealing with young companies."
Last night America Online blocked access to its America Online Instant Messenger (AIM) service for users of Odigo's Messenger instant messenger service.
Buber adds: "100,000 users have joined us in the last ten days, and that didn't escape AOL. It's actually a stage in our maturity. Up until now, they only dealt with Microsoft and Yahoo!, so we were surprised to get the same treatment.
"The interoperability with AIM was not a gimmick; the users wanted it. It is not a normal situation when message programs don't communicate with each other. It is reminiscent of the beginning of the 20th century, when GT telephones couldn't communicate with Bell telephones. Competition ought to be over service quality, not the size of the user base, which is an outdated model. The lines should be developed and the users left to decide for themselves."
"Globes": Have you already spoken with AOL?
Buber: "We'll be glad to talk with them, and I hope we reach an understanding. We've tried twice already."
Odigo's software combines the possibility of conversing with all surfers of a site at a given moment, managing a voice conversation, leaving "notes" on the pages of the site, and a search engine that rates the search results according to popularity of the sites. Odigo (formerly NovaWiz) was founded in December 1998 by Joel Zilberstein.
As of May 31, Odigo has enabled users of its product to expand the range of their search and those participating in transmitting the messages to AOL's portal also. Last night this interface was blocked.
Odigo raised $6 million in February from Internet provider Prodigy and a number of private investors. Star Media, an Internet provider targeting a South American audience, was a partner in the company. The company is located in the US and Herzliya and has 75 employees, ten of whom are in the US.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on June 12, 2000