The term Buddy List® is a trademarked term of AOL, referring to the list of frequent contacts used in connection with AOL's Internet software and its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM®) program. Screenshot of AOL.com AOL LLC (formerly America Online, Inc) is an American online service provider, bulletin board system, and media company operated by Time Warner. ... A Buddy List is a collection of screen names in an Instant Messenger (IM) program. ... AIM redirects here. ...
The buddy list is the main program interface of AIM from which all other program features can be accessed. It is also used to connect people on the AIM Pages social network. AIM Pages is a free service offered by AOL to anyone that has an AIM Screenname and is 16 years of age. ...
Some programs employ the buddy list as a contact network, most notably spambots and other malware that will send messages to everyone listed. There are benign uses. A contact network is a minimal social network in which people are not assumed to have any relationship other than to be able to contact each other - perhaps only to refer items of mutual interest in politics or business, that imply no longstanding collaboration or relationship or trust with each... A spambot is a program designed to collect, or harvest, e-mail addresses from the Internet in order to build mailing lists for sending unsolicited e-mail, also known as spam. ... Malware or malicious software is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owners informed consent. ...
AOL did not originally have this feature. The functionality of a convenient online contact list like this was added through a third-party addon titled AO Tools[1], written by Jim Baker under the name Computer Aces. Utilizing Windows' SendKeys capability to send keystrokes to other programs, he created this utility to automate the process of checking to see which friends were online, and to send them messages. Screenshot of AOL.com AOL LLC (formerly America Online, Inc) is an American online service provider, bulletin board system, and media company operated by Time Warner. ...
Eventually the addition of the Buddy List® to the main AOL interface led to the obsolesence of this utility.
If the buddies you can't see are using AOL, then they have enabled an option that allows you to send them instant messages but doesn't let you see them on your BuddyList.
Ask the AOL users to go the Privacy Preferences in their AOLBuddyList, and choose one of the Allow or Block options that do not cause you to be blocked.
Your buddy'sBuddyList program might not be notifying the server that your buddy is idle until after 10 minutes.
Messenger, whereas the term Contact List is used in MSN Messenger, ICQ, Miranda, and Trillian.
The BuddyList is generally a window that has a list of "screennames" that represent actual other people.
With most programs, the BuddyList can be minimized or closed to the System Tray (near the clock) to keep it from getting in the way, and is accessed again by double-clicking its icon.
Feeds |
Contact