When you first install AIM Pro, it asks if you want to scoop up the buddies from another public IM identity. You can take all or some of these online friends with you as you wish. The new AIM Pro screen name is created using your existing e-mail address, and the software e-mails you a verification code to make sure that it is indeed you who initiates this action. This is a good thing for business users who want some kind of accountability with their correspondents, although again, it isn't anywhere near the kind of federated identity that is offered by Lotus and Microsoft -- and, to some extent, Jabber.

This new e-mail-like screen name doesn't work with the AIM Express Web-based client yet. That's because AIM Express doesn't like @ signs in the middle of screen names. This seems like a glaring omission on AOL's part.

AIM Pro will archive messages for a default 14 days. It will also catch IMs from unknown sources; you can easily deflect these messages or add the senders to your buddy, er, contact list.

AIM Pro isn't AOL's first attempt to capture the keyboards of business IM users. IT had the AIM Enterprise Gateway, now discontinued, that was a proxy/firewall/monitoring appliance that corporations could use to control IM access. And while it's nice to see AOL thinking about how corporations are going to use IM, in the end, most companies would be better off considering one of the more fully featured offerings from Microsoft or Lotus if they are concerned about their IM communications and can afford the licenses necessary to support their users.

David Strom is a writer, editor, public speaker, blogging coach and consultant. He is a former editor in chief of Network Computing and Tom's Hardware and has his own blog at http://strominator.com. He can be reached at david@strom.com.