Buddy List
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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.
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.
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.
Eventually the addition of the Buddy List® to the main AOL interface led to the obsolesence of this utility.
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