[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]Gmail and AIM are finally offering unified chat, leveraging the Open AIM framework. After first announcing the plans for the two instant messenger services to be integrated earlier this month, the feature has finally gone live. If you sign into your AIM account through Gmail chat, your AOL buddies will appear in your chat list with the friends from your Google Talk network. Those from AIM will have the signature yellow guy beside each screen name. And your AOL buddies will never know that you're not signed into AIM.
In order to get this all set up, you'll need to first change your settings on Gmail, under the Chat tab. The new functionality doesn't seem to have been rolled out universally yet, so some of you may not see this new integration as having gone live. But try logging out and signing back in if you're antsy enough to find out if you have the new feature.
With the addition of group chat and emoticons, it seems like Google has been gearing up for AIM integration for some time now, or at least making plans for a more expressive chat experience. And with new color-coding options for Gmail, Google's getting so darn colorful I just don't know what to do with myself.