Well… sort of… with Google Earth you can now see the location of the origination and destination for every AIM chat… however… you obviously can not read the content of user’s messages.

The latest edition of “Sightseer” (aka the Google Earth Newsletter) references an AIM Google Earth Visualizations KML file that uses IP to City geocoding to display a visualization of all the AOL Instant Messanger conversations that have started in the last minute, in real time.

Here is a screenshot of the most recent chats across the United States:

“The developers of AOL’s instant messaging chat system have an API which allows developers to create innovative applications using anonymous information about chatters. To show a powerful demonstration of what is possible, the AIM host team released a Google Earth network link which lets you dynamically look at the connections between AIM chats geographically around the world. Download the AIM chat network link , and zoom into a geographical region. After you stop moving, lines will appear that indicate the chats most recently started from that area connecting to the destinations of the chats on the other end. If you zoom back out you will see a network of lines showing the connections around the world.

Tech.