AOL has released the results of its annual instant messaging survey, and among other results, IM is up 19% in the past year:

[from AOL's Third Annual Instant Messenger Trends Survey

IM has taken over as the communications vehicle of choice with 25 percent of users saying they would also like to consume entertainment content within their IM service and 20 percent saying they would like to use IM to make voice calls to landlines and cell phones alike.

More top level findings:

[from email press release]

Email is Old School: Thirty-eight percent say they send as many or more IMs than emails, and the younger users are, the more likely they are to favor IM. Two-thirds (66 percent) of teens and young adults (ages 13-21) say they send more IMs than emails, up from 49 percent last year.

Meet the Parents: More than half (53 percent) of teens (ages 13-17) surveyed say their parents now issue guidelines and rules about instant messaging. Teen boys (55 percent) are more likely to have parental IM rules than are teen girls (50 percent), and fully 65 percent of teens who have rules say they follow them.

Hit the Road: One in three (33 percent) IM users send mobile IMs or text messages from their cell phones at least once a week. This is a dramatic increase over 2004, when just 19 percent said they do so, and 2003 when the figure was 10 percent.

IM Too Busy: At-work IM users now send IMs to communicate with colleagues (58 percent), to get answers and make business decisions (49 percent) and even to interact with clients or customers (28 percent). Twelve percent have used IM at work to avoid a difficult in-person conversation.

I Want IM TV!: One in four (26 percent) IM users say that live streaming television is the one feature they wish was available on their IM service. Music on demand came in second (25 percent) and video on demand was third (21 percent).

The Sound of Your Voice: Meanwhile, 20 percent say they currently enjoy, or would like to try, making live voice calls to other computers, landlines and cell phones directly from their IM service. Another 12 percent say they would be interested in an IM-based VoIP service that could replace their primary household phone line.

Another Day, Another "Away Message": Half (47 percent) of those ages 13-21 change their away messages every day, to let others know where they are (71 percent), to list a cell phone number or alternate way to be reached (47 percent) or to post a favorite lyric or quote (47 percent). Seven percent have even posted a call to action, like "Please donate to the Red Cross to help hurricane victims."

"Instant messaging is a part of everyday life, with more and more people using their IM service as a starting point for all communications, from sending mobile messages to friends on cell phones to placing VoIP-based phone calls," said Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president and general manager, AIM and ICQ, America Online, Inc. "Usage is spiking, and not just among teens. Parents, grandparents and professionals are all using instant messaging to stay in touch and enhance their day-to-day communications."

Nationwide and around the world, instant messaging use is growing, with nearly 12 billion instant messages being sent every day worldwide, according to IDC. ComScore Media Metrix reports that there are more than 300 million people across the globe and more than 80 million Americans who regularly use instant messaging as a quick and convenient communications tool.

Maybe I will start to see more attention to the idea that the buddy list is the center of the online universe, now that these results clearly show IM is mainstream and pushing out email. This takes me back to the flap I caused at Supernova last year when I asserted that "email blows" and said IM was going to displace it, along with technologies like blogs and RSS. Ha!

My Nerdvana client idea -- which is something like what Google is doing with their desktop client (for Windows only -- hiss...) but not quite -- is still an awesome idea, if there are any Web 2.0 hungry developers out there who are just looking for a cool product to build.