An AOL survey of more than 1,500 Instant Messenger users found that 72 percent of the teenage respondents said they sent more instant messages (IMs) than e-mails. (See more on the research from YPulse.)

But most newspapers, it seems, do not have an "AIM" (or other messenger) icon allowing readers to quickly instant message an article link to a "buddy."

A few non-newspaper publications do have AIM, Yahoo! or Microsoft messaging buttons. Those include People Magazine (AIM), MSNBC.com (MSM), and . Yahoo!, which has a messenger service, is working to incorporate some of its content with the Yahoo! messaging system. On the bottom of AOL news stories there are links to post articles to Netscape, Digg and Del.icio.us, but not to IM this story.

Sharing stories in ways other than e-mail is getting easier, though, and it’s a move in the right direction in terms of driving traffic. The New York Times earlier this week added Digg, Facebook and Newsvine buttons to articles. WashingtonPost.com includes Digg, Del.icio.us, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and MySpace links. The L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune do not seem to have sharing beyond e-mail.

It seems that a small link to instant message an article to friends would be one (very small) way to make newspaper Web sites more user-friendly for that coveted, hard-to-reach (and keep) teenage demographic. Sphere's Tony Conrad said in this Wired article that the icons are there to drive traffic to both the publication and the social Web site -- a win-win traffic situation. The only caveat is the risk of overloading site visitors with icons.