Comments on: Will IM ever kick off its shackles?

It's long been time for the instant-messaging walls to come down, says CNET News.com's Charles Cooper. But that's not likely anytime soon.

[phantomspice]

Office Communications Server

Actually, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2005 and 2007 both have public IM connectivity as well as Federation.

Public IM Connectivity allows users of OCS 2005 and 2007 to IM with AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN/Live Messenger, all while having a single identity.

Federation allows users of one company's IM servers to contact users of another company's IM servers, but uses OCS 2005 and OCS 2007.

I would argue that there is some benefit to a walled gardens approach with IM. Look at how SMTP, an open standard, has become polluted with SPAM. If there were a completely open and interoperable IM standard, I would expect we would see the same sort of pollution within IM.

[Penguinisto]

Yes and no.

OCS is a bit opaque still IMHO.

Incidentally, IM spammers don't use IM clients per se... they have their own scripts and proggies to fire off with.

/P

[N3VOC]

Be carefull what you ask for

The end result of your perposal is Microsoft taking over IM. Intigrating an IM, better then the current Windows Messenger, service into Windows that is always on and convenient making people, out of lazyness, just always use that instead of AOL, Yahoo, etc.

[Lee in San Diego]

A different take

A different take on the "Careful what you ask for."

I find instant messaging to be very intrusive. It pings away at you
when you are working on a project.

Send a regular email. It isn't reliant on proprietary IM systems and
you can set your client to check frequently if needed.

[Penguinisto]

Getting close...

Pidgin does most of 'em (haven't tried it yet for Communicator, but I intend to), and I can pass it all back and forth between AIM, YIM, MSN, what-have-you... in one package.

/P

[mdpa]

...Just not close enough

I agree - Pidgin does allow you to connect to other IM network users, BUT it's just so darn plain and featureLESS that it has me looking for another replacement every time I load it. I've seen most of the Linux IM tools and they're just not that good. However (back on topic) it does as you say and let you communicate between the different networks all in one package.

[hetzbh]

Actually it's the other way around

The Google people, I assume, use an open source library to do all the IM stuff with AIM/ICQ (Oscar). and they could add support for Yahoo or MSN within a day. The infrastructure has been written, all it takes is a permission from MS to allow people to connect to MSN through GMAil, something which MS doesn't allow.

The latest versions of Yahoo Messenger, AIM, MSN Live messenger have become monsters of commercials. Check ICQ 6 for example: you can't even get rid of the ad in the text showing window! (and I'm not talking about the lower part which always had an Ad). Live Messenger? ads all over the damn window!

I'll take Pidgin any day over those freaking clients. At least I can connect to all of the IM services without tons of ads!

[kevhead78]

Pidgin!

Try the open source alternative. It's better than trillian.

[Kasey156]

Trillian - the safe alternative

You guys sound like a bunch of techies and pros - but for me, with a 13 year old boy who loves to "play around" on the computer, Trillian has saved me a lot of heartache. Every time he logs on through any other medium, I have problems - so I blocked them ALL. Easy and safe - love it!

[Anysia]

I did

prefer Trillian.

[Imalittleteapot]

Pidgin Attack!

I don't know how anyone could prefer Trillian over Pidgin. Pidgin seems to load instantly with my buddy lists already showing on first draw.

Other IM programs always seem to start slower..., then say things like signing in..., then they give me a blank window for a while..., and then finally display my buddy list. All on the exact same network.

Also, if I remember Pidgin can freely access services that Trillian still charges for.

[kwilsonjr]

Trillian Work Around

While it would be a small corner of Nirvana to have universal messaging with all the bells and whistles like video, conferencing, desktop share, whiteboard ect all packed into one cross-talking application, Trillian seems to be working fine for now.

I have accounts with 'the big four' plus Skype. The combination of those two apps allow me to do what I need to do. Keep in touch and be available. For my business and personal life.

What I would like to see is more advancement in web integration of these technologies. A true 'home page' a person can use with all his desktop tools, messaging and file shares all in one easy web style interface.

Users you invite to your page can drag and drop pictures and comments, fire up the webcam, text your cell, send you files and work with live collaboration on documents.

Now that would be the ultimate messaging app. Let's get it done!

[Anysia]

Trillian or Miranda

Either one of these will work. I prefer Trillian, and its ability to make Meta Contacts for those who login to more than one IM service.

[Eran Barak]

Reuters Messaging connects to AOL/MSN/Yahoo

Reuters Messaging, a secure business IM service for financial professionals, was the first IM network to federate with consumer IM networks back in 2005. This is not a multi-stack client like Trillian. It is true network federation at the back end with a single ID across all networks. Reuters is now even federating enterprise deployments such as Microsoft LCS/OCS and others. Just to show that given the right business drivers, the shackles may come off IM.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Alternatives

Trillian for Windows, Fire for Mac OS X. You're on your own for the
others.