Comments on: Google-Yahoo deal good news for IM, but...

Tucked into the Yahoo-Google ad agreement is a deal to bridge instant-messaging services. That's great news for IM, but it doesn't fix underlying flaws of online chat.

[Able-X]

You're anything but an anomaly, though I think a friends list of 797 people may be a bit odd ;)

Most people I know rely on Digsby, Adium or Pidgin in addition to skype and now possibly ooVoo. It's too many networks! It's also tough to keep straight which features work on which network on which client on which OS. Quite frustrating really.

[Riquez-001]

I use iChat (AIM), Skype & MSN Messenger. It's been a long frustration to have to use 3 programs for 1 task, but I dont think consolidating to one username is ever going to happen.

I've used Adium etc in the past, but I've found those bridge apps unstable & restrictive.

(Incidentally, iChat also supports Jabber which can link to any service - so you can set up a jabber account in iChat which logs into your msn account for text only chat)

What needs to happen is for the various chat networks, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Skype, Google etc, to open up their protocols to allow software makers to support all networks in one application - then, just like email, you choose which program you prefer & set up all your accounts in one place - as Adium etc attempt to do.

Unfortunately, because the chat networks are reluctant to allow this, we are stuck with applications that dont fully support all the options. As such I cant always get video chat or file transfers to work unless i use the networks own app.

This is a long running problem which is frankly a joke considering the possibilities of todays technology.

[surfboy90291]

I rely on IM at work to connect with most of my business contacts on a daily basis. As I work in an industry that needs constant updates of information, IM makes it fast and affordable. I currently use Trillian to connect with AIM, Yahoo IM and Windows Live Messenger. While Trillian is very basic, it does what it should and does it very well - without advertising. Nevertheless, there are features of the other three IM clients that make them appealing. I just can't and won't use them until they can talk to each other.

[JuggerNaut]

Over 95% of my friends are on AIM and about 20% of them are also on GoogleTalk and Skype. That's about the only 3 IM networks I care about. I don't know anyone who use Yahoo or MSN for IM. I do like the idea of IM networks working seamlessly together without me having to have a IM screen-name for everyone of them. Imagine if the various mobile networks and their branded phones didn't interoperate together, we'd have 3 or 4 phones to carry around just to talk to all of our friends.

[Spartan_458]

I use Trillian, mainly for AIM use, but I also talk to a few people on Windows Live/ MSN Messenger.

[Tony McCune]

I think the standards are the answer. In the mean time I use Adium and Skype. Adium gives me support for iChat, Gtalk, and MSN. Trillian does the same thing on the Windows side. If someone wants to communicate with me by IM they can adopt an IM that plays nice. In this case market forces are you and I. We can influence the outcome by influencing our "buddies"

[JCPayne]

Block all the spam from Microsoft--IM first though before you downgrade Google's IMer....

[Bugeater222]

Everyone in my industry (which is not computer savvy) uses MSN Messenger. Also, in Central America where I often travel everyone uses MSN Messenger as well. Many of these people dont even know other IM programs exist.

I understand that AOL dominates the market, but I believe that all of us are caught in our own little window of our own personal worlds.

In the business world and in my world with people over the age of 35, u have to adapt to their IM, so I use Trillian with 80% MSN, 19% AOL and 1% Yahoo.

At least 15-20% of my contacts I have never met in person and are just for business. Bottom line is WE NEED A STANDARD!!!

[nls75]

I have 5 cell phones on my desk, my friends uses different phone companies so of course I need to have a phone for each of these to stay in contact.... in year 2008? That would be a laugh.. but for IM ... that still is true..

[dexter_birdbrain]

Well, even I use Pidgin to login to Yahoo & Google. Again, I have one or 2 contacts from MSN (Hotmail) added to my Yahoo account since the days Microsoft started getting cozy with Yahoo. I sorely miss the voice chat facilities on Pidgin but having all my friends in the same place more that makes up for it.

[ladraper]

In the interim, while there really aren't standards for interoperability, the next best thing is Meebo. I have combined all my Yahoo, AIM, MSN, google buddies within one meebo account. And for the most part it works just fine. I have the option of disconnecting my personal IM connections which I reserve primarily for one IM service, while I'm at work. Meebo doesn't require any downloads so I don't have to worry about using a work computer that has restrictions, though I do primarily use IM for work and find it's a great tool to get quick responses sometimes. Check it out. http://meebo.com
~from a happy Meebo user~

[Cube Over]

I have used ICQ since 1997, but, frustrated with their lousy compatibility in encodings, file transfers, and general impossibility to start a voice or video chat, I migrated to AIM. There I could add my best buddies from ICQ! MSN - long forlorn, Yahoo! IM - closed along with my e-mail spambox 2 years ago.
I also use Skype, this makes it for just 2 services (AIM, Skype).
I must confess that Yahoo! IM was the best IM ever! Videochat 'just worked' back in 2001, even between MacOS 9 and Windows 95! No hassles whatsoever with national character encoding. It was just plain brilliantly consistent service! PhotoSharing features in PC Client was a bliss!!!
If only I had buddies there.

[TheReaperD]

I use Pidgin (Windows) and Kopete (Linux) due to the fact I have contacts on Yahoo, MSN, AIM, ICQ and a few Jabber clients. Having all of the different systems sucks.

@Cube Over: The truly sad part is that Yahoo IM videochat worked then but is a steaming pile now...

[rmanachi]

"We have no evidence that interoperating with other consumer IM services is of great interest to AIM users," the company said. REALLY that seems like BS to me. As a long time AIM user i would very much appreciate the ability to IM with friends on other IM services, notably Yahoo.

[JohnWeisenfeld]

Microsoft has had interop with Yahoo since July 2006.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jul06/07-12IMInteropPR.mspx

The question I had was if Yahoo interop with Google enables Microsoft to Google interop.

[Gualban]

XMPP is a clear winner when it comes to protocols/standards for Internet IM, and is growing steadily in usage, unseen. On the Mobile Instant messaging front, "Wireless Village" (IMPS) offers most promise, since it is wired with mobile in mind and is also open standards. It uses less bandwidth and offers multimedia support in the base protocol. Sadly there are few implementations out there, although software, some of it free, is beginning to show up on the scene

[ricearonironi]

Just about everyone 25 years old and younger in the U.S. uses AIM. I don't know anyone who IM's that doesn't use it. People should just switch to AIM and make things easier.

[davecridland]

It's frustrating to see you suggest that because Google Talk only has 1% of the market share, therefore XMPP as a whole is a dead loss. While it's certainly true that XMPP isn't as big as the other protocols, it's a lot bigger than just Google Talk, and discussing individual IM services isn't how to consider this.

Look at jabber.org, for instance, which adds another 373,693 users to XMPP just through one server. Or look at SAPO in Portgual, a deployment which adds a significant chunk of Portugal's ISP market.

And this still ignores the thousands of other servers - some of which are small, some of which quite large - and the increasing number of services which integrate to XMPP - like the newly launched http://identi.ca/ or the rather older http://jaiku.com/ - as well as big names like Facebook.

This discussion is essentially over - Yahoo is likely to go XMPP, AOL almost certainly will follow, given their previous experimentation, and that will essentially leave MSN out on a limb.

Even just Yahoo is quite likely to tip the balance of the Sametime and Groupwise corporate islands into moving toward XMPP themselves - this would add a rush of XMPP servers in the same way that corporate email systems added a rush of SMTP servers when they federated.

[benjaminstraight]

Pretty cool. Streamlining a major mode of communication for many people.