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October 13, 2006
Instant Messaging.
I’ve been using the internets since Al Gore invented them. I remember back when you Prodigy users couldn’t send Emails to AOL users. I won’t swear by the exact process (almost undoubtedly the market began to demand, rather than disdain it), but eventually Email—and just about every other function of an ISP—broke free of it’s walled garden. Users could send Email to users of other systems. And just about then—call it 1996--, Instant Messaging became big...
I’ve long shaken my head at the need to have either 4 separate programs open (AIM, Gtalk, Yahoo!IM, MSN Messenger), or to have an ugly kludge like Trillian or GAIM. Even when I have such a beast, it requires up to 4 accounts. This began to change a bit with the last Beta versions of MSN messenger and Y!IM, which can actually talk to each other...
Ideally, Instant messaging would be just one more use of bandwidth, which any Email address could be plugged into any client. I’d like my computer’s address book to function as my buddy list. And so forth. This just got a step closer to reality when LiveJournal introduced their Instant Messaging service. LJIM isn’t that big a deal in and of itself. The fact that it’s build on an open network is a big deal. It means that users of LJIM and GTalk – two separate networks—can now talk to one another. It didn’t require a negotiation, or a compromise, or even an acknowledgement that the other company exists. The fact that users of either system can talk to the other is a boon for both...
That’s how IM will integrate. A service or network will decide that they wish to offer Instant Messaging, and rather than create their own proprietary protocols (which takes time/money), they will use the Jabber network. I could see Comcast setting something up in the next year or so. Eventually, the big 3 will find themselves having to either open up or be shut out. The market begins to demand it...
Posted by Andrew at October 13, 2006 02:04 PM