The instant messenger wars have been waged for a while now with ICQ and AOL instant messenger seemingly enjoying a bit of a honeymoon until the likes of MSN Messenger (now Windows Live Messenger) and other modern instant messengers quickly stole their thunder. However, one thing that has remained is the persistent incompatibility between them all apart from some minor exceptions:
- MSN Messenger did enjoy short lived compatibility with AOL instant messenger but AOL continually blocked non-AOL clients in a defensive move,
- MSN Messenger has been able to (sort of) communicate with users of Yahoo IM for a few years now.
So what does the enabling of XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) mean for Windows Live Messenger?
It might signal the beginning of Microsoft attempting to consolidate market share in the instant messenger space. It’s quite a hassle for people to maintain accounts across numerous services plus all the software to connect to them all. Granted, there are “all-in-one” messengers that will combine them all into one application for you but their stability can leave something to be desired. The fact that Google Talk also uses XMPP could also be seen as a potential invitation to allow the users of two of the largest IM networks to allow cross-communication.
Facebook also exposes an XMPP-like interface for its built-in chat into which Microsoft already seems to have tapped.
So I guess it remains to be seen what Microsoft will make of its messenger platform but they are setting themselves up for the best opportunity for interoperability using one of the major standards for IM.
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