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Yahoo Shutting Out Third-Party IM Clients?
prostoalex writes "Following the lead of America Online's previous attempts and MSN's actions, Yahoo is planning an update that may cut out third-party providers like Trillian or Gaim. If you're a current Trillian user with a valid Yahoo ID, you probably noticed the new welcome message: 'Yahoo! is upgrading to its newest version of Yahoo! Messenger on September 24, 2003. The upgrade is part of an ongoing process to continually enhance the overall quality of the Yahoo! Messenger service for our millions of users'." Update: 09/18 01:17 GMT by S : Trillian has just released a patch that updates the IM software "...to the newest Yahoo! and MSN protocols, to remove the recent upgrade messages."
omfg i know
like fuck
now i cant talk to the zero people in this world that actually USE yahoo. damn. i feel so restricted now.
this is news? yahoo's been doing this in secret for a while if I understand correctly, they're just publicly doing it now because msn and aol have done it with little complaints from the user. fuck proprietary IM protocols, there's still IRC and jabber. IRC is timeless and will be around forever it seems. so really, what's the big deal (other than having friends on those protocols) people will start getting pissed off when those companies start pulling crap without any regard for the user, or start charging money to use their software. I bet in about 10 years, the terms proprietray and software wont be in the same sentence as much as it has for the past 3 or 4 decades, hoping that things go as planned. Peoples' wills are too strong, and people do find ways around raw deals, there are people getting upset with how many times they find that their machine has another exploit, and how it's just patched over and over again, with no actual fix to the general problem, oh well is what I say, let these people do what they wish, because it'll eventually hurt them, they forget as much as people like being guided around like a blind helpless children, they also want their freedom and the ability to do what they wish without being locked out of/into things. The issue is that not many people know of jabber or of irc (surprisingly!) so, what's needed is more word of various opensource protocols and formats and software in general. hell, put up little banners on your websites about various projects, even if you have to make the banners. best way we'll get outta the proprietary stranglehold, so issues like these are merely luaghed at in the future, you know? so the next time when some company pouts and wants the user to succumb to its wishes, people will just point and laugh and go walk off. sum it up, this isnt that big of a problem, there are thousands of other methods to talk to people, USENET, email, IRC, JABBER, message boards, site messengers (php based apps), phones, voicemails, voice chats, and hell, talking to people face to face, writing letters, etc. So really, this isnt that big of a problem in general, just a slight inconvience, and besides.. Who uses yahoo besides the people named XXOXXOhot2dropgrrrrrl65758765786OOOXXX anyways? most people who have 3rd party clients are smart enough not to use yahoo anyways. so once again, where's the fire? hate to sound a bit degrading or troll-ish (isnt my intent) but, it's just a lost cause. let these companies do their thing, see how long they last using closed technology in the new generation of open media and technology.
Moron.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
"And now, the real reason behind the blockage...
IM services cost alot of money to run."
That is not correct. IM services cost almost nothing to run. So, if you want the real reason it's probably more along the lines of wanting to force people to see the ads and thus ensuring that the cash cow doesn't dry up.
In Microsoft's case it is probably that and the fact that their primary stratagy has always been to flip the bird to any kind of open standard and using their monopoly power in other areas to push their way of doing into the main stream things thereby cutting out the competition.
Nothing new there.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!