AOL-Yahoo-MSN Messaging Unified... in the Workplace Only

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday July 15, 2004 @02:20AM from the gaim-is-cheaper dept.

bakreule writes "Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo! are teaming up to link their separate instant messaging services for use in the workplace, 'the first major step by the industry leaders to enable computer users to communicate with one another no matter which of the three systems they use.' Sound to good to be true? It is. 'What this does not do,' Root said (yes, that's his name), 'is the holy grail of instant messaging, which is to allow anybody on any network to send a message to anybody on any other network.' It seems that the system, which is aimed for corporations, involves some MS software which acts as an intermediary between the different systems. Sounds like a fancy version of all the open source IM clients out there."

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Re:Why not an Open initiative? by Jahf · 2004-07-15 02:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

If it uses middleware to translate between them, then it most certainly does sound like Jabber. GAIM, no, Jabber yes.

However even though this uses MS middleware, it could still be a good thing as it might make MSN/Yahoo/AIM less likely to break their protocols just to stymie the open source clients. Maybe not, maybe they will just tell MS to update their middleware, but no way to tell just yet.

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It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
Not to sure about this ... by auburnate · 2004-07-15 02:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

If I were AOL or Yahoo, I'm not so sure i would want Microsoft providing the software to provide the intermediary connections. In the light of all the wonderful IE exploits and such.
My $0.02 ... Nate