Yahoo and Microsoft to Merge Instant Messengers

Primotech writes "Betanews has word that Microsoft and Yahoo plan to link their respective IM clients again so that users of both can communicate with each other on one, shared network. Facing threats from third-party applications, like Trillian and Skype, the two tech giants will claim 44% of the instant messaging market, analysts predict. They will also go head to head together with the biggest competitor, AOL."

Comments

Suddenly I like.

[NineNine]

Wow. I'm impressed. That was such a smart decision on both of their parts (Yahoo and MS)! I didn't see that coming at all. That's gonna be it for AOL. It'll take a while, but that put the last nail in the coffin for those fuckers.
 
    This is gonna give Yahoo a hell of a boost simply because Yahoo is the best in the industry with integration. No other web portal/brand integrates nearly as well as Yahoo. They're gonna turn that IM traffic into ad revenue, I guarantee it. They're gonna be around to give Google a run for it's money for a long time.

I'm surprised that MS did it, but it was smart. Their MSN properties have always been weak, even with the bonus of the first thing new users see. They've been hoping that that would do it for them, which is why they never really perfected Passport or the web versino of .Net. MS is going to really get some more consumer street cred by hooking up with Yahoo. I don't know where they're going with it, though, since MS isn't going to collect nickels and dimes like Yahoo and Google have to with their advertising revenue.

Re:Apps like Trillian...

[magicchex]

I especially liked the inability to log onto AIM via your main account feature they packaged with the unimportant accounts connected to AIM fine feature. Now of course they've replaced both with the ever popular everyone's been online for at least 108 days feature.

Hmm...

[Trejkaz]

I wouldn't mind knowing how running Trillian makes it possible for me to invite an MSN and an AIM user into the same chat...