If this were the case -- that is, they were interconnected -- I think that they would have a hard time advertising for their other services. For example, when a Yahoo! IM user logs on, Yahoo! has many opportunities to advertise their other services, such as searching, and so on.
The same goes for MSN and AOL. If they were interconnected, they would lose that leverage and lose the ability to draw people to their other (read: more profitable) internet services. People could pick any client they wanted to and still be able to talk to their friends and family. IM by itself is probably not a big money-making venture, so they will want to draw as much from it as possible while investing as little as possible.
As an open-source and standards advocate, I would love to see such an integrated network. However, I look at the business-related consequences for the existing networks, and I sigh... for I doubt we'll see it.
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The same goes for MSN and AOL. If they were interconnected, they would lose that leverage and lose the ability to draw people to their other (read: more profitable) internet services. People could pick any client they wanted to and still be able to talk to their friends and family. IM by itself is probably not a big money-making venture, so they will want to draw as much from it as possible while investing as little as possible.
As an open-source and standards advocate, I would love to see such an integrated network. However, I look at the business-related consequences for the existing networks, and I sigh... for I doubt we'll see it.