I think the recent battle over internet messaging is just another example of MS strategy. Time and time again, they enter a field where they haven't existed before, and use their formidable resources to change the playing field to suit them. In this case, I'd guess that they want to be able to design a messaging client that interacts with every other messaging client out there, and ship it with either Internet Explorer or Windows 2000. Think about it - wouldn't you prefer to have a single client on your desktop that lets you communicate with every other type of messaging client? I think AOL is running scared, and rightly so. While they haven't managed to turn ICQ into something profitable just yet, the potential is there. Microsoft has the potential to leach it away from them with a unified client.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the recent battle over internet messaging is just another example of MS strategy. Time and time again, they enter a field where they haven't existed before, and use their formidable resources to change the playing field to suit them. In this case, I'd guess that they want to be able to design a messaging client that interacts with every other messaging client out there, and ship it with either Internet Explorer or Windows 2000. Think about it - wouldn't you prefer to have a single client on your desktop that lets you communicate with every other type of messaging client? I think AOL is running scared, and rightly so. While they haven't managed to turn ICQ into something profitable just yet, the potential is there. Microsoft has the potential to leach it away from them with a unified client.