Google and Yahoo: IM Partners in the Making?
Tucked away under the “Terms of the Agreement” section of Yahoo! press release, announcing its search advertising partnership with Google, is this little gem: “In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users.”
This seems to foreshadow some IM interoperability between Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger, something that has already been tinkered with between Google Talk and AOL’s Instant Messenger. If so, it would be a pretty significant step towards three major IM clients linking their arms together to form a slightly more open IM environment. MSN would seem like the odd man out.
While the details of this aspect of Yahoo!’s partnership with Google still vague, it’s a bit early to jump to any conclusions. Still, it’s tempting to think about the possibility of being able to sign into just one account and to seamlessly chat online with your friends, regardless of what client they prefer to use.
E-mail messages, and to a lesser extent, phone calls and text messages are largely unhindered by the “carrier” used. Instant messaging could greatly benefit from following on that path.
Sources:
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/
releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=316450
