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| Microsoft to open up Messenger to rivals |
| Thursday, July 15, 2004 at 11:44 by Laurence Norah |
Microsoft are said to be in discussion with America Online and Yahoo in a bid to allow users of all three companies' instant messaging software to communicate with each other.
Currently users of Microsoft's MSN Messenger program cannot communicate with users of either Yahoo's instant messenger or with AOL's instant messenger. The deal would be to allow business users of Microsoft's Messenger program to communicate with users of the Yahoo and AOL networks, but it would not allow users of Microsoft's free MSN Messenger the same liberty.
Messaging in the business place has generally been frowned upon by employers amid fears that it would cause employees to abuse the system. Internal business messaging however could prove a big hit.
How likely Microsoft are to open up their free version of the messaging software is unclear, but we have a feeling it's probably unlikely, with the idea being that if you want to talk to your friends you'll have to persuade them to join the MSN Messenger service. As Microsoft provide MSN Messenger for free there would seem to be no business incentive for them to open up cross network communications, and giving things away for free is not really the Redmond based software giants style. We'll keep you updated if they have a change of heart though.
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| One way round it is to use trillian. You can use IRC, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ and sometimes Messenger all in the same client. |
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| I like the way you said 'sometimes'...
I have tried Trillian several times but it always fails in some way, asside from being painfully slow.
IRC has trouble staying connected for some reason, amongst other things.
and its too gordy, girly looking, eye-candy and no real functionality.
Just a bunch of things thrown together with a pretty front-end.
I use MSN all the time. endlessly. for business and personal. (handy for instant customer support)
I much prefer MSN Messenger to windows messenger etc. yahoo is just full of weirdo's and AOL has no features to speak of.
Long Live MSN! |
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| ReDuX - shh!!!!! They's HEAR you, and if they do then the decent MSN is long gone! It will be replaced by "Premium" and "Lite" versions and they'll try and make some more money out of us! |
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