Press Release: Microsoft and Yahoo! Announce Landmark Interoperability Agreement to Connect Consumer Instant Messaging Communities Globally.
We didn’t officially find out until 72 minutes before the press release. Obviously we aren’t need to know. Hmph.
I don’t have any Yahoo! contacts. In fact I’ve only used the Yahoo! IM client (now with voice) once a month or two ago, when I was trying to figure out what would happen if it were to become a battle of the clients. To my surprise, the clients are very similar feature-wise. (But our emoticons are so much better.) The next day I promptly uninstalled it.
So what do I think?
- It’s a bold move by both Yahoo! and MSN. Obviously neither side thinks that they will crash and burn, losing all their users to the other side. Let the battle of the clients begin!
- It’s still an entire year away. Now if AOL wants to play, they’re going to be the third to the table. And we all know that three’s a crowd.
- This isn’t the first time interop has been attempted. The history of MSN Messenger, for instance, is quite colourful. And then came IMIP from the IM Unified Coalition, thought that fell through as well. It seems that this time, the market (and Yahoo! and MSN) are finally ready for it.
There was a 10’x6′Â poster board in our lobby. The left half had the Yahoo! logo and the right had the MSN. We were supposed to sign it and then send it off to Yahoo!. Some people signed the Yahoo! side. Someone had to put up a sign, "DO NOT SIGN THIS SIDE. SIGN THIS -> SIDE ONLY!" Hahaha. (I suppose I’m partly at fault because I told someone to go sign the left side [jokingly] and he did..)
It’s going to be a lot of hard (and dirty?) work to get this ready for the next year. But it’s definitely a good thing–keeps us focused.
red hot place 