Quando dois grandes Instant Messaging Services se cruzam

Com as últimas versões do MSN Messenger e do Yahoo! Messenger, já é possível ter, num dos serviços, contactos de ambos e comunicar com eles. Ainda existem algumas limitações, mas são cada vez mais pequenas.

O artigo
Finally, a Peek Over the Barriers Between IM Networks
By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, July 30, 2006; Page F07

A couple of weeks ago, one of the longest-running problems of the Internet began to get better.
No, nobody's found a cure for spam or viruses or those animated ads that temporarily flood browser windows. But we're now closer to being able to chat via instant messaging with anybody -- not just people using the same network.
That development should not count as news. With most other kinds of communication -- phone calls, e-mail or cellphone text messages -- the ability to contact somebody who uses a different provider than you isn't considered a feature worth advertising.
Instant messaging, however, has remained stubbornly proprietary. The operators of the three major commercial networks -- AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo -- have kept their systems closed off from each other.
Earlier this month, however, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. updated their software to allow people on one network to chat with people on another. One person can log into Microsoft's software, the other into Yahoo's, and both can chatter away as if they were on the same network.

in The Washington Post - Columns