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Yahoo and MSN Messengers have babies.

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The Other One

The Other One

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Searched "Yahoo" and didn't find anything..


Yahoo and MSN marry IM services

Instant messaging interoperability at last


Tom Sanders in California, vnunet.com 13 Oct 2005
Yahoo and Microsoft are planning to tear down the walls between their IM applications that currently prevent users from communicating with each other. Full interoperability is scheduled for the second quarter of 2006.

By combining forces, the pair create what they claim is the world's largest IM community of 275 million accounts.

However, according to analyst firm The Radicati Group, AOL has 56 per cent of the IM market worldwide. Microsoft and Yahoo combined have around 40 per cent.

IM applications offer a communications platform, and let users know when a friend or colleague is online.

None of the leading platforms currently offers interoperability, forcing users to maintain accounts for multiple services if they want to stay in touch with all their contacts.

The lack of interoperability has given rise to so-called unified messengers, such as Trillian for the PC and Fire for the Mac. Such applications manage multiple user accounts, preventing the user from having to run a separate application for each messaging network.

The ability to communicate with other IM platforms is one of the most requested features by users, according to Microsoft and Yahoo.

"IM interoperability is the right thing for our customers, our businesses and the industry as a whole, and Microsoft is delighted to help lead these efforts with Yahoo," said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

Google recently criticised AOL, MSN and Yahoo for locking out other networks when Google launched a beta of its Google Talk IM application.

"We plan to partner with other willing service providers to enable federation of our services," Google stated in August.

"This means that a user on one service can communicate with users on another service without needing to sign up for, or sign in with, each service."
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http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2143773/yahoo-msn-marry-messengers


http://www.computerworld.be/index.cfm?PageID=16365&News_ID=13473&style=34360


http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/10/12/yahoo_msn_messenger/
 
I've also wondered why MSN is so nearly universal here in Canada. Way back when I used ICQ as my only IM service, then I went a few years not using anything only to find out a while back that every person I know uses only MSN now.
 
calder said:
I've also wondered why MSN is so nearly universal here in Canada. Way back when I used ICQ as my only IM service, then I went a few years not using anything only to find out a while back that every person I know uses only MSN now.
Click to expand...

MS bought off all the popular Canadian kids in the late 90's. It was a brilliant move, everyone else had to follow the popular kids' lead.
 
calder said:
I've also wondered why MSN is so nearly universal here in Canada. Way back when I used ICQ as my only IM service, then I went a few years not using anything only to find out a while back that every person I know uses only MSN now.
Click to expand...

I don't think AOL ever was really popular here in Canada, for various reasons. Additionally, many Canadian ISPs set your browser's default page to an msn/yahoo search engine that's slightly retooled to fit your location. The fact that AIM/AOL has "America" in its name probably didn't help either.
 
OpinionatedCyborg said:
I don't think AOL ever was really popular here in Canada, for various reasons. Additionally, many Canadian ISPs set your browser's default page to an msn/yahoo search engine that's slightly retooled to fit your location. The fact that AIM/AOL has "America" in its name probably didn't help either.
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QFT.

Every ISP I've used has a Yahoo, or MSN page bascially Bell/Rogers/Shaw. I know 4 people that us AOL, and about 300+ people that use MSN Messenger.
 
See, with AIM I have about 50 sns. (I'm not even kidding) That's why the number is so high for them. With MSN, I only have 1 because it goes by email and I can change my display name. So while supposedly AIM has a huge lead, I doubt it's by that much. And when Yahoo and MSN combine, I'm sure they will be larger. MSN and AIM need to merge already so we can get all the big ones together though. That would be great. Oh yeah and AOL is mainly in the US. MSN used almost everywhere else from what I've experienced.
 
They shut down a lot of the good rooms in yahoo... Yahoo messenger has been getting shittier and shittier with each new release.
 
calder said:
I've also wondered why MSN is so nearly universal here in Canada. Way back when I used ICQ as my only IM service, then I went a few years not using anything only to find out a while back that every person I know uses only MSN now.
Click to expand...


MSN is popular everywhere in the world except the US.

The only reason people use AIM is because of the days in which everybody had america online. They just havent abandoned the program.

We must teach the masses.
 
jamesinclair said:
MSN is popular everywhere in the world except the US.

The only reason people use AIM is because of the days in which everybody had america online. They just havent abandoned the program.

We must teach the masses.
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So true... I remember when I seen people selling AOL free trial disks lol man all my friends had AOL IM :lol
 
Yeah the endless spamming of America Online CDs only worked in the U.S, everybody up here just chucked their AOL Canada CDs.
 
I despise the interface of MSN Messenger. The only thing I like about it is that it's email-based and you can change your name. I've never touched Yahoo's version.

I've been using AIM for a good 8 years, even though I only had AOL for about the first year of that. The only program I see luring me away is Google Talk, which isn't to say I love everything about AIM, but it seems better than the rest for my simple desire to talk to friends.
 
Azih said:
Yeah the endless spamming of America Online CDs only worked in the U.S, everybody up here just chucked their AOL Canada CDs.
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Ha I remember the spamming of those CD's here in Aus. They just went straight in the bin.

Unless I had one lying around and couldn't find my coaster, then they had some use.
 
john tv said:
MSN >>>> AIM

And yes, the only people I know who use AIM are in the US. Everyone else uses MSN.
Click to expand...

this is true (everyone in the US using AIM, everyone elsewhere using MSN). The services are comparable in their levels of suckage though.
 
Shweet avatar K@M.

Yeah, MSN is pretty much universal in Canada though I know some who use Trillian quite a bit.

So it's either MSN or Trillian and a few cases of Yahoo.
 
I think most people in Europe use MSN, well I know most people in the UK use MSN anyway, and as we all know UK = Europe.
 
I miss ICQ!

I was one of the last holdouts in the big ICQ to MSN migration in my neighbourhood in Canada :p


Now MSN is just so damn good
 
Yep MSN = like 100% of the marketshare here. I've tried using AIM a lot of times, but for some reason, it just doesn't feel right. I don't know why, but with MSN I guess I get more of a choice and I find the whole interface more appealing.
 
Everyone I knew used to use ICQ, then everyone I know switched to AIM...except the old people.

I know maybe two people on Y!IM.

And nobody on anything else.
 
Its weird how messengers work. I have a bunch of friends from two different colleges just because of where I've lived in the past, and once group ALL use aim, and the other group ALL use MSN, so I have to used both :(
 
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