October 16, 2005
Federated Instant Messaging
There's no reason why instant messaging should exist as it currently does, with "free" clients that are supported by advertising, and closed networks that don't interoperate. A better model would be one that's patterned after email: your ISP provides you with an IM account and an IM address, and you can choose your favorite client to send and receive instant messages on the global, unified network.
Enter the IM Federation, which is pushing just such a model. The federation is based on the XMPP standards for IM, which is based on Jabber. Since Google's IM, called Google Talk, will use XMPP, the IM Federation should get noticed.
In the other corner are Microsoft an Yahoo, who announced that they will connect their IM networks. Interestingly, this combined Microsoft and Yahoo network will also be based on open standards, namely, SIP and SIMPLE.
The question remains, though: will there be spim (Spam through Instant Messaging)?
Posted by Doug Sauder at October 16, 2005 11:34 AM