The messengers of Microsoft and Yahoo! join Future compatibility between the two instant messaging services will create a community of 267 million users
Not even two months ago that the departure of Google Talk , using as a working platform open Jabber protocol, led experts to speculate on the possibility of finally closed preserves are ending up on the IM. In other words, it was thought that the fact that Google Talk and programs such as Gaim or Trillian (known as multiprotocol because they allow users to communicate with each other from different messengers) share the same software, any registered user facilitate any service being able to communicate with any other user of any other service. So far it has not happened.
If you think based on the email it will be understood more easily than is talking: today everyone seems normal that from an email account type "usuario@aol.com" can send a message to any user, regardless of whether your account is @ yahoo.com, @ hotmail.com, @ gmail.com, @ wanadoo.com, @ ya.com ...
But years ago this was not so. When mail accounts were created in the mid-eighties, AOL was the company that grew faster and became an important part of American users. To try to hold off any competition, AOL closed its powerful community of users so that AOL customers could only send mail to each other, but not with customers from other accounts. Other users who were not on AOL worked with a standard and open protocol called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and if they could communicate regardless of the account to which they were registered.
The same actors in different scenario
The time and the growth in the market for different competitors forced AOL to open to the world and adopt SMTP as the protocol. Today it is the most widespread and is used by virtually all Internet users. However, this somewhat grotesque situation of gated communities is it repeating in the business of instant messaging, where again AOL, ICQ and Instant Messenger, is the undisputed leader in the United States. But not only AOL maintains a policy of closed communities; It is the most common posture in most messaging services weight.
In theory a user of MSN or AOL can not talk to another by Yahoo! Messenger, or others with other programs. This situation is different for Internet messengers that use based on Jabber, because since it is open source software allows the intercom. But these surfers are insufficient minority.
Also serves as Gaim or Trillian multiprotocol are based on Jabber and allow any user to talk to another that uses a different protocol, by creating gateways or bridges between two different messaging services. Although you can send messages through these gateways, you must be registered in both services.
Confederation of messengers
The picture will change much in the second quarter of 2006. A few days ago senior Microsoft and Yahoo! announced they would join those days messengers in an operation that most analysts pointed out as an attempt to oust its leadership American AOL. What? Very simple: confederate and from now made compatible their protocols so that will create a community of 49 million users in the United States. They may communicate with each other without any problem from MSN to Yahoo! Messenger and vice versa.
When the union a reality, contact lists of many Internet users will double, because it may introduce a messenger to all users who were previously in other services. To this we must add that both programs have VoIP service, which holding companies are committed to exploit improving its technology.
Community or monopoly?
Taking into account all users that there are two companies in the world, the community that creates more than 267 million users. AOL just have comparatively presence outside the United States, about ten million users. While the balance of power in the US is almost balanced in the world it becomes 81.4% of users in the new community and 18.6% for AOL. If US consumers are discounted, the ratio becomes an overwhelming 95.5% vs. 4.5% of AOL.
This global share has suggested to some analysts that AOL may not be the only objective of Microsoft and Yahoo !. The union could have ulterior motives: first optimize the domestic competition with the American leader and the other to shield against a greater enemy as Google. Although many users Google Talk is not significant in instant messaging, belonging to the largest company in the Internet and use an open protocol could give wings if it were decided to create an alternative community around the Jabber standard.
The result of the union, in this sense, would be narrow but very large community (something like what he intended to do in the eighties with AOL e-mail), of which only a few users belonging to the technological elite not participate . This residual community based on Jabber standard, would be far more difficult to implement even with the support of Google. On the other hand, users of the new community resulting from the union would in any way captives operational and commercial decisions of Microsoft and Yahoo !.
Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF_iI6Tb8YQ
Not even two months ago that the departure of Google Talk , using as a working platform open Jabber protocol, led experts to speculate on the possibility of finally closed preserves are ending up on the IM. In other words, it was thought that the fact that Google Talk and programs such as Gaim or Trillian (known as multiprotocol because they allow users to communicate with each other from different messengers) share the same software, any registered user facilitate any service being able to communicate with any other user of any other service. So far it has not happened.
If you think based on the email it will be understood more easily than is talking: today everyone seems normal that from an email account type "usuario@aol.com" can send a message to any user, regardless of whether your account is @ yahoo.com, @ hotmail.com, @ gmail.com, @ wanadoo.com, @ ya.com ...
But years ago this was not so. When mail accounts were created in the mid-eighties, AOL was the company that grew faster and became an important part of American users. To try to hold off any competition, AOL closed its powerful community of users so that AOL customers could only send mail to each other, but not with customers from other accounts. Other users who were not on AOL worked with a standard and open protocol called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and if they could communicate regardless of the account to which they were registered.
The same actors in different scenario
The time and the growth in the market for different competitors forced AOL to open to the world and adopt SMTP as the protocol. Today it is the most widespread and is used by virtually all Internet users. However, this somewhat grotesque situation of gated communities is it repeating in the business of instant messaging, where again AOL, ICQ and Instant Messenger, is the undisputed leader in the United States. But not only AOL maintains a policy of closed communities; It is the most common posture in most messaging services weight.
In theory a user of MSN or AOL can not talk to another by Yahoo! Messenger, or others with other programs. This situation is different for Internet messengers that use based on Jabber, because since it is open source software allows the intercom. But these surfers are insufficient minority.
Also serves as Gaim or Trillian multiprotocol are based on Jabber and allow any user to talk to another that uses a different protocol, by creating gateways or bridges between two different messaging services. Although you can send messages through these gateways, you must be registered in both services.
Confederation of messengers
The picture will change much in the second quarter of 2006. A few days ago senior Microsoft and Yahoo! announced they would join those days messengers in an operation that most analysts pointed out as an attempt to oust its leadership American AOL. What? Very simple: confederate and from now made compatible their protocols so that will create a community of 49 million users in the United States. They may communicate with each other without any problem from MSN to Yahoo! Messenger and vice versa.
When the union a reality, contact lists of many Internet users will double, because it may introduce a messenger to all users who were previously in other services. To this we must add that both programs have VoIP service, which holding companies are committed to exploit improving its technology.
Community or monopoly?
Taking into account all users that there are two companies in the world, the community that creates more than 267 million users. AOL just have comparatively presence outside the United States, about ten million users. While the balance of power in the US is almost balanced in the world it becomes 81.4% of users in the new community and 18.6% for AOL. If US consumers are discounted, the ratio becomes an overwhelming 95.5% vs. 4.5% of AOL.
This global share has suggested to some analysts that AOL may not be the only objective of Microsoft and Yahoo !. The union could have ulterior motives: first optimize the domestic competition with the American leader and the other to shield against a greater enemy as Google. Although many users Google Talk is not significant in instant messaging, belonging to the largest company in the Internet and use an open protocol could give wings if it were decided to create an alternative community around the Jabber standard.
The result of the union, in this sense, would be narrow but very large community (something like what he intended to do in the eighties with AOL e-mail), of which only a few users belonging to the technological elite not participate . This residual community based on Jabber standard, would be far more difficult to implement even with the support of Google. On the other hand, users of the new community resulting from the union would in any way captives operational and commercial decisions of Microsoft and Yahoo !.
Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF_iI6Tb8YQ
