The Buzz: IM Truce and Video iPods
MSN and Yahoo Team on Instant Messaging
"They must be worried sick about Michael Robertson's IMFederation plans and Google's desire to make its Google Talk client work with other IM clients. Otherwise why else would Yahoo and MSN bury the hatchet and get their IM clients talking to each other."
- Om Malik, Technology Pundit
"This is a medium-size deal. The number two and number three (in the US) IM platforms start to integrate. Number one, AOL, still isn't really threatened, or forced to open up its network. Especially since everyone who has a Yahoo or MSN Messenger account probably also has AIM. Plus, as colleague Joe Laszlo reminds me, those that do likely have their own workaround to reach out-of-network buddies. So I doubt this grows the whole market."
- David Card, Jupiter Research
"It appears that someone has finally explained to the IM teams at Microsoft and Yahoo the meaning of "network effects" as the two companies have apparently reached an agreement to let users on one service easily communicate with those on the other -- vaulting their overall network quickly past AOL's. It only took them six years, and given the history of this area, it wouldn't be surprising to see the end result be less than perfect... but it's a start."
- Techdirt, Technology Web log
"This is the first major agreement between two IM providers that doesn't involve an acquisition, and it has been years in coming. The raucous market demand for IM interoperability died down years ago from sheer exhaustion. These IM kingdoms have been defended more viciously than ... well, a good comparison doesn't come to mind. But the day will soon be at hand when Yahoo! Messenger users will chat with MSN Messenger users."
- The Unofficial Yahoo! Weblog, AOL
"At this time, Microsoft and Yahoo! plan basic interoperability for presence, text messaging, voice communications (VoIP) and emoticons. I do see the deal to be, at least in part, response to other vendor agreements, particularly VoIP. The question now is what new alliances might form in the wake of today’s agreement—or what discussions might be underway. See, the agreement makes me wonder what the rumored AOL-Microsoft talks were really about, whether the impetuous or core discussion was interoperability between their consumer messaging networks. If those talks have resumed, as reported by the news media, then what impact, if any, might today's announcement have on them?"
- Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Monitor