You've probably seen the news by now about MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger becoming interoperable sometime in the second quarter of 2006. Perhaps they feel threatened by Google, or Skype, or AOL, but in the end, I'm not sure that it will matter all that much.
Let's consider a few possible usage scenarios:
1) I use only MSN Messenger right now. I don't have much need for any of the others, or I'd be using them already. So I can connect to Yahoo now, so what?
2) I use only Yahoo Messenger right now. I don't have much need for any of the others, or I'd be using them already. So I can connect to MSN Messenger now, so what?
3) I have friends on MSN and Yahoo, and my now I've found any number of clients that let me connect to both (like Trillian). I don't even use the official clients any more. I'm certainly not going to switch back!
4) I use MSN Messenger and Yahoo, and I run both of the official clients. Now I'll have whatever merged messenger they come up with, and possibly have to settle for a common feature base. This sounds more like a pain than a help.
What am I missing? What's the usage scenario that really makes it useful for MSN and Yahoo to interoperate? Is this a marketing thing, so they can say they are the largest IM network in the world?
Basically, I'd really appreciate if someone could tell me why I should care about this. :)
Well, maybe they will merge messengers together to have just one? doubtful but possible. i dont think they will merge protocols...although anything is possible i guess.
to answer your points, all theoretical answers...
1) now the msn users will see yahoo users, they can now meet a few million more people
2) same as above
3) this person may want to swich because they can now run one client that is official, and not trillian. assuming their only reason for running trillian was to use only one client
4) depending on how the clients are merged, a person could continue to run both clients or be relatively unaffected by the merge.
i think its all a marketting thing, you're essentially doubling the amount of users that everyone can communicate with. if i was choosing an IM client, i'd want to be able to use that one client to talk to as many people as possible.
I think it is because, as you said, they feel threatened.
5) Messengers stay the same, except for added functionality of connecting to yahoo/msn network.
I think those who use only msn and yahoo would be happy to ditch third-party clients (trillian/gaim) that do not support advanced features (audio/video/images) as well as official clients.
Why you should care? You probably shouldn't unless you care about Google's effort to "unite" IM services which could possibly be slowed down by this "merger." Actually, even if that is the case, I don't see any big reason to care too much.