Microsoft and Yahoo are set to announce they will connect their IM networks. The agreement marks the first time major players in the highly-competitive IM industry have officially partnered up to enable cross-network communication.
I've been using the Yahoo! Instant Messenger since it was launched and last summer I was persuaded to use the MSN Instant Messenger as well. Refusing to use two clients, I discovered Trillian which nicely enabled me to log in to both networks simultaneously with a single client. Of course, I needed to log in with both a Yahoo! and MSN username and you can't conference in two people that are each using a different one, so it's far from an ideal solution. I've never understood why interoperability didn't exist for instant messengers. Why the hell couldn't I chat with an MSN user via my Yahoo! IM? Soon, it seems, I can.
It's about friggin' time.
