Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category
Instant Messenger Wars
How is it that there are so many instant messenger protocols, and that they’ve ALL got substantial support?
I’m reminded of VHS/Beta (and the impending Blu-Ray/HDVD) battles every time someone says "what’s your IM?"
"Hey, send me an e-mail and we’ll set it up."
"Why don’t you just IM me?"
"Ok..gimme your screen name."
"x391jf93ltricks22"
"That’s AOL, right?"
"No, Yahoo!"
"I don’t have Yahoo!…do you have an MSN account?"
"No. You’ve got Skype though, right?"
"I used to…just send me an e-mail, and I’ll call you."
Now, thanks to things like Trillian and Adium, people are able to combine their different IM accounts in one interface…but you’re still using three or four different protocols. Is there really a difference?
I’ve heard that it’s almost a geographic thing: U.S.A. uses AIM, Canada uses MSN, Australia uses Yahoo!…
…but how the hell did that happen?
My official proposition: since I use AIM primarily, I would ask all internet users to either convince me of the benefits of Yahoo! or MSN, or begin using AIM exclusively.
Thank you. I’ll be waiting.
Tags: IM, Instant Messenger, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, AIM