The IMing Revolution

At Jimmahdigital.com, they wrote a recent post on instant messengers and their needed collaboration to stay in the game. Ten years ago, everyone used AIM. Over the years, a few more programs came along such as MSN, Yahoo and Google. The one problem most people have with the networks is that they can’t be combined. They all do the same thing, but no crossing of the networks. The reason for this is that originally each networked used a proprietary network that was closed.

So when Google came along, they started using Jabber, which is now the open protocol of XMPP. So this has motivated the networks to start banding together. Last month, Google Chat opened its doors and now collaborates with AIM. So, Yahoo, which is feeling pressure from many directions, is left standing and needs to join somewhere or it’ll get left behind.

Is all of this important for the enterprise? Communication is the key to making enterprise 2.0 works. So what if a company’s branch in Chicago uses AIM and the branch in Miami is using Yahoo? Well, there is potential that shows communication can soon be coming. It’s important that all of these software programs perform together, because as we’ve seen many times in the digital world, if you don’t keep up, it’s only a matter of months and you’re not in business anymore. Do you use the tools in a corporate setting? What’s your take on this?