Today the three major IM giants have reached an agreement. This agreement will connect AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger in corporations. All this will be done using Microsoft"s Live Communication Server (LCS). However the true ends there, outside the corporations the three IM giants will continue to battle each other.
After years of mudslinging, Microsoft, America Online and Yahoo on Thursday will make a surprising overture toward peace in the instant-messaging wars.
The companies will announce that later this year Microsoft"s Live Communications Server (LCS), which offers instant messaging for corporate users, will connect with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and its own MSN Messenger. However, the three public IM clients will still not connect with one another for public users. Instead, it means corporations that use LCS will allow employees to chat with the Big Three public IM services as well. "In order for enterprise instant messaging to move forward, this is what must happen," said Dennis Karlinsky, Microsoft"s lead product manager for LCS.
Microsoft will pay AOL and Yahoo a royalty for connecting to LCS. The companies declined to elaborate on whether these payments will be based on the number of LCS users connecting to AOL and Yahoo. The connections will be based on direct links between LCS and AOL and Yahoo"s IM servers, which means LCS users will see their Yahoo, AOL and MSN buddy lists appear when they log on and be able to instant message their contacts. LCS users will not get the same features as the public AOL or Yahoo clients, such as unique emoticons or gaming perks.