Google recently announced that its Google Talk service is now fully interoperable with other IM networks which use the XMPP protocol. Google Talk will now be able to communicate with Jabber, the Gizmo Project, GAIM for Linux, Apple’s iChat and many other other IM clients. Any IM provider using XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) is now free to connect to Google Talk free of charge by following the specifications. This is yet another step towards Instant Messenger interoperability – after all, should I really care what IM clients my friends have?
On the subject of IM interoperability, Yahoo and Microsoft recently had talks about getting their IM services to talk to each other. Hopefully, this will happen sooner than later. Of course, without these guys competing, Cerulean Studios wouldn’t have a product in Trillian!
In case you’re wondering if your IM client will interoperate with Google’s IM client, Google published a list on their site.