The lack of Instant Messaging (IM) interoperability has been a major roadblock for the creation of true end-to-end, provider-independent desktop and mobile IM applications. IM networks and services have been closed systems, closely guarded by their “owners”. But this may change now. IM convergence, a wish of mine for many years, may finally happen… Very cool… And who we must thank for this? Thank Google. I have said before that Google is first of all an innovation company, and it takes someone with the right vision and "cojones", one like Google, to break the ice, and in this case, make IM convergence happen.

Last September I wrote on my blog about the AOL for Sale rumors, and what a good thing it would be for the IM technical community and end-users in general, if Google acquired AOL and it get to integrate Google Talk & AOL IM services, and also get to open the combined IM network and services to the world: 

From my perspective, I really don't care who acquires AOL...
but what I really care about is that whomever acquires it,
should open the networks and services -- imagine the AOL
Instant Messenger (AIM) and ICQ networks (used by 84 million
people) plus all Jabber-based IM (such as Google) all open,
allowing for new desktop and mobile products that integrate
these, resulting in innovation. This level of cross IM
openness I have been waiting for years.

Recently AOL and Google stroke a deal where Google will invest $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in Time Warner's America Online. This deal is primarily centered on searching and ads, but the implications go further, and it includes IM. You can read about this at Ars Technica — Google plans to standardize multimedia instant messaging, at PC World — Google Backs IM Multimedia Standard, and Google's official announcement.

Bottom line is that Google is once again bringing (technical) order to the world — we saw this with its search engine, its Web 2.0 services, mail, etc. and this time is about real-time communications with 1) Google Talk and Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), 2) with their XMPP protocol extensions for signaling and audio, and eventually video, 3) with XMPP standardization effort, and 4) with the IM convergence or interoperability efforts they are pioneering. Google has already been working on Libjingle, the Google Talk Voice and P2P Interoperability Library that is being included in the the GTK+ instant messaging application Gaim 2.0.

If the AOL/Google deal materializes, and Google's standardization plans materialize, we will finally see open IM interoperability — first with Google Talk and AOL, then others (note that Yahoo! and Microsoft already signed an interoperability deal). The benefits of this convergence are clear — a very large, provider-independent and open IM network, and the innovation and new products that will come from that. There obviously are other business-specific implications to convergence such as how ads will be provisioned in a multi-provider, converged network.

With respect to mobility, this convergence translates to a real-time, dynamic alternative to SMS and MMS. But this won't replace SMS/MMS, as the use-cases for “offline” messaging are there — for invitations, registrations, and offline scenarios. The combined potential of IM + SMS/MMS is huge.

ceo