cybershark Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 IBM links IM service to Yahoo, AOL Google's new instant-messaging service also expected to be added BOSTON - Users of IBM's Lotus Sametime instant-messaging service will be able to connect to people on the rival AOL and Yahoo networks under a deal that underscores the technology's transformation from a program for chatty teenagers into a common business tool. The arrangement announced Monday by International Business Machines Corp. means that the 15 million people who use Sametime on the job also will be able to communicate with customers, friends and relatives who "IM" on the popular consumer-focused networks run by Time Warner Inc.'s America Online and Yahoo Inc. Separately, IBM and Google Inc. are in discussions toward linking Sametime with the new Google Talk IM service. Instant messaging grew up in distinct silos ? each service let users chat and set up "buddy lists" with just its own members. Users clamored for "interoperability," but the companies behind the services were reluctant to give up a hold on their user bases. Little by little, the walls surrounding the IM networks have come down. The biggest such breakthrough came in October, when Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo agreed to make their widely used instant messaging programs for general consumers work together by June 2006. Even before that, though, free "bridging" services linking multiple IM networks arose, such as Trillian. And several smaller IM networks in the business world are linked with other services. In fact, AOL said that with the Sametime deal, its networks will be linked to more than 75 percent of business IM users. The big player on the sidelines here is Microsoft, which has its own product, Live Communications Server, that lets business users send and receive messages from the Yahoo, AOL and MSN systems. While IM has become an easy way for people in business to connect to colleagues and customers, concerns have arisen about the security of the public networks, which can be vulnerable to worms and other attacks. Because Sametime is aimed at the corporate market, IBM contends it can assure its security and integration with companies' networks. Big Blue hopes that linking to the consumer IM networks takes away the downside that Sametime users essentially can talk only to each other. When this new, interoperable version of Sametime debuts in the middle of the year, IBM will add some flourishes that have long existed in the consumer market, including video and voice connectivity. Sametime also will get the ultimate staple of regular-Joe instant messaging: the ability to send happy, sad, winking or angry faces known as "emoticons." source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Dog Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 I used sametime over the summer when working at a major corporation, and that was one godawful piece of software. I'm all for service integration, but Sametime is the last app I'd use for multiprotocol... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckempo Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 I use Sametime daily (via the Meanwhile plugin with Gaim) and it's not that bad.... just very "corporate" - no smileys, for example, just very basic text from one person/group to another, which from a business perspective (where you simply need to relay a message) is all you need. If they're adding support for the things they're missing, and linking to other networks, then it kinda defeats its own purpose - there are much better protocols to use for general messaging than Sametime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W1cked-J Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 The new version of Sametime due later this year (I think July time line) is supposed to have smiley's and all that fun stuff. I agree it is a boring IM but it is mainly used in Corps so their was no real reason to make it pretty but that is changing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Dog Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 I wasn't really referring to "extra" features like smileys in my post, I understand corporate clients are minimalist. But the thing looked like it was designed for Windows NT, and it was far from stable on my otherwise very stable XP machine. I quickly traded it off for Gaim with the sametime plugin (and if you read my post in the other thread, I don't like Gaim either, but it was worlds better). I would offer a comparison to Bitwise IM (http://www.bitwiseim.com), which is another sort of corporate style IM. Even though it doesn't have fancy text and whatnot, bitwise is a very clean program (from my brief time experimenting with it). It actually feels like it belongs in 2006 instead of 1996. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckempo Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 Thread resurrection... but this is now front page news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted December 7, 2006 Veteran Share Posted December 7, 2006 And they allowed Jabber access, which is cool (official support anyway) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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