Imminent IM wars?

Some interesting speculation on the impact of Google Talk and the reaction of the other IM players.

I am increasingly of the opinion that Google is going the way of the corporation, to the detriment of the user. I agree with : Google missed the point about IM in producing yet another private system. IM is in a parlous state that we would never accept from email. Fair warning to all my IM contacts: I log everything.

I currently use Gaim for my IM needs, and I have accounts on MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber. I do not use gmail, and I won't be using Google Talk other than if it's open through my Jabber account on jabber.org. Google's number one talent is making money from targeted advertising by analysis of data, and they have got very good at it. I don't intend to have all my mail and IM conversations subjected to marketing analysis.

If the existing IM players sunset their clients and close their networks, you can reach me through Jabber.