Things at LiveSide have been a little quiet lately, as we enjoy the holiday season, and frankly enjoy a little break as Windows Live news has slowed until the new year. News, and our snooping around it, will pick up soon, but for now we're enjoying the little break.
Of course we still keep one eye on the blogs, just to make sure we don't miss anything, and sure enough something caught our eye today: over at Inside Microsoft, this headline popped out of our newsreader: "Live Messenger Now Integrating with Everybody (Dec 27)". Say whaaa??? Following the link to Mashable, and "Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger 9 Get Friendly (Dec 23)", we really started to think we missed something, especially when the post included this line:
Apparently Microsoft has succeeded in getting Live Messenger 9 (currently in private testing) to communicate with Google Talk, and they are working on integration with AIM and ICQ also.
Now because we're involved in the beta, we can't tell you what is included in the Windows Live Messenger 9 beta, but we can tell you that GTalk integration with the current beta is news to us. Time to follow some more links, this time from Mashable to something called DoctorTomorrow Online, and "Google Talk in Windows Messenger 9! (Dec 22)", which, along with let's say taking some liberties with the facts, links to - oh looky there, LiveSide! Except of course its the October 31st article on some news from a Georgia Tech presentation, where we reported, in part:
Internal builds are already at WLM 9 and includes many of the API components. They have a team working on multi-person audio/video chat for WLM that may or may not be in 9, but should be in by 10. They are also trying to work out a way for WLM users to chat with AIM/GTalk/ICQ users like the way Yahoo! works now, and they have an internal version that works with GTalk already (but very basic).
Nothing in our report says anything about GTalk, etc. interoperability in Windows Live Messenger 9, sorry to say. Of course we wish it did, but when it does, you'll read about it here first ;) Note here that while getting a basic version of interop running, and making all the political and business decisions that would make it happen, are two entirely different things. Not saying that it won't happen, just that there's a big difference between a basic internal version working and an interop announcement between any of the major players with messenger clients.
We certainly don't mean to pick on any of our fellow bloggers in following this (non) news story, but just want to point out how these kinds of stories seem to take on a life of their own, and how important it is to follow the links to the source.
So for now we'll go back to resting up for what promises to be an interesting new year.