If you only read certain blogs or publications today — or press releases from both Microsoft and Yahoo — you would think that something truly revolutionary had been announced, with the news that Microsoft’s MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger or whatever we’re supposed to call it nowadays) will inter-operate with Yahoo’s instant messaging client as part of a limited beta. Thankfully, however, there are people with memories that last longer than a week or two, like Elinor Mills of CNet and Alec Saunders of Iotum and Stowe Boyd of, well… Stowe Boyd.

Is the fact that Yahoo and Microsoft’s IM clients will work together something to celebrate? Yes. The walled gardens of instant messaging have existed for too long, just like early phone systems that would only handle calls to users of the same network. But this deal was announced about nine months ago, as CNet points out, so it’s hard to get excited about it all over again. In addition, the two companies go out of their way not to mention the fact that their systems still won’t work with IM applications from anyone else — including, of course, AOL’s AIM and Google’s GTalk.

Those two companies are working on their own federation deal as part of their $1-billion partnership, and GTalk already works with open-source instant messaging apps such as the Jabber client. Why don’t Yahoo and Microsoft support open-source too? Because they likely see that as helping Google, or diluting whatever strengths they feel they have as a result of keeping users in a kind of IM roach motel.

Obviously, companies can do whatever they want with their applications, and co-operate with whomever they wish to co-operate with. Unlike my friend Stowe, I would hesitate to recommend that the government force them to open up their networks. But just because they choose to do that doesn’t mean as users that we have to congratulate them for it. I will continue to use GTalk or Trillian or Meebo or any other app that lets me inter-operate with everyone.

Update:

According to the latest numbers, Google Talk is at the very bottom of the list as far as IM clients go. Does that surprise anyone? Not me. It’s only been around for less than a year, for one thing, and it doesn’t inter-operate with MSN or Yahoo (because they don’t want to, not because Google doesn’t want to). I still like the way it integrates with Gmail, and I like the fact that it supports the Jabber standard, despite what my comment-writing fan says below. Open standards are better — period.

Not content with controlling a majority of the market for online search and search-related advertising, Google has been rolling out add-ons to its online hegemony over the past year or so, including GTalk, Google Analytics and so on. And the most recent – not including the hideous and lame Google Page Creator – was the addition of a hosted email and domain service, which The Scobleizer got all upset about for some reason.

But there’s more. Garett Rogers, the ZDNet columnist who first spotted evidence of the hosted email solution — hidden inside the Javascript code that underlies Google’s Gmail webmail service — has found something else in the entrails of Google’s programming. It appears to be the precursor of a voicemail offering Google plans to roll out, which would make sense considering that voice-over-Internet calling is part of its GTalk service. What would make more sense than bundling instant messaging, voice calling and voice messaging into one web-based application?

So let’s think about that for a minute. Email, contact manager, voicemail, instant messaging all integrated into one app. What is it missing? If it were Microsoft’s Outlook, it would be missing a calendar, so you could schedule things with all your business or social contacts. So where’s the calendar, Google? It has been much rumoured in the past, and rumours have sprung to life again more recently.

Will Google do it? It seems like a natural fit in many ways, and it could be one of the last links in the chain – apart from the word processor and spreadsheet part, of course – creating a Google hosted-Office suite of some kind. One thing is for sure: many people seem to want them to do it. And the customer is always right.

Update:

Google also appears to be getting close to finally launching a Finance hub. And Google Page Creator has been having some teething problems.

I don’t like to think of myself as being a stupid guy, and the billions of dollars that Larry Page and Sergey Brin have would indicate that they aren’t stupid either, but I have to admit that I share Paul Kedrosky’s puzzlement about the rumoured Google Pack that Larry is supposed to be announcing at CES — at least according to the Wall Street Journal.

What the heck is the point of bundling all that software and branding it as the Google Pack? Sure, Firefox is great — I use it all the time, even though it still has a memory leak problem that drives me nuts. Trillian is another favourite of mine, and I recommend Ad-Aware to everyone I know. The pack will also have Google Earth, Google Talk, Desktop etc.

But why Adobe’s PDF Reader? A nice tool, many people will likely never need it, unless Google has some other plans I don’t know about. And Real Player from Real Networks is a bloated piece of cling-ware that loads so much crap that I wouldn’t install it if Larry and Sergey paid me to. As for Norton Anti-Virus, it used to be a great tool but has become an intrusive irritant for many people I know.

I’m at a loss to explain what Google hopes to gain. The idea that this bundle is somehow a competitive blow against Microsoft is almost laughable (InsideGoogle is also bemused). If all you looked at was Google’s RSS Reader, Orkut, Froogle and even Google Talk (although it’s still early), you would be right to wonder — as Paul does in his poll — whether the search giant has “jumped the shark.”

It may be nothing but a footnote to the Google-AOL deal, but to me (and others like Stowe Boyd at Corante and Gary Price at SearchEngineWatch) the proposal to blend GTalk and AIM into a seamless instant messaging service is the icing on the cake — and if there’s one thing I love, it’s icing.

It may take some technical voodoo, but at least it takes us down to two main networks — since Microsoft and Yahoo have said they plan to make theirs interoperable. I’ve been using Trillianand Gaim (which Paul Kedrosky over at Infectious Greed also seems to like) because I know so many people on other networks, and I haven’t used GTalk because I know most of them won’t switch applications just to talk to me.

And why should they? It’s like asking people to get a new cellphone because your phone can’t call theirs. It’s absurd — and that means it has to change. Will Microsoft or Yahoo ever agree to make their networks compatible with GTalk? It seems pretty unlikely right now, since all the big companies seem to see IM as a kind of Trojan horse that can bring VOIP and a host of other services to users, and help achieve “lock-in.”

I think they are wrong. Lock-in is something that very few companies achieve (operating systems being one of the main exceptions) and it’s particularly unlikely to happen when — as with IM — the whole point of the software is to be more connected and communicate with others. Anyone who facilitates that, whether it’s Trillian or Gaim or Meebo and other Web-based IM clients, will benefit.

Update:

Julian Bond at Voidstar has some interesting thoughts on the IM front as it relates to VOIP, and the Googletalk blog has some more info if you’re interested in that angle and how it relates to Libjingle.