Cooperation and instant messaging have always been two different things. People on the yahoo instant messenger cannot IM people who use MSN or AIM (which is AOL instant messenger). So companies have tried to come up with an instant messenger, which would use the same protocol and unite standard instant messaging. One such company was Trillian. It did okay and had this dream working for a while. People of Trillian could talk to people on MSN and on AOL, but here is where the trouble starts. To have cooperation and stability between these providers they have to use the same protocol. This is hard for Trillian to keep up with (or any other company that tries this) because if MSN or AOL changes their protocol, then Trillian has to be updated too, or a patch has to be made to fix the problem at least. MSN tried to warn Trillian, but because there was no formal agreement for Trillian to connect to its network updates could not happen. AOL updated their instant messaging system so much that it was hard for Trillian to keep up with them. Also, by the end, you needed to have so many patches for cooperation and IM to work between them, it was just easier to use AOL. The biggest problem Trillian had was with Yahoo. The Yahoo Instant Messenger was updated for the sole reason to make sure Trillian members could not connect to the Yahoo network. Yahoo then said that they would continue to make sure no network would be able to connect to them. Trillian said they would keep looking for a way to connect anyway.

Not all cooperation and unity deals went so bad. Reuters signed an agreement in September 2003 that would allow ICQ, MSN, and AOL messengers to talk with Reuters messengers. Of course, other agreements soon followed like: Google Talk users would be able to talk to AIM users provided that they had an identity at AOL. So maybe cooperation and instant messaging is not just a dream. Maybe somewhere down the road, all instant messengers will be able to talk to each other. As much as I would love to see that happen, it more than likely never will and here is why. All companies are always looking for a way to better their selves from an agreement. If you could just sign up with one company and are able to talk with all other instant messengers, why would you ever sign up with the other companies? You would not, because there would be no need. These companies need you to sign up under them, This is how they make money in adversing. Everyone is out to make money and better their selves, this is the sad truth of the real world. Most companies would not be able to better their selves from cooperation and allowing all other people to access their network.

So, is this just a dream or could it happen? I hope that someday it could work, that it really is possible. Cooperation and friendliness between instant messaging providers would help us. Of course, if this does happen it will be a long time coming. It will take years for a company to come along and think they can make this happen. Then it will be years before they work out all the details with the other companies. Maybe on day we will see this happen, but not now. Until that day, you will have to download each instant messenger to be able to talk to everyone.