We’re probably 10-20 years away from the internet and especially instant messaging becoming a public utility. The product itself is immensely useful but so far hasn’t been monetized except by lock in to a bigger platform or by turning the user into a product.
We’ve had AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger and many others that can be seen in the list of protocols supported by pidgin.im. Now we have Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Skype, Hangouts and the thing from Apple.
Or at least there should be a standard everyone that wants to sell to public institutions should follow for instant messaging.
We’ve had AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger and many others that can be seen in the list of protocols supported by pidgin.im. Now we have Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Skype, Hangouts and the thing from Apple.
Or at least there should be a standard everyone that wants to sell to public institutions should follow for instant messaging.