All the RAve - the RAnts of RA

According to Red Herring AOL is leading the Instant Messaging (IM) market, and Yahoo and MSN are talking of joining forces. I find this more than a little disturbing.

Plain and simply MSN sucks, you can't IM someone on their service if they are not online because they won't get the message. As far as AOL goes, I downloaded AIM, their Instant Message program years ago and ended up with a virus on my computer. I've boycotted their product since that time.

Yahoo provides features people can use offline, in fact, its possible to send files to people even if they're behind firewalls using yahoo, something neither of the other companies offer.

However, these companies should be looking into programs like Trillian. Trillian provides the means to use Yahoo, AIM, MSN, ICQ and Rendezvous all at once. Trillian even offers features such as in IM spell checking and a extensive archive system that is as unique as it is versatile.

Perhaps one day these service oriented industries will get a clue and actually ask some relevant questions of their users to find out what they really want, instead of listening to the supposed experts, who really haven't got a clue.