RatcliffeBlog - Mitch Thinking Out Loud

Yahoo IM stupidity

Yesterday, I noticed that Yahoo! IM was refusing my connection through Fire, the multi-protocol IM client I run on OS X. It seems Yahoo has decided to stop providing access to non-Yahoo client software. CNET says this affects Cerulean Studios Trillian IM client for Windows, but I can confirm it is also true of other non-Yahoo clients.

This is an incredibly dumb move. Raising walls to connectivity at a time when they are falling and anyone hoping to add value needs to address the larger IM world rather than just a small disconnected corner. When disconnected, networks die a bit.

Note to Yahoo: You've lost a customer for your IM services. If I represent any future revenue in your projections, strike it from the books, because closing the door to my Yahoo IM connectivity makes your portal less useful to me, too. Let me be clear how stupid this is: AT&T used to require people use its hardware on its telephone network. Look what happened to AT&T, and it all started with the 1968 Carter phone decision that broke the end-to-end Bell equipment monopoly. Yahoo just took a 35 year step backwards.