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The end of IM as we know it

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Peter Deng
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Instant Messaging is evolving. Microsoft announced that it will integrate its IM service, used by 300 million people, more closely with its Windows Live e-mail and social networking sites. That means users will no longer have to go to a separate window downloaded to a desktop. Instead, users will be able to strike up a conversation with someone right from an application they are already using such as Hotmail.

Like e-mail, games and other categories that have gradually migrated away from downloaded and off-the-shelf software, instant messaging is shifting toward the Web. And that means it can be accessed from any computer while taking up no space on a hard drive.
It's all part of a growing trend. Facebook, the world's fastest-growing social network, recently installed a toolbar that lets friends chat one-on-one while they browse the site.

"We had messaging, we had wall-to-wall [posting], and we thought having that private conversation was necessary," Facebook's product manager Peter Deng says. "It enables a channel of constant communication between you and your friends."

For more on the next generation of IM:
- check out this BusinessWeek.com article

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