Several sites are reporting that Microsoft and Yahoo are working on a deal that would allow both of their instant messenger (IM) clients to communicate to each other. The move would put pressure on AOL which has the largest IM network thanks to AIM and ICQ, and also on Google, Skype, and other smaller networks.

I found an interesting comment in BetaNews’ article:

Still, a source at Yahoo expressed concern about the new partnership to BetaNews, hypothesizing that interoperability will only serve to strengthen Microsoft’s position in the market.Recently, IM software clients have evolved to link consumers to other services beyond just chat - from blogs to search. And if users are able to message contacts on Yahoo through the MSN client bundled with Windows, it could hamper Yahoo’s efforts to reach more eyeballs.

Personally, I hope Yahoo thinks twice and ends up not following through on this deal. I’d be for a Yahoo-AOL or Yahoo-Google deal, just anything that doesn’t help to further strengthen Microsoft grip on the desktop.

Of course, the best option would be for Yahoo, AOL, and MSN to all switch over to jabber.