This time was indeed marked by the high popularity and increasing interop between classic IM networks, and the rise new networks. Some choice dates: - 2005-09:

This time was indeed marked by the high popularity and increasing interop between classic IM networks, and the rise new networks. Some choice dates: - 2005-09: Meebo launches offering web access to AIM, WLM, Yahoo - 2006-02-07: Google Talk integration inside Gmail goes live - 2006-03: Nielsen/Netratings survey for active users: AIM 53M, WLM 27M, Yahoo 22M - 2006-07-12: seamless interop starts between Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger - 2006-09-26: Facebook opens up to everyone (not just colleges) - 2007-02-14: Gmail opens up to everyone (not just invite-only) - 2008-04-06: Facebook chat goes live - 2008-04-19: Facebook overtakes Myspace in Alexa ranking - 2008-07-11: iOS App Store launches, AIM for iOS released - 2008-08-26: Facebook hits 100 million active users - 2008-09-23: Android 1.0 launches More (and sources) in my earlier posts [1][2]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13465483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13465483 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11114518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11114518