Wenn das mal keine Nachricht ist. Microsoft reisst die eigenen Mauern ein und erlaubt es, via des offenen XMPP-Protokolls eine Verbindung ins Messenger-Netzwerk aufzubauen – inklusive der Möglichkeit, mit den 300 Millionen Teilnehmer zu kommunizieren:

Gefunden im Blog von Caschy

Choose the services you want, without re-spamming your friends with invites—More than 300 million people actively use Messenger every month. The vast majority of them also actively use other services like Facebook and Yahoo, where they have contact lists that they build and deepen every day. Because of this, we’ve steadily connected Messenger to other services, so that your Windows PC, Windows Phone, and Hotmail make it easy to sign in to your existing services and chat with who you want, without having to re-spam all your friends and force them to join yet another network.
Choose the devices you want, without having to switch services—Similarly, Messenger has been available for many years on a wide range of devices, using apps built both by Microsoft and through our broad partner program. In addition to the classic Messenger desktop programs for the PC and Mac, Messenger clients are available for most mobile phones and mobile operators around the world, including Windows Phone 7, iPhone, Android, Blackberry OS, Nokia Symbian, Samsung Bada, and many more.

http://stadt-bremerhaven.de/microsoft-reisst-die-mauer-ein-xmpp-als-moeglichkeit/

Originalmeldung im Windows Steam Blog http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/12/14/anyone-can-build-a-windows-live-messenger-client-with-open-standards-access-via-xmpp.aspx