IM Meets Enterprise Apps
Major business software vendors are looking to offer customers the benefits of real-time collaboration by integrating instant messaging and presence into their enterprise applications and portals.

Next-Gen IM
New platforms, audio and video, application integration, and other advanced services are coming soon, IM players say. But regulatory issues and market demand might dictate otherwise.

Wireless Ads Near Primetime
SMS advertising is already a big hit in Europe and Asia: now it's coming to the U.S. Meanwhile, new technology like MMS offers much in the way of promise -- while hurdles like spam and interoperability continue to persist.

Merging Wired and Wireless IM
The powers behind public IM seek to make inroads into the emerging mobile instant messaging sector, while they face competition from the wireless players' own systems and standards.

IM Players Gamble on Enterprise
Microsoft is challenging IBM with its flavor of IM in the enterprise, AOL and Yahoo! are shifting their business strategies, as all the players look for ways to make money.

Open-source IM
The battle pitting proprietary systems against opened protocols is spreading to instant messaging.

The Wait for IM Interoperability
For years, pundits and players in IM have been predicting interoperability among the major networks and IM servers. Instead, the public has gotten only years of disputes, blocked connections, and uncertainty. But with new initiatives underway at the networks and emerging IETF protocols, is interop finally around the corner? And what are the implications for businesses?

Marketing Meets IM
The proliferation of instant messaging clients and SMS is providing new opportunities for advertising.

IM Bots and Application Interfaces
Increasingly, marketers are turning to instant messaging "chat bots" to promote their products and services. While they're a hit with consumers, some vendors see a use for them in the enterprise -- giving users acess to applications and databases via a conversational front end. But is the field too new and demand too small for such projects?