I've been getting updates from a number of companies in the messaging business lately. Palringo comes to mind as one I see a lot of chatter about today, but there are others. Palringo offers cross-platform messaging from PC's and phones. It's left me thinking about the whole issue of what at the simplest, basic level, simply chat.

We chat on the phone. We chat at the water cooler. We have dozens of ephemeral conversations every day. As we've acclimated to life online, how we converse has evolved.

We had IRC (Internet Relay Chat). We had more IM solutions that we can shake a stick at - ICQ, Yahoo, AIM, MSN Messenger, Powow, CuSeeMe, NetMeeting and a host of others. These were all walled gardens and the hint of interoperability and a single unified IM client has been a pipe dream as the powers behind each backstab one another and delay any real advance. Even Skype's IM capability remains simply another walled garden in reality.

GoogleTalk came along and began to support Jabber and allow for some interoperability. GTalk wasn't alone. There are other multi-system clients like Trillian and GAIM that offer this capability.

But there's far more. Chat has moved. For many of us, SMS in some variation is our chat tool of choice. Blackberry Messenger is a chat variation of what began as PIN messaging that's a foundation of chat for many people today.

I've been using some form of line chat for over 20 years. Really. Dating back to before Windows existed. When I look at how people chat today, I look at my contacts. My universe of people isn't huge, but it's also not tiny.

I took a look at the Palrinog web site and here's a snapshot of the cross platform support.

As I looked through all these I recognized a big point. I don't talk to anyone on AIM, Yahoo, MSN or ICQ. Not one. If people aren't on Gtalk, Blackberry Messenger or Skype, I talk to them on SMS, or by voice or email. Or through a social media service like Twitter or Facebook.

My primary messaging platform is my Blackberry. I use it almost exclusively. And these are all supported on it. Plus Gtalk allows easy crossover support to contacts who use anything that supports Jabber.

So while Palringo looks like an interesting consolidation point, it begs the larger question - why would anyone use walled garden platforms that require something like Palringo? Aren't people moving away from that sort of constraint as quickyl as possible? Everyone I know sure is. And if they are, is there a long-term future for companies like Palringo?

I don't know, but given that the only thing Palringo gives me is the ability to use Gtalk from a different client, there's not much point for me personally.

So answer in comments. How do you use IM tools? Does something like this give you vcalue as a unified client for multiple chat systems? And does it really, or do you maintain buddy lists on multiple systems that are all the same people. Why would you do that? I'd like to understand a worthwhile value proposition and whether there's something I'm really missing or there's just a window of opportunity while widespread users in the masses are just slow at adopting standardized, consolidated tools.

Technorati Tags: unified communications, instant messaging, IM, chat