Nice to see AOL and Google collaborating on something sweet. I've been using the AIM feature on Gtalk and always wondered ... Why did Google just stop at AOL? MSN, Skype, etc (all of which who are huge).
Maybe just a thing of keeping it simple? But again, it rises the question WHY AOL ?
As a result of the AOL Time Warner merger in 2001, the FCC ordered AOL to open up its instant messagning protocol to stop blocking applications like Trillian and Adium at the time from creating an interoperable method.
In 2001, AOL represented something like 90% of the instant messaging market with its combined networks of both ICQ and AIM. Building AOL compatibility then meant a whole heck of a lot and it's taken more than a decade to get to some kind of interoperability.
I wish Skype had some sort of market share large enough to justify the FCC pushing Microsoft to do the same thing. Interoperable video calls are really important.
Who's to say it was Google who stopped? Skype actively prevents anyone else from making a client and I can easily see MS not wanting to play along with Google.
How do the mobile/web/desktop clients work that do support Skype?
I know for the desktop there is an API which needs to the official client running on the same computer.
Maybe just a thing of keeping it simple? But again, it rises the question WHY AOL ?