Industries thrive when there is just one standard to adopt. E-mail has become much more pervasive because of the SMTP protocol; the video industry grew quickly because VHS won out over beta; IBM ...

After five years of raucous debate and stop-and-start development, the Internet’s premier standards-setting body is finalizing a set of protocols that will let companies exchange instant messages with ...

MIAMI — The Linux embedded operating system from MontaVista Software has gained new instant messaging functionality, which is becoming increasingly popular among users of consumer electronic devices ...