"Enterprise organizations want an extensible presence and messaging platform that can integrate with business process applications and easily adapt to their changing needs," said Doug Dennerline, Cisco senior vice president, Collaboration Software Group. "With the acquisition of Jabber, we will be able to extend the reach of our current instant messaging service and expand the capabilities of our collaboration platform. Our intention is to be the interoperability benchmark in the collaboration space."

What is Cisco’s real agenda with this purchase? Svetlana Gladkova at Profy says:

The idea here is pretty simple – Cisco is planning to use Jabber to “extend the reach” of their existing instant messaging service, therefore enhancing Cisco’s communication suite. Cisco is planning to use Jabber technology within Webex, the online collaboration suite for web conferencing, and Unified Workspace, Cisco’s solution for teamwork and collaboration for distributed teams. 

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, and the acquisition is still subject to various standard closing condition. It is not expected to actually be completed until next year.

A Jabber press release notes the product’s “standard enterprise and carrier-grade instant messaging (IM), multi-user chat, and highly programmable presence platform,” and then goes on to list the new additions. Those include:

– A new Java-script client that leverages HTTP Binding, Jabber Messenger for the Web 5.0. (Details of Jabber Messenger for the Web 5.0 will be made available on July 26).
– Out-of-the-box integration with Adobe’s Macromedia(R) Breeze(R) software. Breeze customers can initiate part or all of the collaboration suite’s rich functionality from within Jabber XCP chat sessions or contact lists.
– Certificate-based authentication using x.509 certificates.
– Support for Oracle 10G, DB2 8, and PostgreSQL 8 databases.
– Support for HTTP Binding, a more responsive and reliable method of communicating with zero-footprint (Web/browser-based) Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) clients than HTTP Polling.
– Dynamic registration of new EventBroker components. These software agents, which apply business logic to the ordinary flow of messages, no longer require administrator intervention to ensure each new component is configured properly.

The press release also relays a message from Dave Uhlir, Jabber’s vice president of marketing. “EventBroker components are persistent software agents that filter IM and other Extensible Markup Language (XML) traffic for rogue content and scan message streams to insert additional context,” Uhlir said. “For example, in call centers, EventBroker agents filter customer queries to notify support reps of known solutions to live issues, or alert supervisors to escalating problems.”

Uhlir had more to say on the subject of HTTP Binding. “The ability to support scalable and feature-rich zero-footprint clients and presence-enabled Web portals is of considerable interest amongst our government customers as well as among many service providers who have indicated that what we have achieved is a significant and not easily replicated industry breakthrough.”

Jabber has made a “demonstration of the integrated Jabber XCP and Breeze product” available here.

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Google has added winking smilies (like ) and sunglass-wearing smilies. Of course, they still only change color, and don’t become images like in other IM clients, but its worth knowing if you’re a big smily man.

Complete list of smilies:

• ;-| ;-O ;-x ;-P ;-D ;-( ,;-) ;’( ;| ;O ;x ;P ;D ,;) ;( ,;)
• :-O ,:-x ,:-P ,:-D ,:-( ,:-) :’( ,:| :O ,:x ,:P ,:D ,:) ,:( ,:)
• B) B( Bx BO B| BD BP

Note: Some of the smilies have commas in front of them, so WordPres doesn’t convert them into images. Please ignore any commas.

They also discovered that Google Talk is using Jabber vCard-Based Avatars enhancement to send and receive the avatars, which means any Jabber-based client can use them. Full Unicode support also works, in the entire interface, including away messages.

So, when are the Gtalk theme hacks going to arrive?

Also, I really like Customize Talk, and its a great source of Google Talk news, but I would suggest they add permalinks to the front page.

UPDATE: Oh, silly me, I already had a link for hacking Gtalk themes. Kyle Hayes showed you where to find the simple CSS file, and, if you know anything about CSS, this should be relatively easy.

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Rumors About MySpace Messaging Are Spreading

MySpace provided few details about their “coming soon” IM service. But users can login to the service now from a page on MySpace Messenger.

Although a Messenger account can be activated, a login to the client itself cannot be launched yet.

The two screenshots provided by MySpace show a client application that looks a bit like AOL’s new AIM Triton software. MySpace does not say whether its service will be closed or interoperable with other IM systems like AIM or the open source Jabber software, but the latter seems more likely.

Being a MySpace application, Messenger has generated some chatter through the blogosphere. Mashable’s Pete Cashmore noted why such an application would be appropriate for News Corp to enable for MySpace:

Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal opined that, “I think its quite safe to expect VOIP and mobile communications integration into the Myspace Messenger system, which is what will become the major FOX Interactive backbone for decades to come.”

To Business 2.0 senior writer Om Malik, MySpace Messenger has the potential to disrupt the cozy leads Yahoo and AIM have held with their IM services:

News Corp has been eagerly courting advertisers to MySpace, and now has additional real estate to offer as part of its advertising inventory. Malik’s observation probably has been part of Rupert Murdoch’s plans for the IM service since News Corp bought MySpace parent company Intermix in 2005.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.