[bluedino]

It's just a protocol. Like HTTP, FTP...

It's not a client. It's not one companies servers. It's not anything like AOL IM, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, PowWow...

[pmlnr]

And that is exactly why it's still alive.

[lmm]

AIM/ICQ is still alive. Yahoo! Messenger is still alive. MSN Messenger has a migration path to Skype. Doesn't seem like that distinction makes a lot of difference.