Emoticons

Sorry to disappoint, but this isn't really a rant.  I just figured I could share some of the emoticons I created for live messenger.

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You're free to use these and share them with friends, though I ask that you credit me when your friends tell you how neat they are.

I guess I do have a rant, though it's pretty insignificant compared to the other global issues I like to rant about - Why do we need so many different chat clients?  AOL, Yahoo, Live, Google, ICQ, etc.  What's really the difference between them and what was really the advantage to creating your own?  I guess a lot of instant messenger clients have a tiny space for advertising, but does anyone really pay attention to those?

Sure, I can use a chat client that allows multiple accounts - I currently use Digsby - but most of those don't support some of the neat features like video chats or custom emoticons.

I used Pidgin for a while, but I prefer Digsby's interface, except for the emoticons - they're rather sappy in both though Digsby's are worse.  But I digress...

Why not just agree on a protocol?  I can understand clients supporting or not supporting various features, but why have different protocols?  If there were only one, it would be easy to write clients which would lead to more competition in clients and a better chat experience overall.  It's another case of corporate greed getting in the way of what's best for the consumer.