I skimmed it, didn't see IRC or ICQ and didn't read the rest. Just another filler article from Ars Tech...

ICQ get a mention in passing, but the story seems to begin with MSN Messenger.

Not surprised, as i think MS was quite aggressive in pushing it. After all, the early version came bundled with Windows XP, iirc. And you were greeted with a signup/login dialog on first boot.

This is not that different from how MS pushed IE back in the day, or grabbed the office network out from under Novell's nose back in the day.

And btw, i feel to some degree MSN Messenger ruined the net. Before then there was thriving local IRC channels for the smallest of places. But come MSNM people started exchanging contact info for it, and the net turned "clique-y".

MSN Chat...looked for that...didn't see it...

Had many memorable chats at "philosophy and absurdity" and "poetry shack"....

All gone....all gone...

I'm also surprised that IRC & instant messengers weren't mentioned... the dot com boom had a wonderful moment where the concept of "presence" was introduced by instant messengers. AOL instant messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ vs. Jabber etc. Fun times!

I had almost forgotten that I had written (and sold) a fairly popular chat system for BBS's back in the day. I google'd "Multi-User Teleconference" and to my surprise it popped up on some sites listing old BBS warez. Downloaded, read the docs and order form; so cool. I can see how it would be easy for someone not familiar with the BBS scene to ignore chat. I was there and almost forgotten.

And XMPP.