Re:Why do they bother? (Score 2, Interesting)

You make a good point re: their advertising based revenue model and all that, but here on Linux, like everyone else , I prefer to use an all-in-one client (in my case , Gaim). So while my IM client of choice is restricted (not going to stir the pot , already well mixed in the posts above, and say "blocked"), I will use the free Yahoo Messenger client.

Which , while driving traffic to their sites via news and other links, does not send any ads directly via the IM client.