Severing ties 

According to a ZDNet report, Microsoft has announced that it will soon discontinue the integration of Facebook and Google Chat in its Outlook.com online email platform. Microsoft later went on the record and stated that the reason for severing ties with Google Chat was due to Google’s decision to terminate the chat protocol currently used by Google Talk.

Developers from Google have stated that Google Talk has been replaced with Google Hangouts, with the latter not being compatible with Extended Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). XMPP is an open-sourced platform that serves as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard for instant messaging services.

“We understand that this may disappoint some of our customers, but we hope that you’ll try Skype for Outlook.com chat, voice and video calling, so you can take advantage of the more robust ways to keep in touch with friends and family,” Microsoft said in an email sent to its Outlook.com customers.

The decision to drop these services from Outlook.com is the latest in a series of moves that caused widespread outcry amongst Microsoft users. Earlier this year, the company announced that it would stop supporting Windows Server 2003 on July 15, 2015. In April of 2014, Microsoft ended support for all incarnations of Windows XP.