Niall Kennedy posts about LiveJournal's upcoming integration with the Jabber Open Instant Messenger Network, which Google Talk uses too:

Developers should be able to authenticate against the server and pull out a LiveJournal friends list, allowing anyone to pre-populate a feed aggregator with feeds from your online friends.

What's most interesting about LiveJournal's involvement is that it bridges the gap between the LiveJournal social network and chat. Om Malik talks about the potential implications for openness and transportability in social networks:

Longer term, I wonder if this could become a major trend. Small, highly customized IM networks, federating with each other, and breaking the stranglehold of the big three IM networks. Thoughts?

Agreed, OM. Jabber could be an excellent basis for a social network that can be programmed against.

Previously and Relevant: Myspace launches chat. AIM Pages. People Aggregator. Google Talk.