Unable to add GMAIL buddies in Pidgin 2.7.7

[P G Schmitt]

Hi & thanks for the replies.
It sounds like I misunderstood Pidgin's ability.

I have used pidgin thus: @hotmail to chat with an @yahoo, so figured 
from what I read I should be able to use it to chat to @gmail friends.

Is it intended to work this way?


On 30/11/2010 18:49, David Woolley wrote:
> Etan Reisner wrote:
>  How do I fix this?
>>
>> Are you trying to add an @gmail.com buddy to your Yahoo account's buddy
>> list? If so, do you know that that @gmail.com account is a valid Yahoo
>> account? (Does Yahoo even support such a thing?)
>>
>> You cannot add random email addresses to your Yahoo (or MSN, etc.)
>> accounts.
>
> I think what you mean is that you cannot chat to someone logged into
> Google's instant messaging when you are only logged into, say, MSN's.
> However I would expect MSN to allow you to register as an MSN user,
> using an @gmail email address. It certainly allowed me to register
> using my company domain name address. You would only receive chats from
> MSN and their peers, even though you used an @gmail address.
>
> Instant messaging is like X.400 email was, when email was led by 
> commerce and before the DoD led internet email protocol became the de 
> facto standard,  partly because it was not restricted to one operator. 
> Although it may not be entirely obvious, using a particular IM 
> service, at least with the official client, benefits its operator 
> financially.
>