More compatability for iChat?

In it's latest version iChat supports the open protocol, Jabber. Although it is not very widespread yet, nor is video-conferencing open, things could change thanks to Google. They have lately worked with the Jabber foundation to bring support for audio and video to the protocol.
There are two modules, both called Jingle. One enables voice over IP, and the other enables video-conferencing. Google Talk will be adopting them soon. Since Jingle is under the BSD license, it will be easy for Apple to implement it to ensure compatibility with a potentially large number of instant messaging programs.