<p>Instant messaging is the center of the internet. Everything else is a temporary distraction.</p><p>The case for this is strong: Every company that has ruled the internet in the last 20 years even for a short period has had a dominant instant messaging service. Aol Instant Messenger kept people's attention focused on the company that provided their internet. People came to Yahoo as a portal to the web; they stuck around for Messenger. Windows, at its peak, supported the largest messaging service in the world. Google's search dominance begat Gmail, which claimed a large swath of the messaging public with Google Talk. Facebook promised updates and pictures from our friends; eventually, our friends were there all the time, chatting, and we couldn't leave.</p><p>Great instant messaging services die slowly all of the ones I mentioned above still exist in some form. But they rise quickly, and with great effect. And entering 2014, we're long overdue for the next one.</p><p>Which might explain why now, in a rare alignment, nearly every dominant internet service is either planning to create a new instant messaging service or significantly revamping what they already have. Facebook and Google are incumbents scrambling to hold on. Instagram is rumored to be working on an instant messaging service (rumors that I hear are true). There are also credible whispers that Twitter, which in a recent redesign experiment resurfaced its long-hidden Direct Message feature, is working on an enhanced private messaging service. A large-scale battle to own the best and biggest back channel the likes of which we haven't seen since Yahoo, Aol, and Microsoft squared off is under way. This time, it's happening on our phones.</p><p><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/who-will-own-the-next-great-instant-messaging-service">Keep reading...</a></p>