Of course not. Actually, I would prefer to outsource it too, just like I did with e-mail. But I do know that if this e-mail provider messes things up, I can switch to another easily or indeed host it myself if needed. Too bad they don't provide jabber-services as well, I'd gladly pay for it.

Yes, people expect these things for ""free"" these days. But as mentioned before by other and by me there are plenty free jabber-services available. Google just used to be one of them.