I saw in the patch :

Fixed a bug that prevented players from creating an alliance with more than two guilds. Now that this issue is resolved, alliances can grow to great numbers to crush their enemies!

Someone explain to me whats the point of alliances - are there shared bonuses etc? or do you get an alliance chat window or something that might be useful?

You just get an alliance channel afaik, nothing else.

Plus: When you're in one, you'll get the idea an alliance wasn't such a good idea after all.

Don't go looking for them, when the time comes for an alliance, you'll know..

Though it can be great to be in alliance with another guild with players as good as ours. Easier to form full parties that way.