by Playfuls Staff |
13th July 2006
What everyone was expecting for a long time in the instant messaging war has finally happened: Yahoo Messenger and Microsoft Live Messenger provide interoperability between them.[more]
The initial announcement concerning the interoperability was made last year by both Internet and software giants, Microsoft and Yahoo. Although it has not been a surprise (there are a lot of programs that allow you to see who is online for both Yahoo and Live IM, like Trillian) the interoperability is an important step in the IM fight, because each company fight for an important market share, which would ensure more publicity contracts (IM programs are in totally free, so they sustain themselves through ads promoted to users).
Yahoo and Microsoft stated that they have built a software bridge between their popular IM applications, thus allowing the creation of the world’s largest IM and social community. In their combined press release the two companies mentioned that this community reaches more than 350 million IM accounts, now merged together due to interoperability.
"This first-of-its-kind interoperability between consumer IM leaders Microsoft and Yahoo! gives our customers tremendous control, convenience and freedom in their Web communication experiences with Windows Live," said Blake Irving, corporate vice president, Windows Live Platform at Microsoft. "We're proud to deliver this latest advancement in IM services that empower people to communicate with virtually whomever they want, wherever they want and whenever they want."
"Interoperability between IM services has consistently topped our users' wish lists, and through the collaborative efforts between Yahoo! and Microsoft we are delighted to provide our combined global users with the ultimate IM experience," said Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president of Communications, Community and Front Doors, Yahoo! "A new era for staying connected with friends and family is here, and the bridge between Yahoo!'s and Microsoft's IM communities is bringing people around the world closer together."
An initial Beta testing session for the new feature of both Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger will be available in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK and the US.
Instant Messaging has evolved rapidly in the past two years, from simple, real-time text conversations on mIRC to free, limitless video calls from PC to PC, files or folders exchange and even calls made to usual landline or mobile phones. The leader in PC-to-phones calls is now Skype, which also features IM capabilities, but is mostly renowned for free, PC-to-PC calls using Voice over Internet Protocol technology (VoIP) or low-fee calls from PC to usual phones (or the reverse, phone to PC.)
The interoperability move made Microsoft and Yahoo might be a counter-offensive measure targeted at Skype’s growing popularity, although things are more complicated than that. Skype is now owned by the leader in Internet auctions eBay, which has signed not sooner than May this year an exclusive partnership with Yahoo.
According to a press release published by eBay and Yahoo at that time, Yahoo will provide all graphic ads on eBay, which is by far the most popular site for online auctions, with 200 million registered users. Yahoo will also provide some search-based ads.
EBay's online payment system Paypal will become the default payment method for purchases made on Yahoo which operates the world's most popular network of websites.
The two companies will also cooperate in developing a click-to-call advertising feature on eBay's internet telephone company Skype, which would seamlessly initiate a phone call between consumers and representatives of the advertising company.
Although it seems a bit odd to sign a contract that appears to be directed against your close partner’s product with a similar one (Yahoo IM’s case, concerning Skype), we have to understand that the interoperability was first of all announced a long time before the eBay-Yahoo agreement and that it was decided also by the users’ increasing demand for more freedom. Google has also tried to enter the IM industry with Google Talk (which is also able to provide VoIP calls), but its application hasn’t become very popular, due to its unattractive user interface and limited options. Recently, in an attempt to boost its usability, Google decided to integrate Google Talk in its Gmail service.
Consumers worldwide from Microsoft and Yahoo will be among the first to exchange instant messages across the free services as well as see their friends' online presence, view personal status messages, share/select emoticons, view offline messages and add new contacts from either service at no cost. Yahoo and Microsoft plan to make the interoperability between their respective IM services broadly available to consumers in the coming months.
Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger with Voice users in the U.S. and more than 15 international markets can register to participate in the IM interoperability beta by visiting Yahoo! at http://messenger.yahoo.com or Microsoft at http://ideas.live.com.
