File this under 'It's about bloody time...'
Way back in October 2005, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced they were going to connect their IM networks together. It's been a while since then, with little communication, but you can now join the public beta program(s) that allow you to add people from either network to either client.
You need the latest version of the client - Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger v8 Beta and you'll also need to sign-up for the betas, depending on which client you want to use:
Yahoo! Client beta
Windows Live Client beta
Then, all you need to do is add your buddies to the client you prefer (mine is Yahoo! Messenger) and it'll go through the process of connecting you up. Once connected, you'll be able to see Presence, Status Messages, Nudge and Buzz, send emoticons and even Offline Messages - not too shabby for the initial release. As you can see from the picture, both clients indicate what network you Buddy is using.
Kudos to the Windows Live Messenger team for having a blog that posts more details about the integration (Yahoo! - where's your's??)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-13-2006 @ 11:01AM
jr said...
huh.
No official blog post about this, but then I believe we had to wait for MSN to finish off their stuff. I expect some post about it shortly.
On the other hand, my latest copy of Y!Messenger has a top banner on it this morning with a link telling me about it, so it's not like Yahoo!'s keeping it a secret.
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7-13-2006 @ 12:05PM
Jason said...
If only they'd switch their networks to use XMPP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP) like Jabber and Google Talk. This joining of forces seems like a huge waste of effort that totally misses the mark.
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7-13-2006 @ 12:19PM
William C Bonner said...
I upgraded the MS live client this morning. It seems to say that I should now be able to talk with yahoo messenger people by entering their info as 'Yahoo ID'@yahoo.com.
What about the people I have been communicating with who have a passport setup with a yahoo.com email address already?
My parents are set up running both yahoo messenger and MS messenger. They use the same yahoo email acount for both. I have only a MS Messenger account.
My dad is currently not showing up on-line. Is that because he's off-line, or is that because of name conflicts forcing him off-line?
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7-13-2006 @ 11:57PM
Priscilla Pinkowski said...
There's a chain e-mail going around saying the new IMs will come with a price. Are Yahoo and/or Microsoft going to charge for this service now? That would be nasty of them!
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7-14-2006 @ 10:39AM
Chris Price said...
William - I would expect it to work fine, since the address on the Live ID is different than the Y! ID itself.
Priscilla - I don't trust any chain emails that come my way. It's always possible that they may decide to charge, but that would be a shot in the foot.
IM has been the last bastion of 'closed walls' - in this age of Web 2.0 and mash-ups, people expect to be able to choose bits from anywhere.
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7-17-2006 @ 10:13AM
cee said...
is this or will this function be available for MACs?
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7-17-2006 @ 1:36PM
Joe Beaulaurier said...
CEE - Yes it is if you are using the newest Y! Msgr for the Mac (http://messenger.yahoo.com). I don't know if it is if you're using Live (MSN) Msgr for the Mac.
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8-11-2006 @ 9:09AM
encike92 said...
encike92
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