Yahoo has plans to add an instant messaging service to their Yahoo Mail. It will be following the model of Google’s Gmail which added IM several months a go. Yahoo Mail has an estimated 250 million users and is currently more widely used then Gmail.
Brad Garlinghouse, vice president of communications at Yahoo, said the reason for the change was to improve the overall user experience. The instant messaging feature should definitely improve user experience.
Yahoo and Microsoft currently have plans to make their IM features interoperable. This will allow for users of MSN and Yahoo mail to keep track of who is online. This may also be legitimate competition for AOL Instant Messenger. AOL remains the leader.
Will there be a day when all IM services will be interoperable so one can chat with whomever they want from whatever service they choose? As the race to be the leader continues maybe there will be no clear winner. Hopefully we will all enjoy the advantage and freedom that interoperability could allow sometime in the future.
Tag:
Add to 
Mike is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
