Yahoo has introduced a beta version of its instant-messaging (IM) software that promotes VoIP services and the Internet media company's new social network.
Yahoo, whose number two instant-messaging (IM) service has an estimated 65 million users, will offer a free update to Yahoo Messenger during its test phase. In addition to letting people send standard instant text messages, the new version is designed to make it easy to call friends free via computer, send an SMS, share photos or post content to a blog.
Despite the bevy of updates, Yahoo said it focused particularly on VoIP enhancements by placing a "click to call" button front and centre, by adding voicemail features and by optimizing voice connections to and from those with broadband and those with dial-up.
"Email was the killer application from the mid to late 1990s, then instant chat came second, now VoIP is opening up the third chapter," Frazier Miller, director of Yahoo Messenger, said in an interview.
The move comes shortly after America Online, which boasts the number one IM service, began testing software that integrates voice, data, mobile and video communication. Both media companies are eyeing opportunities to leverage their large, loyal audiences to promote more usage of their network's services and help people grow accustomed to using VoIP and online video.
Miller said that though Yahoo has offered free voice calling since 1999, the company has only recently re-evaluated itself as a communications provider, outside of just servicing email and IM accounts. Video and voice are also key parts to the equation, he said. And as all of those forms of communication converge on IP networks, Yahoo has the opportunity to be the go-to operator.
That's why in its new application, Yahoo is trying to remove the roadblocks consumers experience when moving from one form of communication to another. For example, Yahoo has created a contact card for subscribers to fill out and share with friends so that people can synchronise their address books.
Yahoo also meshed the new application with Yahoo 360°, a social network featuring free blogs and content-sharing. The new tool lets people post content into their personal blog from the IM window, without the need for a third-party plug-in.
