January 19, 2007 on 10:56 am | In Features | 31 Comments
Great news! The Yahoo! Messenger interoperability with IBM Lotus Sametime is officially live. Yahoo! Messenger users can now IM with IBM’s ten million Sametime users.
Sametime is the world’s best selling enterprise IM software and part of the IBM Lotus software suite. To add a friend who uses Sametime to your Yahoo! Messenger contact list, click the “+” button on your Messenger window. Then enter your friend’s email address and choose the “Lotus Sametime” network from the drop down menu.
One important note if you’re trying to add a Lotus Sametime user to your Yahoo! Messenger list…. It is entirely up to the Sametime deployment administrator if they want to enable Yahoo! interoperability for their employees. Some companies may choose to not enable this feature which means the Sametime friend you’re trying to add may be prohibiting it from their end. If the functionality does not work for a friend, you may want to ask that friend to contact their company’s IT group and ask them to enable Yahoo! / Sametime interop.
This latest interoperability is part of our overall effort to help Yahoo! users connect with more friends, family and co-workers around the world by partnering with the industry’s leading communication networks. The Yahoo! Messenger network currently interoperates with the Microsoft Windows Live Messenger, IBM Lotus Sametime and Microsoft Live Communication Server networks.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
January 17, 2007 on 4:32 pm | In News | 21 Comments
Old school instant messenger users remember when IM was just a back- and-forth exchange in plain text, and if you were feeling creative, an emoticon or an LOL. Today a world of fun and productivity is open to IM users as they connect by voice, animations, shared files, photos, and even video.
For IM innovation, 2006 was a watershed year. Nick Gonzalez of TechCrunch writes that the most exciting new features were interoperability, flexible identities, rich media chat, in-browser chat, location-based chat, and contextual chat.
Interoperability between instant messaging programs lets users communicate with friends who use different chat clients. A high point of our year was when interoperability between Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger became a reality last summer, creating the world’s largest instant messaging community. This means that you can have Windows Live Messenger friends on your Yahoo! contact list, and you can IM them right from Yahoo! Messenger.
Flexible identities are nothing new to savvy Yahoo! users. When you create a Yahoo! profile, you have the option to create an alias separate from your Yahoo! ID that you can use on various Yahoo! services, including Yahoo! Messenger. Multiple profiles are central to new services like the Flash-based client Wablet.
Last year, Yahoo! also introduced rich-media chat, which incorporates web cams, microphones, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Gonzalez writes, “While voice and video does not lend itself to simultaneous conversations many IM users carry on, rich media integration brings a subtleness and depth absent from text-based IM.”
Alongside Yahoo! and Wablet, Meebo, RadiusIM, InCircles, Skype, and PalTalk are also pushing the envelope, making it easier than ever to connect and share with friends.
As Yahoo! Senior Vice President Brad Garlinghouse wrote in September, “When I look at the competitive dynamics around IM, I get really jazzed…. At the end of the day, the biggest winner…is you, the consumer.”
As we continue our work on Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista, 2007 is already off to a great start.We’re looking forward to bringing many more enhancements to your IM experience. You can read about them all, right here, on the blog.
Carole McManus
Community Manager
January 11, 2007 on 4:27 pm | In News | 13 Comments
What’s the telltale sign of a day spent at the Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas? Aching feet! CES is the world’s largest electronics show. The exhibits, gadgets, and booths go on for miles. My first stop was the Yahoo! tent, where I saw our own Josh Jacobson in action, demonstrating the new Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista application.We got a lot of “Oooh’s! and Aaah!’s” during the demo, which is always gratifying, but more than that, users seemed excited that Yahoo! Messenger is embracing the new Windows Vista operating system.
Then I crossed the street into the large exhibition halls, searching for electronics that Yahoo! Messenger users might find useful. It didn’t take me long. The Sony booth had some sleek Bluetooth headphones with a built-in microphone. If you use the voice feature in Yahoo! Messenger, these provide a truly hands-free, wireless calling experience. Sony also displayed its handheld Mylo (My Life Online) device, which comes preloaded with Yahoo! Messenger.
I also saw a nice trend emerging among monitor manufacturers: built-in cameras and microphones. In the Samsung booth, we checked out a prototype monitor due to ship in May or June that features a built-in, swiveling camera and a two-microphone array. The microphones pick up sound more effectively in places with lots of ambient noise (like workplaces). This kind of monitor will make video and voice conversations in Yahoo! Messenger a breeze. No more extra accessories and wires — just sit in front of your monitor and start communicating.
Logitech presented some new accessories for the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, including the QuickCam® Ultra Vision™ Special Edition webcam. It has some handy features like an activity light so you know when you’re “live” and a quick preview button so you can check yourself for a bad hair day before broadcasting. The webcam also includes Logitech’s RightLight 2 technology, which enhances your video picture even in low light condition. This new camera also works on Windows XP.
From what I saw at the show, 2007 promises to be a great year for Yahoo! Messenger users, with new versions, cool accessories, and other goodies. We’ll keep you posted!
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
P.S. – For more on CES, check out the complete coverage on Yahoo! Tech.
January 8, 2007 on 9:27 am | In Vista version | 325 Comments
There’s a lot of buzz around Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where we and thousands of others are this week.
And today we announced we’re working on a brand new version of Yahoo! Messenger, built from the ground up specifically for Windows Vista.
This is our next generation of Yahoo! Messenger. It takes full advantage of the dynamic design, slick interfaces and other cool stuff that Windows Vista offers through its Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). And it has a whole new look, some great enhancements of beloved features (like super emoticons!) and other goodies that will make it a fast favorite for those of you who upgrade or purchase a new computer with Microsoft Windows Vista. Here’s a short list of what’s in this new version:
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Instant message, voice, webcam video, and more
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Keep conversations organized by dragging and dropping them into one tabbed window
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Brand new emoticons, program icons and alert sounds
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Automatic groups are created in your contact list based on your Yahoo! interests (i.e. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league)
And check out our info page which includes more feature descriptions, screenshots and a video preview. You’re ready to play with this new Yahoo! Messenger, right? Well, you’ll have to wait a little bit. Windows Vista will be available starting January 30, 2007 and we expect to have Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista available in beta a few months later. We’ll keep you posted through this blog. You can also submit your email on the info page to get notified.Right now, check out the screenshots and video to see what all the buzz is about.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
P.S. – We showed a prototype of Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista to a roomful of press and bloggers on Sunday. Check out some of the early reviews:
MSTechToday
CNET News.com
Eweek
Computerworld
Techcrunch
Fullmanator.com
on10.net (video interview)
January 5, 2007 on 10:02 am | In News | 105 Comments
A big hello from the Yahoo! Messenger team! We know that devoted Messenger users need a place to get the latest news and updates, and we definitely want a way to tell you about the cool things we’ve been working on.
We’re very excited to welcome you to the Yahoo! Messenger blog. We’ll use this blog to announce product improvements, new or upcoming features, and the latest and greatest news from the world of IM. Sometimes we’ll talk about how your favorite Messenger features are conceived and built. Other times we’ll share our favorite stories from the Yahoo! Messenger community.
We’ll be updating this blog regularly with the information that will make your Messenger experience easy, productive, and fun!
And our comments section is for you to respond to our blog entries, voice your opinions, share your tips, tell us your questions, or suggest topics you’d like us cover in the blog.
Your input will help our community get more out of Yahoo! Messenger and will help us build a better service.
Carole McManus, Community Manager
Sarah Bacon, Product Manager
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