We’re excited to tell you about all the great new features in this release:

DO MORE THAN JUST IM – PLAY SOCIAL GAMES WITH FRIENDS
Instant messaging is great but it takes more than just IM to stay in touch with the people who matter most to you. The new Yahoo! Messenger Beta offers more ways than ever before to connect (and have fun!) with friends and family. Not only can you instant message, text, and make voice and video calls, you can now play social games right within Yahoo! Messenger.

• Play socially – Play some of the most popular social games with your friends, starting with offerings from Zynga, Elex, and OMGPOP. Games include:
  • Fishville and Mafia Wars from Zynga – Coming soon
  • Balloono, Pool, Draw My Thing from OMGPOP
  • Happy Harvest & Happy Manor from Elex

• Get your friends involved – Share your game activities and play-status so that friends can join your game and you can join theirs.

MANAGE ALL YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKS FROM ONE PLACE
Having trouble keeping up with different groups of friends across various social networks? Yahoo! Messenger Beta brings together your social experiences from across the web and provides a single destination to see what your friends are doing or let them know what you are up to.

• Keep up with friends wherever they are – View, comment on and like updates from Yahoo! Pulse, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and more, all from one place, right within Yahoo! Messenger.
• Post one status to multiple social networks – Share your Messenger status simultaneously on Yahoo! Pulse, Facebook, and Twitter.
• Chat with Facebook friends – In addition to your friends on Windows Live, you can now IM your Facebook friends right within Yahoo! Messenger.

STAY CONNECTED ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
As you and your friends become increasingly mobile, it is essential to stay connected no matter where you are, across devices. That’s why Yahoo! Messenger keeps you connected whether on desktop, the Web, or mobile devices.

• Enjoy rich experiences across devices – Now on Android! – Make free video calls, and share photos and videos between PC, iPhone, and now Android.
• Converse virtually anywhere – Start your IM conversations on your PC and continue them from your iPhone, Android, or any Internet-enabled device.
• Always be available – Stay signed in to multiple PCs simultaneously so you never miss a message.
• Easy access to recent conversations – Retrieve recent IM conversations from any PC where you have signed in to Yahoo! Messenger.

Learn more and download the new Yahoo! Messenger Beta at http://messenger.yahoo.com/beta/win We hope you’ll enjoy the new Yahoo! Messenger Beta as much as we do!

As with any new release, we want to hear all about your experience — what’s working well for you and what’s not. Try it today and let us know what you think through the “Send Feedback” link on the Help menu.

Also note that video calling on Android requires OS 2.2+ and the Yahoo! Messenger Video Add-on. We support the MyTouch 4G & EVO phones, and will support additional devices in the coming weeks.

John Dunning

Product Manager, Yahoo! Messenger

This is a big day for Yahoo! Messenger. I’m happy to announce that we’ve opened up the Yahoo! Messenger platform for developers. This exciting SDK will allow developers to use the Yahoo! Messenger platform to create innovative new applications and services.

We tried to make our SDK as simple to use as possible. We’ve exposed a new REST API for the Yahoo! Messenger platform — the same API that we use with our own products. So we know that it’s rock solid. In fact, all you need is a little knowledge of HTTP and JSON and you’ll be up and running in no time, no matter what programming environment you’re using. The SDK contains all the key Yahoo! Messenger features that you’ve come to expect, including real-time presence, contact-list management, instant messaging, file transfers, and user-image management.

Please make sure you read the documentation that we’ve included. This document provides best practices, guidelines for using the service, Messenger logos (including our beloved Smiley), and test cases to make sure your application is working properly.

Finally, note that we’re rolling out the SDK in most of Asia, as well as India, initially. The reason we chose this region is the dynamic nature of instant messaging in this market. There are some crazy and wonderful things with Yahoo! Messenger coming out of this corner of the world.

For those of you in the rest of the world, don’t worry; we have plans to roll out this program on a larger scale very soon.

Here’s a list of handy links:

• Yahoo! Messenger IM SDK
• Yahoo! Messenger IM SDK Developer Terms of Use
• Yahoo! Messenger IM SDK User Guide

Dudley Wong

Product Manager, Yahoo! Messenger

An update on the Yahoo! Messenger API: This is taking a little longer than we like – We have some last mile details to take care of but we are committed to launching the new Yahoo Messenger API very soon.

Let me say that we are really excited about the response and enthusiasm that we’ve received around the opening of the platform behind our popular Yahoo! Messenger service. The team is working hard to make sure that these new APIs meet your expectations, that they are as simple as possible, and that they contain all the key features you need to develop great applications and services.

For this reason, we’ll be in contact really soon… Gotta get back to work!

Dudley Wong

Product Manager, Yahoo! Messenger

This is big news. If you haven’t used Yahoo! Messenger, you’re in for a treat. Yahoo! Messenger is the premier instant messaging (IM) platform, used on a wide variety of desktop and mobile clients. Millions of users throughout the world already depend on Yahoo! Messenger to manage their social contacts, group lists, and presence information; hold real-time instant communications; and perform data transfer to and from contacts throughout the world. All, well — instantly, as its name says.

We’re listening to those developers among you who have been telling us they want to build on that trusted platform. By exposing a new RESTful API for Yahoo! Messenger, we’re allowing you to develop your own innovative programs and tools that make the most of what the Yahoo! IM platform can offer.

Developing for the platform is simple. All you need is a little knowledge of HTTP and JSON, and you’ll be connecting with people across the world in no time, no matter what programming environment you’re using. And from there, just let your imagination run wild with the groundbreaking applications you can create.

We’re very excited about releasing this platform, and we can’t wait for you to get started. Check back into the Yahoo! Developer Network on June 30 for more information.

Dudley Wong
Product Manager

The iPad is the latest and probably the grandest entry to the world of Tablet computers – 9.7-inch display, half-inch thick, and weighing in at just a pound and a half. It runs the iPhone OS on it so all the same apps you use on your iPhone, like Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone, will be available for the iPad. Please try it out and let us know if you face any issues.

Talking about iPad Apps, Yahoo! introduced the Yahoo! Entertainment for iPad on Saturday. Some of you may have even downloaded this app over the weekend. This has wowed both consumers and press alike. TechCrunch has voted it as one of the best iPad apps.  Using editorialized, real-time content, this Yahoo! Entertainment App surfaces and recommends TV shows, entertainment news, TV listings, book reviews, and a wide variety of popular videos from across the Web. Read more on the Yahoo! Entertainment Blog.

Do you plan to buy an iPad in future? – if you have already bought one, then which is your favorite App? – as always, please feel free to leave your comments.

Thyaga Vasudevan
Product Manager

Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo in their early days at Stanford

Today is Yahoo!’s 15th birthday – hooray! It’s been a long ride and we’re grateful that our users, all 600 million of them, have come along for the ride.

We’ve had the unique opportunity to help create an industry and shape the online world, and will continue to focus on the values that brought us here —working hard, having fun, being passionate about your ideas, believing in each other, and always trying to invent the future. And as we celebrate 15 years today, we are even more excited than ever about what lies ahead, and the potential of Yahoo! and the Internet.

Of course, founders Jerry Yang and David Filo didn’t set out to start one of the world’s largest Internet companies or to lead a movement that has changed the world. They were just a couple of Stanford graduate students doing our research (supposedly) while their professor was on sabbatical.

More interesting than their research was their total fascination with the web and all the cool stuff it suddenly made available. But it was incredibly hard to keep track of the thousands of great websites sprouting up everywhere. Jerry and David thought it would be fun to catalog the sites by developing a simple directory. So all this began with nothing more than a hobby to help other early Internet users.

They soon learned a huge lesson just as relevant today as then: change and growth on the Internet happen at warp speed—especially if you’re filling a need. With the proliferation of websites and with hundreds of thousands of people accessing the Yahoo! guide, it was simply impossible for Jerry and David to continue doing this on our own.

Internet growth continues to be simply phenomenal, and we’re nowhere near done. Fifteen years ago, there were 18,000 web sites and fewer than 10 million people globally on the Internet—less than one third of a single percent of the world’s population at the time. Today there are more than 200 million websites with 90,000 created daily. There are estimated to be 1.6 billion people on the internet today—about 25 percent of the world’s population.

These numbers are astonishing, but even more important and more exciting is the impact that the Internet is having on so many people around the world. From socio-economic opportunities to more accessible health care to educating the next generation and beyond, the Internet has changed the way we live, work and learn. It has overcome geographic and political barriers and has made it possible for people to raise their voices as they seek greater economic opportunity and freedom. And Yahoo! has been a leader in enabling these tremendous technological advancements every step of the way.

All this in just 15 years. Yahoo! has been built by thousands of dedicated employees, hundreds of millions of loyal users and scores of advertisers who envisioned a future that was exciting, challenging and at times daunting. We are confident that 15 years from today, we will look back in marvel at how far you, and the Internet have traveled in such a short time. Just as we are doing today.

Read more on the Yahoo! Corporate Blog

Thanks to you, the users, for continuing to support us and use products like Yahoo! Messenger. We’ll be celebrating at all the Yahoo! offices today and know that if we could, we’d send each of you a slice of Yahoo! birthday cake.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

Earlier this week, a woman in northern Germany sat down at her computer to tune into the sunset over the North Sea. Tune in? Yes, she was watching via a tourist webcam that overlooks the sea in the town of St. Peter-Ording, Germany.

While she was watching, she noticed periodic flashes of light from the ice. Turns out they were from a man’s camera. He was using it as a sort of S.O.S. beacon after wandering out onto the ice to photograph the sunset. But he quickly became disoriented, unsure how to get back to shore.

From hundreds of kilometers a way, the woman contacted police, who located the man’s signals and guided him into shore by flashing their car lights.

At the time the man lost his bearings, the air temperature was below freezing. He could have frozen to death or fallen through the ice, added police spokeswoman Kristin Stielow.

Stielow said locals are well aware of the risk of disorientation as darkness falls and the beach becomes hard to identify, but vivid sunsets over frozen landscapes often draw people away from the shore.

You can view the St. Peter-Ording webcam here, though the attention from this news story seems to have crippled the site. So bookmark it and check it out in a couple of days. Or check out some of the St. Peter-Ording pics from Flickr below.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

That’s right, the catchy Yahoo! trademark, which is part song, part celebration shout, is ready for you to modify, mix and simply make your own. Be loud, be funny, be serious or be seriously silly, but most of all just be YOU! Just head over to the Yodel Studio, plug in your webcam, select a background track and…Yodel! If you need inspiration, there’s some samples to inspire you.

No webcam? Just use your video phone or camcorder to record your yodel, then upload it here. And if you want to really go all out, you can even download the backing tracks to edit and mix your Yodel at home. Then upload it through the site.

We’re also holding live events in New York, London and Mumbai with a little help from local (and famous!) musicians who will help coach eager Yodelers into giving their best performances.

Don’t think there’s much you can do with our Yodel? Check out the samples below by clicking the play button. Inspired? Record your own and share with your friends!

A Cappella
60’s
80’s
Big Band
Bluegrass
Bollywood
Country
Urban Hip Hop
Metal
Reggae
Techno

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

Last Friday, the San Jose Mercury News ran a story on Global IP Solutions (GIPS), the company that provides the video and audio technology that powers this new feature. Some of the article is reprinted below; read the full article here.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

————————-

Video Chat Gets an Upgrade
By Mike Swift | San Jose Mercury News

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s a sparkling morning in the South of Market neighborhood, the city’s tech ghetto. But at Global IP Solutions, the light outside Niklas Enbom’s office is shading toward an evening blue.

Enbom is on a video chat to Global IP Solutions’ San Francisco headquarters from Sweden, where it is nine hours later and dusk is fast approaching. The company, which typically uses its acronym GIPS, provides the underlying video and audio technology for the newly released version of Yahoo Messenger video chat, the service the Swedish executive is using to connect from Stockholm. GIPS also provides the audio technology for Google’s competing service within Google Talk.

Enbom, GIPS’s vice president for software development, is saying that a $70 webcam connected to virtually any PC or Mac built in the last few years with a broadband Internet connection will produce a high-quality video chat experience, even to countries that lack the robust telecom infrastructure of the United States.

“A standard PC can do this in real time, with good quality,” Enbom says over the video link.

Even from Sweden, his lips move in almost perfect synchronization with his words, and the audio quality is comparable to a landline telephone connection. The video is good enough to notice that it’s around sunset in Stockholm, where a large portion of GIPS’s engineers are based.

In short, the technology is good enough that you start to forget about the technology, and concentrate on the conversation.

For decades, ever since Dick Tracy made calls through the video screen on his wristwatch, video chat has been a personal technology everybody could imagine using, but that — for an array of technology, standardization and sociological reasons — few have actually used. A survey this spring by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only about 20 percent of adult U.S. Internet users have participated in a video chat… Read the full article

This means that if you are currently using a version of Yahoo! Messenger that is below 8.0, you will no longer be able to sign in and use it after September 30.

If you are using a version that is set to retire, you have several options for continuing to use Yahoo! Messenger. Please read this article for more information.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager