November 15, 2007 on 10:00 am | In Web version | 32 Comments
[This was posted briefly a few weeks ago but I decided to pull it and repost now that the My Yahoo! Beta is available to everyone. - SB]
A new Yahoo! Messenger module is available for users of My Yahoo! Beta. If you’re not familiar with My Yahoo!, it’s a Yahoo! service that lets you customize a page with modules of your favorite content from Yahoo! and around the web, including weather, news, movies, music, and more.
The new Yahoo! Messenger module embeds a lightweight Messenger window right into your My Yahoo! Beta page. See which friends are online and send and receive IMs, all without leaving the page. Note that to use this module, you need to be using the latest Beta version of My Yahoo! (http://beta.my.yahoo.com).
The My Yahoo! Beta is available to brand new users of My Yahoo!; existing My Yahoo! users can move over to the new Beta by visiting http://cm.my.yahoo.com/upgrade.
To add the Yahoo! Messenger module to your My Yahoo! Beta page, click the “Personalize this Page” button at the top. Click the “Add Modules” link under Content, and then do a search for Messenger. From the search results, click the “+ Add” button next to Y! Messenger. Then be sure to click the “Sign in” link in the Messenger module to make yourself available (or invisible). You can place the Messenger module in the larger middle section of your page or drag the title bar to place it in the more narrow, right hand column on the page.
The My Yahoo! Beta module is a lite version of Yahoo! Messenger, so it won’t have all the bells and whistles of the full, downloadable version. Things like status messages and emoticons are a little more limited. Access to your contacts and conversations are organized by a simple tab structure on the left hand side. When a new message comes in, the tab flashes and text scrolls in the My Yahoo! taskbar button at the bottom of your screen (handy for when you’re using another window when an IM arrives).
Ready to try it? Click here to add the Messenger module to your My Yahoo! Beta page.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
P.S. – For more info on the My Yahoo! Beta, be sure to check out their blog.
September 24, 2007 on 2:59 pm | In Web version | 22 Comments
This afternoon we released an update to Yahoo! Messenger for the Web. This new release includes:
– Save your thumbs! Now you can send text messages (SMS) to your friends’ mobile phones for free, right from Yahoo! Messenger for the Web. When your friend replies, it comes back to you in Messenger. You’ll notice the contact list is now divided into two areas: regular IM contacts and Mobile Contacts.
SMS is only available when messaging to mobile phones in the U.S., India and Canada. Note that it’s free for you to SMS from Messenger but your friends will incur any applicable data charges from their carrier to receive your messages.
– Brand new, local language versions for Thailand and Indonesia.
– 9 new languages for the Indian version (Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada). After signing in at http://in.webmessenger.yahoo.com, start an IM with a friend and choose the Indian language you want to chat in from a drop-down menu.
If you haven’t already, give Yahoo! Messenger for the Web a try. There’s no download required, making it really handy when you’re at work, on the road or away from your own computer.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
September 4, 2007 on 12:48 pm | In Features, Web version | 15 Comments
Last week, the new Yahoo! Mail officially dropped its Beta moniker. Accompanying the general audience release was a new feature: the ability to send text messages (SMS) to friend’s cell phones, right from your Yahoo! Mail account.
SMS is the latest improvement to the integrated Yahoo! Messenger that’s available in the new Yahoo! Mail. We first told you about it in a February post when it was added to the Mail Beta. But now anyone who has a Yahoo! Mail account can get this new version that includes instant messaging and SMS.
If you’re on the old version of Mail and want to try the new version with these enhanced messaging features, just go to the “Options / Mail Options” menu in your account and look for the link “The new Yahoo! Mail has arrived! Try it now!” Note that the rollout of the new Yahoo! Mail to all users will take a few weeks, so if you don’t have access to it yet, keep checking.
To use the instant messaging and SMS features in Yahoo! Mail, you’ll need to be signed into Messenger within Yahoo! Mail (doing this will sign you out of the full version of Yahoo! Messenger if you’re already using it). To get started, be sure that your status next to your name in Mail says “Available”. If it says “Offline”, just click the status menu arrow to change it.
Once you’re signed in, click a contact you want to message from your “Contacts” list on the left side, then click the email, chat or SMS icon in the upper right corner of the message window:
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For a list of countries and carriers that you can SMS from Yahoo! Mail, go to:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/context/context-13.html
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
July 30, 2007 on 9:11 pm | In Web version | 15 Comments
Back in May, we launched a brand new version of Yahoo! Messenger for the Web. Whether you’re on dial-up, just don’t like downloading, or you’re on the road away from your regular PC or Mac, it makes it fast and easy to IM with your friends from any web browser.
We initially launched the product in a handful of countries, and with this latest release, Yahoo! Messenger for the Web is now available in 18 countries and 9 languages:
Americas
Argentina – Brazil – Canada – Canada (in French) – Yahoo! Telemundo (in Spanish) – Mexico – United States
Asia Pacific
Australia & New Zealand – Hong Kong – India (English) – Korea – Malaysia – Philippines – Singapore – Vietnam
Europe
France – Germany – Italy – Spain – UK & Ireland
Tell a friend! 
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
July 13, 2007 on 9:58 am | In Features, Web version | 28 Comments
Checked out Yahoo.com lately? We launched some improvements for the Yahoo! Messenger personal assistant (or PA as we call it here in Sunnyvale). The PA is a module on the Yahoo! homepage that gives you a glimpse into your Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger friends, local weather and more. To get the most from the PA, you need to be signed in to the Yahoo! network.
The Yahoo! Messenger PA shows your list of friends that are currently online, along with their status (including sorting by group). You can then just click on a friend to start an instant message. Shock and surprise – I have Yahoo.com as my homepage so when I fire up my browser in the morning, I hover on the PA to preview my new Mail messages and to check which of my Yahoo! Messenger friends are online.
And don’t worry – viewing your list of friends in the PA does not mean you appear online to them. You still need to sign into Yahoo! Messenger to be online and to send or receive messages. Checking your PA can be a handy way of seeing who’s at the party before you join in, so to speak.
Other new PA features include the ability to collapse your groups (click the “Collapse All” link), viewing of friends’ status messages (sorry, no hyperlinks), and a scrollable interface to easily view your whole friends list instead of clicking through page by page. There’s a bug with this version – an idle icon will appear next to a friend, but the busy icon is not yet showing up. We’ll get that fixed in the next couple of weeks.
To check out the Yahoo! Messenger PA, go to http://www.yahoo.com and hover your mouse on the “Messenger” tab on the right side. Be sure you’re signed in so you can see your friends list.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
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