News
Microsoft, Yahoo! Announce IM Interop Deal
Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! announced an initiative on Wednesday to make MSN Messenger
and Yahoo! Messenger compatible with each other.
The companies estimate that their respective instant messaging products will
be interoperable by the second quarter of 2006.
In addition to being able to exchange messages, users of both products will
have compatible friends lists, emoticons and other features
"This is truly a turning point for the IM industry," Terry Semel,
Yahoo! chief executive officer, said in a released statement. "We believe
our agreement with Microsoft will help usher in a new era of IP communications."
"IM interoperability is the right thing for our customers," said Microsoft CEO
Steve Ballmer.
The move is widely seen as an attempt to take on the current IM leader, America Online, which dominates the market with more than 50 percent of IM users worldwide, according to reports.
Microsoft said the agreement with Yahoo! will create "the largest consumer IM community in the world" with 275 million users.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is vice president of AI for 1105 Media, where she specializes in training internal and external customers on maximizing their business potential via a wide variety of generative AI technologies as well as developing cutting-edge AI content and events. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Uses," regularly leads research studies on generative AI business usage, and serves as the director of AI Boardroom, a new resource for C-level executives looking to excel in the AI era. Prior to her current position she was a technical leader for 1105 Media's Web, advertising and production teams as well as editorial director for a suite of enterprise technology publications, including serving as founding editor of PureAI.com. She has 20 years of enterprise technology journalism experience, and regularly speaks and writes about generative AI, AI, edge computing and other cutting-edge technologies. She can be reached at [email protected].