Not wanting to let Google get all of the limelight, Yahoo is boasting some of its music services as well. On the one hand it’s touting the music search features it's had for over a year now, which are similar to Google's new service, on the other it's launching a FoxyTunes plugin for Yahoo Messenger on Windows.

“Our Mac users have had this for awhile, but now our Windows users can also control their music player and share what they’re listening to with friends using Yahoo! Messenger,” Yahoo Messenger product manager Sarah Bacon wrote. “The new FoxyTunes from Yahoo! Music plug-in lets you easily control your desktop music player as well as share the track you’re listening to in your Yahoo! Messenger status.“

First things first, you have to install the FoxyTunes plugin for Yahoo Messenger to see what it's all about. You can download the plugin from the online gallery or just click “Add Plug-ins” inside the client. The plugin works with Yahoo Messenger 8.1, 9 and the 10 beta. Once you got it loaded all you need to do is select the player you are using and normally that's all there is to it.

If you're familiar with the FoxyTunes plugin for Firefox or Internet Explorer everything should be familiar. But even if it is the first time you are using it, you should have no problem getting the hang of it. The plugin features all usual playback controls, a volume control and a progress bar to move to a specific position in the song.

A nice touch is the possibility to share the song you are playing with your friends by displaying it in the status. A huge number of third-party utilities have offered this kind of functionality for years but this way everything just feels more tightly put together. Another interesting feature is the possibility to load and play a track from your computer from the plugin by clicking on the “Play File” icon. But this is just the tip of the iceberg; the really useful features are the integrated search and discovery, which allows you to find more info for the artist, lyrics and more by clicking on the FoxyTunes Planet button.


The latest Yahoo Messenger 10 Beta is available for download here.