Windows Live Messenger 9 is designed as the successor of Windows Live Messenger 8.5. Microsoft finalized the development process of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 in early November, and made the instant messaging client available for download, offering a product tailored on Windows Vista. Not to the extent of Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista, but Windows Live Messenger 8.5 debuted into beta at the beginning of the year following the launch of version 8.1. At the same time, Microsoft did manage to wrap up a decent Vista-oriented instant messaging client with Windows Live Messenger 8.5. The same cannot be said about the still in pre-beta (after a whole year) Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista.

November also brought to the table the first signs of life on the Windows Live Messenger 9 front. The forthcoming version of Microsoft's instant messaging debuted into private beta a couple of months ago and, judging strictly by the early development milestone dropped in the laps of selected testers, it will be an IM client worth waiting for. And by all means, users are in for quite a wait, as Microsoft plans to server Windows Live Messenger 9 no earlier than late 2008 - or the beginning of 2009. You can read more about the features that Windows Live Messenger will deliver via this link.

Andrew Jenks, a Microsoft employee speaking at the Georgia Institute of Technology even before the private beta was underway, touched briefly the subject of Windows Live Messenger 9 interoperability with additional instant messaging clients on top of Yahoo Messenger. Jenks pointed to AIM, Gtalk and ICQ. Following the initial reports, more recent coverage of Windows Live Messenger 9 apparently revealed that the Redmond company had succeeded in making the Beta build of the IM client integrate with Google Talk.

Such a scenario does not reflect reality at this point. While it is clear that Microsoft is indeed working to expand the interoperability of Windows Live Messenger 9 beyond Yahoo Messenger, to other instant messaging clients, the current development milestones do not feature such capabilities just yet. Jenks did mention the fact that the Redmond company had managed to produce internal builds of Windows Live Messenger 9 that offer a basic level of interoperability with Google Talk, but at this point in time the functionality has not been implemented into the Beta builds made available for testing.