14 DAY TRIAL // Competition dictates quality and innovation, and the best example is the IT segment where this happens every day.
Trying to come close to the standard imposed by MSN and AOL which already offer voice call functions through their instant messaging services, Yahoo released Yahoo Messenger 7 Beta which also offers this possibility. Voice calls from one PC to the other is Skype's turf, which succeeded in one year to attract millions of users from all around the world.
Although it's no match for Skype, Yahoo tries to follow the trend imposed by AIM (America Online Instant Messenger) and MSN Messenger. Actually, the intention of these services is to promote as aggressively as possible internet telephony, alias Voice over IP.
Considering the wide spreading of chat programs, including PC-to-PC voice functions is a very efficient solution for promoting this new type of communication. Currently, in the United States only, AOL has 23.2 million subscribers, Yahoo has 18.7 million users and MSN is one the last position with 13.7 million users.
The new functions included in this beta version of Yahoo Messenger are: the association with Yahoo 360 blog, easier sharing of the contacts saved in the Address Book, automatic notification of the Yahoo updates. Moreover, every chat window will include a search field associated to Yahoo Search!