14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like Yahoo! has proven to everyone that it really listens to its clients. The company has broadened the number of video-sharing websites that is now supported in its instant messaging client – Yahoo! Messenger. There are now 14 video-sharing providers supported with the latest version.
Messenger 9.0 was initially launched with Yahoo! Videos (Flickr Videos) and YouTube support. All of this changed when, last month, Sarah Bacon, product manager for Yahoo! Inc., announced in a blog post that the Romanian-based, video-sharing website Trilulilu would have support in the IM client. In the same announcement, Sarah Bacon launched an invitation to all clients to suggest what other video providers they would like to be added in the future.
After only two weeks, Yahoo! announced, on August 4th 2009, on the same blog, the addition of 11 new video providers to the list. These are: Qik, Hulu, Netlog, Facebook (only public videos), 5min, College Humor, Funnyordie, TheWB, TwitPic, Viddler and Vimeo.
This means that, from now on, every time a person will send a link to a page hosted on one of these websites, if that page contains a video on it, the messenger client will automatically embed it in the messenger window as inline content.
The invitation is still open to users that would like to see other video providers supported in the near future. As Sarah Bacon stated, “Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. If you’ve got another video or photo site you’d like to see supported, leave us a comment.”
From Yahoo!, this could only be a desperate attempt to hold market share, since Skype, Jabber, ICQ and other IM clients are eating away, slowly but steadily, Yahoo!'s market share. Recently, web-based clients like Meebo, GoogleTalk or IMVU have also been biting hard out of Yahoo!.
And, like the Browser Wars have shaped the Internet into what it is today, it seems like the IM war is about to start, and Yahoo! is bulking up for it with new features.