Microsoft, Yahoo announce interoperability agreement for consumer instant messaging

Sunnyvale (CA) - It’s been an entire day since we’ve seen a major partnership announcement of any kind from Microsoft : Yesterday, the company settled all its differences with RealNetworks ; today, Yahoo and Microsoft jointly announced they will make their consumer-level instant messaging services interoperable with one another, allowing users of MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger to contact one another freely through their own native consoles.

In a joint press release, the companies stated they will officially make their services interoperable sometime during the second quarter of 2006. Users of both services will be able to detect each other’s presence, send symbols such as "emoticons" to one another, and exchange entries in each others’ buddies list. Windows Messenger - the default messaging client installed with Windows XP Home Edition - will most likely also be able to take advantage of this interoperability, since it uses the same consumer network as MSN Messenger, although the latter is now Microsoft’s consumer IM platform of choice.

Microsoft’s business-class online messaging service is already available for license to both Yahoo and AOL. Today’s deal calls into question the status of reported negotiations between Microsoft and AOL’s parent, Time Warner, about possible sharing and cross-promotion of online services.