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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday evening were launching a beta test of a system that will let users of their instant messaging services to talk to each other, according to company officials. Starting at 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, millions of Microsoft and Yahoo users were supposed to be able to instant message, or "IM," each other, adding friends from either service to their contacts list. Terrell Karlsten, a Yahoo spokeswoman , said the new interoperability service, enabling users of different IM services to contact each other, is the most requested IM feature. In coming months, more users will be able to use the interoperability, with the companies aiming to eventually make the service broadly available to consumers, Karlsten said. The interoperability allows users of Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger with Voice to connect. Potentially, the shared IM community could hit 350 million users, the companies said in a statement. Last year, Yahoo and Microsoft agreed to connect users of their instant-messaging services worldwide. The partnership followed Google Inc.'s launch of its own service. Yahoo's Karlsten said the interoperability is not a response to competition. She said the interoperability does not extend to Time Warner Inc. unit AOL's rival service. Among June's top three online instant messaging destinations for unique U.S. users, AOL Instant Messenger beat out both MSN/Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. AOL reached more than 47 million of those users, MSN reached more than 28 million and Yahoo reached almost 22.5 million. Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
