Windows Live Messenger Joins Yahoo! Messenger : Limited Beta

Windows Live Messenger, the next generation of Microsoft’s instant messaging tool MSN Messenger, joins another popular IM service Yahoo! Messenger with Voice to provide users with enhanced IM interoperability.

From the new Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, you can see when your Windows Live Messenger contacts are online and send them instant messages. Similarly with Windows Live Messenger, you can talk to your Yahoo! contacts with no need for multiple accounts to talk to all your friends—you’ll be able to see when they’re online and communicate with them from one place.

Microsoft officially anounced the public beta test

“Consumers worldwide from Microsoft and Yahoo! will be able to take advantage of IM interoperability and join the limited public beta program. They will be among the first to exchange instant messages across the free services as well as see their friends’ online presence, view personal status messages, share select emoticons, view offline messages and add new contacts from either service at no cost. Yahoo! and Microsoft plan to make the interoperability between their respective IM services broadly available to consumers in the coming months.”

With many free multiple instant messaging services like Trillian (software), meebo, Kool IM (web), Adium (Mac OS X) letting you chat with all your friends on AIM, ICQ, Gtalk, MSN, Jabber and Yahoo Messenger with access to multiple IM clients from one interface, it is a welcome step that two instant messaging giants have joined to offer IM users a better experience.