Ack:- IBNLive
Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp. said on 12 July they have begun a limited public test to allow users of the companies’ respective instant messaging programs to trade messages with one another.
The agreement to work together, first announced last October, marks a long-awaited breakthrough among major instant messaging services, which include AOL’s pioneering AIM service, Microsoft and Yahoo, along with more recent upstarts including eBay Inc.’s Skype and Google’s Google Talk.
Specifically, users of an upgraded version of MSN Messenger, recently rebranded “Windows Live,” can trade messages with Yahoo Messenger, creating the world’s largest instant messaging community, with 350 million accounts.