Yahoo! Messenger

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Yahoo! Messenger 7.5 Contact List under Windows
Developer:	Yahoo!
Latest release:	8.1.0.249 (Windows)/3.0b1 (Mac) / March 28, 2007
OS:	Windows 98/Me, 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, Mac OS 8, Unix
Use:	VoIP/Instant messaging client
License:	Proprietary freeware
Website:	messenger.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Messenger is a popular advertisement-supported instant messaging client and protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger is provided free of charge and can be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo! ID" which also allows access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail, where users can be automatically notified when they receive new email. Yahoo! offers PC to PC telephone, file transfers, webcam hosting, text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.

In addition to instant messaging features similar to those offered by ICQ, it also offers (on Microsoft Windows) many unique features such as: IMVironments (customizing the look of Instant Message windows), address-book integration and Custom Status Messages. It was also the first major IM client to feature BUZZing and music-status. Another recently added feature is customized avatars.

However, some of these features are not available on other platforms, such as Mac OS X.

Yahoo! Messenger 2.5.3 for Mac, released in 2003, is the current stable version for Mac, and offers drastically fewer features than the Windows release. It has been reported to be quite buggy when run on the latest version of Mac OS X, and it is very primitive when compared to other messaging applications for Macintosh. However, in June of 2006, Messenger for Mac 3.0b1 was released as a beta, with a final version due later. This beta has a modernized interface when compared to the 2003 application which includes Avatars and display image viewing, BUZZ facility, and other similar features with the Yahoo! Messenger in Windows. However, it is still lacking advanced features like PC-to-PC call and address book capabilities.

Yahoo! has announced a partnership with Microsoft to join their instant messaging networks. This would make Yahoo! Messenger compatible with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service. It also made Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger compatible with Yahoo!'s Network. This change has taken effect as of July 13, 2006, - Yahoo! Messenger has integrated instant messaging with Windows Live Messenger users, and is fully functional.

British Telecommunications' BT Communicator software is based on Yahoo! Messenger. BT Communicator was withdrawn on 31st December 2006. ^[1]

Yahoo! Messenger was originally launched under the name Yahoo! Pager on March 9, 1998.

Contents 1 Features 1.1 Yahoo! Voice 1.2 Voicemail and file sharing 1.3 Plug-ins 1.4 Yahoo! Mail integration 1.5 Offline Messaging 1.6 Interoperability with Windows Live Messenger 1.7 Games 1.8 Chat Rooms 1.9 ypager.exe 2 Upcoming releases 3 Latest Releases 4 Feature & Release History 4.1 Windows 4.2 Mac 5 References 6 See also 6.1 Other clients 7 External links

[edit] Features

[edit] Yahoo! Voice

Main article: Yahoo! Voice

Yahoo! Voice is a Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service ^[2], ^[3] provided by Yahoo! via its Yahoo! Messenger instant messaging application.

[edit] Voicemail and file sharing

Yahoo! added voicemail and file sending capabilities to their client. File-sharing of sizes up to 1GB was added.

[edit] Plug-ins

As of 8.0, Yahoo! Messenger has added the ability for users to create plug-ins (via the use of the freely available Yahoo! Messenger Plug-in SDK), which are then hosted and showcased on the Yahoo! Plug-in gallery.

[edit] Yahoo! Mail integration

On November 9, 2006, Yahoo! plans to integrate Yahoo! Mail Beta and Yahoo! Messenger [1]. Conversations will eventually be archived and stored in the same manner as emails .This allows users to search within their chat logs easily, and to have them centrally stored no matter what computer is used to have conversations.

[edit] Offline Messaging

Offline messaging, a feature long offered by Yahoo, allows users to send messages to their contacts, even if they are not signed in. They will receive the messages when they next go online.

[edit] Interoperability with Windows Live Messenger

On October 13, 2005, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced plans to introduce interoperability between their two messengers, creating the second largest instant messenger userbase worldwide: 40 percent of all users (AIM currently holds 56 percent). The announcement comes after years of 3rd party interoperability success (most notably, Trillian, Gaim) and criticisms that the major instant messengers were locking their networks. Microsoft has also had talks with AOL in an attempt to introduce further interoperability, but so far, AOL seems unwilling to participate.

Interoperability between Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger was launched July 12, 2006. This allows, for Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger users to chat to each other without the need to create an account on the other service, provided both contacts use the latest versions of the clients. For now, it's impossible to talk using the voice service among both messengers.

[edit] Games

There are various games and applications available that can be accessed via the conversation window by clicking the games icon and challenging your current contact.

[edit] Chat Rooms

Unlike most instant messenger protocols, Yahoo Messenger offers various chat rooms for certain interests, including but not limited to Current Events, Breaking News, Race Relations, etc. Most chat categories have more than one dedicated chat room (ex: Beer Lovers 1, Beer Lovers 2, Beer Lovers 3), as Yahoo chooses to limit any given chatroom to a number that hovers around fifty users at any one time.

[edit] ypager.exe

ypager.exe is the main process belonging to the Yahoo! Instant Messenger application, an Internet messaging program. The name of the Yahoo! instance messaging client has been changed to yahoomessenger.exe since the version 7.5.0 beta.

This process is not a critical system process and can be terminated safely if found to consuming CPU or memory. [2]

[edit] Upcoming releases

Yahoo! will soon unveil a completely rehauled ^[4] version for Windows Vista to a generally enthusiastic response ^[5]. It has been designed to exploit the new design elements of Vista's Windows Presentation Foundation.

Macintosh client 3.0 Beta 2 will have more features, including Voice ^[6].

[edit] Latest Releases

• Windows - 8.1.0.244 / March 14, 2007
• Mac OS X - 3.0b1 / June 28, 2006
  • Several third-party clients exist that can connect to the Yahoo! Messenger network, such as, Fire, Adium, and Proteus - None of these will access the chat rooms, they are for instant messaging only.
• Unix - 1.0.4 / September 2003
  • The Unix version looks different from the Windows version.
  • Version 1.0.6.1 is available for Gentoo Linux (masked as ~x86).
  • Anybody can download version 1.0.6 from the Unix Beta page: http://public.yahoo.com/~mmk/
  • Feature-rich open source Linux clients are available for Yahoo! Messenger such as Gaim and gyach.
• BlackBerry - Research In Motion and Yahoo! offer a free Yahoo! Messenger client for modern BlackBerry devices. Note that this is not supported on the Cingular network.

[edit] Feature & Release History

[edit] Windows

There are many versions between those listed here and prior to last version listed here. These are "major releases". See one of several sites listed in external links to find other, older versions of the product.

• 1.0 March 9, 1998
• 3.0 August 17, 2000
• 7.0.0.426 — August 8, 2005
  • Renamed to "Yahoo! Messenger with Voice"
  • Drag-and-drop photo sharing
  • Drag-and-drop file sharing
  • PC-to-PC calling
  • Voicemail
  • Ringtones
  • Yahoo! 360° integration
  • Pop-up Contact Cards
  • Spam Reporting
  • New tabs
  • New emoticons
  • Archive updates
  • LiveWords (Beta)
• 7.0.0.437 — August 30, 2005
• 8.0.0.505 — June 20, 2006
  • Plugins possible
• 8.0.0.508 — July 13, 2006
  • Interoperability between Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger contacts
• 8.0.0.701 — August 10, 2006
  • The release date signifies the release of a beta version. This is not clearly documented on the Yahoo site.
• 8.0.0.716 — September 29, 2006
  • No Information Available
• 8.1.0.195 — October 25, 2006
  • Renamed to "Yahoo! Messenger"
  • Ability to check for updates from the help menu
• 8.1.0.209 — December 4, 2006
  • Patched an ActiveX Control Buffer Overflow
• 8.1.0.239 — January 19, 2007
  • Improvements in voice quality and sign-in, fixes for minor bugs with the Microsoft Windows Vista
• 8.1.0.244 - March 14, 2007
• 8.1.0.249 - March 28, 2007

[edit] Mac

• 2.5.3 - September 24, 2003
  • Chat
  • Webcam
  • Conference chat
• 3.0 beta 1 - June 28, 2006
  • New UI
  • Display Images
  • Avatars Support
  • Stealth Settings
  • Interoperability between Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger contacts
• Prior Releases - Undocumented

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Comparison of instant messaging clients
• Comparison of instant messaging protocols
• Comparison of IRC clients
• Yahoo! Messenger Protocol
• YMSG

[edit] Other clients

• Adium (Mac OS X)
• Meetro (Mac OS X & Windows)
• Gaim (cross-platform)
• Miranda IM
• Naim (Command Line)
• Trillian (Windows)

[edit] External links

• Yahoo! Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger Blog
• Yahoo! Messenger Plug-ins
• Yahoo! Messenger SDK/Developer Network
• WackyB Instant Messenger ramblings (Yahoo Pages)
• Current Yahoo! Messenger Versions