Yahoo! targeting Skype with Yahoo! Messenger 7 Beta

Yahoo! targeting Skype with Yahoo! Messenger 7 Beta

Skype is the current favorite on the Internet for ‘chatting’ on the net. It allows the users to talk to each other using a Microphone and speakers with other people around the world using their broadband connectivity. The technology is called VoIP and it is reaching the next stage with companies connecting normal phones to the VoIP networks.

The field is so unexplored that everyone seems to become a part of it. On one side, we have companies like Vonage, which are currently the largest suppliers for VoIP phones in the United States; on other side, we have companies, which just offer the basic services on the Internet itself.

Yahoo! has incorporated similar services in the latest beta of their massively successful instant messaging client, the Yahoo! Messenger. The product is available for download from their beta download website and it allows the users running this latest version to ‘call’ each other to talk to each other. Previous versions are not supported, as both the parties are required to upgrade to this beta version.

In addition, the company has also added a Voice Mail feature allowing the buddies on the messenger to leave voice messages when the user this side is away from the computer. However, Yahoo! is currently not supporting the normal phone lines like Skype does (for a small fee), but this might just be the beginning of the competition. Yahoo! has the advantage of the user base though Skype itself is not lacking behind on the number of subscribers to their services on the net.

In fact, Yahoo! is not the first company to integrate VoIP in their messaging program. They already had a form of voice chat in the messenger and one of their rivals AOL also recently integrated voice calling with text chat and content-sharing features. Even the MSN Messenger comes with voice chat facility along with video conferencing facility.

How they all would manage to compete against the market leader Skype, which is enhancing its normal messaging services to fight back, is something we would have to look out for, as the competition would make the situation very interesting…