Yahoo and Microsoft To Link IM Services

You have friends using Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger. Yahoo and Microsoft have announced plans to make their instant-messaging services interoperable, beginning in the second quarter of 2006. Customers of Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger programs will be able to exchange instant messages, see the presence of their contacts, share emoticons, add friends from either service and make PC-to-PC voice calls. Yahoo and Microsoft said the combined customer base for their two programs worldwide is about 275 million.