Yahoo to Open up its Messenger 8.0 API Plug-ins

Opening up the plug-inarchitecture has become an important part of the strategy of Google to move ahead in the game. Yahoo has tried that with its "Widgets" and succeeded to a great extent. Now its trying it with its most popular service – the Yahoo Messenger. I feel the Yahoo Messenger is the most under-rated talking platform.. it has a free voice-mail… the ability – and great rates – to talk from PC to Phone (acquired from Dialpad) and well as a great user base from the chat era! I think this is a good move!

Just recently even MSN came alive with the Windows Live Messenger.

Yahoo has debuted a beta of its Yahoo! Messenger 8.0 with Voice client, adding new plug-in functionality that allows for a customized chat experience.

The plug-in architecture of Yahoo Messenger 8 has been opened up, with an API also released to encourage development of new "mini-applications." Initially, several companies have agreed to ship third-party plug ins with the beta, including Amazon.com, AmericanGreetings.com, Coupons, Inc., eBay, NewsGater, and 30 Boxes.

Yahoo will also offer plug-ins that would connect to various company services, including Yahoo! Answers, Calendar, Finance, Music, News, Sports, and Yahoo! 360.

"The new plug-ins for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice empower people to create the communications experience they want, by giving them a way to customize their IM service with their favorite Web features and services," commented Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president of Communications, Community and Front Doors, Yahoo.

Along with promoting Messenger as a development platform like AOL has done with AIM Triton, Yahoo has added a few new features in version 8.0 as well. Users can now have a contact list of up to 1,000 people, add sound effects into voice conversations, and the file transfer limit has increased to one gigabyte.

However, still missing is functionality that would connect Yahoo! Messenger to Windows Live Messenger. Microsoft and Yahoo first announced plans to integrate their messaging networks in October of last year. Microsoft said in early June that it was testing a version of Windows Live Messenger with Yahoo integration.

19 localized versions of Yahoo! Mssenger 8.0 will be released, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Canada en francais, China, France, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States and Yahoo! en Espanol.

Tags: Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger8