SON SON
Yahoo recently announced that its popular IM client Yahoo Messenger will run inside the usual browsers most of the people use to surf the Web.
The new feature of YM should eliminate the inconvenience of having to install, configure and personalize a separate software application, making the IM client more useful for the non-tech-savvy and for elderly people.
The first step Yahoo took to make communication easier came along with the company’s other popular service, the Yahoo Mail. The IM client was introduced inside Yahoo Mail earlier this year, and is currently in beta version, with a full availability for all Yahoo Mail subscribers expected for later this year.
By making Yahoo Messenger available for use inside browsers like Mozilla, Safari, Opera or IE, Yahoo is also targeting travelers, business professionals on the go and office workers whose companies block IM software downloads on their internal networks for security reasons. Another important category is made-up of Web-surfers from Internet coffees all over the world.
“Too many people have been restricted from benefiting from this type of communication,” Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo’s senior vice president in charge of communications, said in an interview with Reuters.
“We certainly think about the opportunity where social networking and real-time IM communications intersect,” Garlinghouse added.
However, although I have tried to access the service (webmessenger.yahoo.com) I couldn’t log on and start chatting because apparently its only available in Brazil, India, Malaysia, Philippines, the United States and Vietnam.