Microsoft & Yahoo! are in
Instant Messaging partnership…

       Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. are beginning a limited test of plans to make their instant messaging systems work together. The much-vaunted pairing comes a bit later than the two companies had originally hoped. The project was delayed because Microsoft wanted to make sure the systems would work well with both companies' millions of users. 

       For now, the Yahoo-Microsoft partnership will only work for sending text back and forth, although the companies said there are plans to eventually add voice capabilities. The executives said there are no current plans to add video capabilities between the two systems, but it could be a possibility later on.

       So now, you can use Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger with Voice to talk to your friends who use either. There are over 300 million users around the world that you can now communicate with through one client. The most important thing is : you don’t need both Windows Live & Yahoo! accounts to make it work. So if you’re a Windows Live Messenger person, for example, you can keep the same address you’ve always used to sign in, but now have the ability to add and chat with your Yahoo friends. To add a Yahoo! contact in Windows Live Messenger, (after you've  signed up for the beta ) just click on the ‘Add a Contact’ button and type your friends' Yahoo! email address. Then your Yahoo! IM friend will get an invitation, and once they accept you are ready to chat, see when they’re online, nudge them, send emoticons, send offline IMs, and share your witty personal status messages.