Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger become one

Good news if you use Yahoo! Messenger or Windows Live Messenger and have friends on the other service – you can now contact them directly after the companies announced an agreement of interoperability, creating the world’s largest IM network – around 350 million user accounts.

Users of Yahoo!’s Messenger and Windows Live Messenger will now be able to exchange instant messages across both networks, see their friends’ online presence, share a selection of emoticons and add new contacts from either service. Unsurprisingly, a recent Yahoo survey found that over a third of Yahoo! users wanted to communicate with friends on other networks. And just to add a topical/celebrity element, the survey also found that the person most-wanted for an IM chat (over 34% of users) was ‘X Factor’ judge Sharon Osbourne, followed by Simon Cowell (19%). Which perhaps indicates that the survey was undertaken at said programme’s auditions.

You can download Yahoo Messenger here.