CES 2007: Yahoo working on next-gen Messenger app
Yahoo! have announced that they’ll be previewing the next generation of their Messenger service at CES this year.
Apparently it’s designed specifically with Windows Vista in mind, and uses the Windows Presentation Foundation framework to build in dynamic features on top of the core communications features in Messenger.
“We plan to bring together the best of Yahoo! Messenger’s easy-to-use communications suite and Windows Vista’s dynamic platform to provide an engaging experience with rich animations, increased personalization and instant access to friends,” said Jeff Bonforte, Yahoo’s senior director for Real Time Communications.
According to eWeek, the public beta will be available around the second quarter of 2007, and a blog will be set up to allow users to feedback their views on the new software.
It’s interesting that Yahoo worked closely with Microsoft, given that in the communications space Microsoft and Yahoo are rivals, both offering search and communications tools. It will be interesting to see how Yahoo fares with Live Messenger, particularly as the two formats are now compatible.
Yahoo are still deciding whether to cut out certain graphics features on lower-spec machines and on Vista Basic.
Yahoo did a similar thing with the latest version of Mac OS X, and hopefully they’ll release a Leopard-friendly beta this year.
Check out the rest of our CES coverage.
