Online titans Yahoo and Microsoft are (finally) beginning to make good on a promise they made way back in October 2005: as of today, the two companies are conducting a limited public beta test of interoperatbility between users of their instant messaging services. Together, the two services would form the world’s largest instant messaging community, with nearly 350 million user accounts.
The beta test requires users sign up with either Yahoo or Microsoft and run either Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger with Voice. The beta test is available (with some limitations) to users in a variety of countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Italy, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
