posted by Leah

Did You Know…

- 1 in 4 respondents to a survey* said that being able to communicate with friends on other IM services is the next great thing since the creation of the cell phone.

- 57% of the IM users surveyed have a friend or family member on a different IM service.

- More than 1/3 of students over the age of 18 use more than 1 IM service.

- 29% of people said they’d be willing to give up American Idol for the ability to IM people on different services.

Why am I telling you this?

It’s been nearly a year since we’ started talking about the partnership between Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! “Soon, you’ll be able to IM all your Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger contacts through either application, pick your favorite.”

After months of development, we started asking people to try it out and send us their feedback. We received some AWESOME reports from customers which allowed us (both WLM and Yahoo! Messenger to fix things up to work as smoothly as can be.

And this month, this chapter of the story comes to a close. ANYONE using the latest version of Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger (in most countries) will be able to add friends, send messages and select emoticons with those from either network like crazy – and we encourage you to do so!

People should be able to reach all their friends and family using just one IM service. Students should not have to use two IM services. NO ONE should have to give up watching American Idol for any reason.

Moral of the story: Windows Live and Yahoo! Messenger, holding hands to make the world a happier, better connected, Idol-istic place.

If you have a comment/question/concern/discussion topic/rant/rave/other - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.

* Information collected from a Windows Live Messenger/Yahoo! Messenger survey conducted by Harris Interactive