Yahoo Officially Entering the VOIP Market
The Associated Press is reporting
that Yahoo is tweaking its existing Yahoo Messenger VOIP offering to
add Skype style call out features and let Yahoo Messenger users receive
calls from traditional phones to their Yahoo Messenger system. This is
a rather large and anticipated step for Yahoo,
This is
a rather large and anticipated step for Yahoo, which was reportedly involved in the Skype bidding war, which led to the eBay acquisition of Skype.
Yahoo is probably wanting to get their Yahoo VOIP system rolling and
widespead before Meg Whitman revolutionizes Skype to the eBay
demographic and Google begins adding similar features to Google Talk.
Yahoo
Inc. is entering a suddenly crowded field, offering Skype-like
capabilities through its instant-messaging service that will let people
dial regular phone numbers using their computers or receive calls from
conventional phones.The company has not set a firm date for
the availability of the new paid features to the mostly free Yahoo
Messenger service but indicated the launch was imminent.Yahoo’s
addition of computer-to-phone capabilities follows a similar retooling
of the rival AOL Instant Messenger service from Time Warner Inc. in
October.Original Posting at http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2630