Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger is one of the most popular instant messengers. It’s well-integrated with the myriad of Yahoo services out there, so if you’ve ever signed up for Yahoo! Mail or My Yahoo!, you can use the same login and password for Yahoo! Messenger (and vice-versa).

Yahoo! Messenger was initially released for Windows in 1998 as Yahoo Pager. Since then, Yahoo! Messenger has grown to include versions for Mac, Unix, web-based IM and–most recently–a web-based communicator called Pingbox. 

Yahoo! Messenger is free to download, supported by advertisements in the contact list and chat windows. It offers both basic chat services (text chat, emoticons, avatars), advanced features (file transfer, video and voice chat) and some unique capabilities (IMVironments). 

Yahoo! Messenger for Mac

Often when a program begins life as a Windows app, the Mac version is more of an afterthought. Yahoo! Messenger for Mac is an exception. It was designed from the ground up for the Mac, leveraging the common user interface elements of OS X. The Mac version compares well to the Windows version, with support for Yahoo! Voice as well. 

The Mac version is a hefty install though, consuming over 50MB of disk space.

Useful Links

• Download Yahoo! Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger support forum at BigBlueBall
• Y! Messenger Plugin Gallery
• Y! Messenger Plugin Software Developers Kit (SDK)
• Call regular phones from Yahoo! Messenger

Last updated on March 14, 2009