Sneaking a peek at the next Yahoo! IM

Jeff Hester

January 13, 2004

Yahoo has begun randomly surveying visitors to find out what new features
they’d like to see in future versions of Yahoo! Messenger. Some of the features
mentioned include games, ’friend’ icons (known as Buddy Icons in AIM or display
pictures in MSN Messenger), avatars, stealth-mode, and listening to music.

Yahoo already edges out MSN and AIM in it’s ability to go “invisible.” This
status allows you to see your online friends, connect and chat with them,
although to everyone else you will appear offline. The proposed stealth-mode
enhancements would let you pick and choose which people could see that you are
really online.

Games are already available, too, although this area is growing more
competitive. MSN
Messenger 6 introduced
games with
the ability to keep track of scores and records of all your friends. The latest
AIM beta also introduced games, although they’ve taken a lot of grief for the
adware that comes with it.

Adding friend icons would bring Yahoo up to par with MSN and AIM, who lead
the market. AIM currently allows 50×50 pixel images under 7k, including animated
GIF files. MSN Messenger 6 allows 96×96 pixel static images, although you can
change during chat sessions. AOL users have the most interesting (annoying?)