Yahoo just officially launched their new Yahoo Messenger 6 upgrade after weeks of beta testing by Yahoo users (Search Engine Journal editors included). The upgrade is a fresh of breath air for Yahoo, adding music, games, photos, and Yahoo Search to their popular Yahoo Messenger Service.
“With the all-new Yahoo! Messenger we are using the power of the Yahoo! network to create an essential communications hub for our users,” said Lisa Pollock Mann, senior director of messaging products. “We are thrilled with the enthusiasm we have heard thus far, with over 90% of survey respondents telling us that they would recommend the all-new Yahoo! Messenger to their friends.”
Yahoo has introduced deeper integration with Yahoo Search via new search shortcuts makes sharing search results with friends easier than ever. Earlier in the year, Yahoo introduced its new search engine technology while dropping Google as its primary search engine provider. Such integration of Yahoo Search into Yahoo’s premier product offerings, such as Yahoo Messenger, is a sound plan to spread Yahoo Search across user desktops and to infiltrate Yahoo member web surfing habits.
New features like enhanced access to contacts including e-mail and mobile information through Yahoo AddressBook and the ability to be seen by certain friends of choice through the Stealth mode feature, provide an easy, efficient and fun way for people to manage relationships and communicate in real time.
Probably one of the collest features of the new Messenger is that they have introduced stealth mode. This enable you to decide who on your messenger list can see you and who cannot. By adding Stealth, Yahoo removed one of the shortcomings in our opinion. As MSN Messenger let you block a particular user even without removing him from your buddy list, Yahoo did not. Now you don’t have to block anyone (so you don’t miss any offline messages), you just disappear under the stealth mode.
