Yahoo has just released a new version of its popular instant messenger (version 7.5 Beta) which now integrates full voice telephony features allowing it to call and be called from any standard telephone or mobile in the world.

According to USAToday "Yahoo is undercutting Internet telephone leader Skype by about $1 monthly for such PC-to-phone service." The rates at which the service is being offered are indeed very competitive, and a bit lower than those offered by market leader Skype, which is at present, with over 70 million active users, the largest player in this instant messaging to voice telephony industry convergence.

But the interesting things do not stop there, as the instant messaging tool from yahoo has swiftly grown into a communication center that acts as a pivotal point for accessing, sharing and re-using many of Yahoo own content services.

From photo sharing to search, integrated email, SMS text messaging, photo sharing, VoIP and video, file transfer and news alerts Yahoo Messenger has become an action and communication center that has for now no close rivals while, like others, it increasingly shows strong integration of multiple services that facilitate effective online collaboration.

In fact one of the most interesting aspects of this new release, is the renewed light it shines on the clear confrontation taking place, in terms of feature-set, pricing and overall user experience between the major instant messaging platforms out there. Skype, MSN Messenger, AOL IM, ICQ and Google Talk are all competing for this strategically critical market position, which gradually places access to information and content delivery services along with social networking and real-time communication and conferencing features inside your favourite instant messaging platform.

It is therefore with an interest that goes beyond the mere discovery of the new additions that Yahoo has added to its messaging platform that I have been passionately looking at this new major release.

In short, the new Yahoo! Messenger with Voice allows you to see when your friends are online, send and receive instant messages, make pc-to-pc calls, listen to music, share photos in real-time, play games, and receive alerts and other news and information directly from the Web. While many of these interesting new features and additions have started appearing in previous releases of Yahoo Messenger, they appear now to be better refined and integrated into the final product.

Here a summary of Yahoo Messenger 7.5 most interesting key features:

Phone Out

With the new Yahoo Messenger ability to call standard telephones, you can reach anyone in the U.S. for just 1¢ per minute, and over 30 other countries for just under 2¢ per minute. Exact pricing for all international calling rates via Yahoo Messenger is available on the official Call rates page. Just like on Skype, users can pre-pay a fixed amount to enable their PC to phone calls. A new innovative and extremely useful feature also allows automatic recharging of your account, of the same amount you initially selected, each time your account will go below $2.

Phone In

The new Phone In facility is the exact equivalent of Skype In, allowing any Yahoo Messenger user to pay for the temporary assignment of a unique phone number, which can then be used by anyone around the world to dial in into your YM account from both their traditional and mobile phones.

Getting a Yahoo Messenger Phone In number costs as little as $2.49 per month. For now numbers available are only from the US, UK and France. Keep in mind though that this is a great way to manage international calls from your contacts and partners living in one of those countries, who can dial a in-country number to talk to you no matter where else in the world you may be. For me for example, since I am based in Rome Italy, having a Phone In number based in the US makes it very easy for my business contacts over there, who don't use instant messengers or Skype to dial into my computer without them even knowing it.

A Yahoo! Premium Voice services page makes it easy for anyone to check and verify the services you currently subscribe to, billing, payment scheduling and payment history.

Voicemail

In case you are not on-line, Yahoo Messenger with Voice is now ready to take your calls and record them for you inside a digital voicemail inbox. Just like on Skype, the next time you start again Yahoo Messenger a visual icon prompts you for voice messages left for you, and you can easily playback, pause or delete any of them.

Call management

Integrated also a full call history facility which allows access to a full record of all outgoing and incoming calls made as well as to all voice messages received and to any missed incoming call.

Ringtones

Yahoo Messenger with Voice allows you to customize your experience by selecting your preferred ringtone for incoming calls. It is also possible to assign specific ringtones to specific contacts allowing you to recognize instantly who is calling you the moment your IM starts to ring.

Search and Live Words

Now Yahoo Search is fully integrated inside Yahoo Messenger allowing lightning-fast searches on Yahoo that are displayed directly within the text chat window you are using for your open conversation.
By typing "s" followed by a colon any query can be submitted to Yahoo Search while in a chat session.

On top of the above, a new feature called LiveWords allows you to take any word, phrase, or topic in your YM conversation, and to use it as a query term to search the web. Just highlight any set of words in your message, and a LiveWords magnifying glass icon will automatically display. By mousing over it without clicking a new window opens - complete with search results and relevant, up-to-the-minute links to other relevant results.

PhotoSharing

A fully-enabled drag and drop facility allows you to easily drag pictures into your IM window to share them in real-time with your YM contacts. When you need to share and discuss photos in real time, Yahoo Messenger goes well beyond Skype possibilities by allowing you to share up to 300 photos at a time. You can also see the photos your friend is looking at as well as clicking and viewing enlarged versions of the same if they're stored in your Yahoo! Photos account. The ultimate touch is the ability to show your live mouse pointer on top of the images to indicate specific areas or elements in the image being co-viewed.

Drag and Drop File Transfer

Yahoo Messenger, just like Skype, allows direct transfer of files of any type to any other Yahoo Messenger user. T do so, when you're in an YM session conversation, you can simply drag-and-drop one or more files right into the YM window. The other person will be invited to Save the file or Decline the file transfer. Either way, you will be notified of their decision, and if they choose to accept the file transfer, your IM window will show the progress of the file transfer. A nice feature also allows you to drag-and-drop a file onto any contact in your YM buddy list, even when you are not actively conversating or chatting with that person. Note that when sending image files like JPG, GIF or BMP files, you will effectively initiate a Photo Sharing session and the image files you send will appear in a side panel. You can drag-and-drop up to 10 files (10 megabytes each) right into the IM window. Otherwise there is no limit to the size of files you can transfer, as long as neither you nor your friend are behind a firewall that prohibits peer-to-peer transfers. In that case, the file will be sent through Yahoo! servers, and the maximum file size will be limited to 100 MB.

Share Yahoo Messenger contacts list

Finally Yahoo Messenger has made major progress in facilitating network effects extensions through a new feature allowing easy sharing of your contact list, as well as by integrating, like many other tools, the ability to automatically import Outlook and Yahoo Address Book email contacts accessible on your computer when they match existing Yahoo Messenger users.

Just added is also a new feature allowing contacts using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice to easily share their phone numbers and addresses with you by selecting "Send My Contact Details" from Yahoo Messenger Actions menu.

To top it all, phone numbers and email addresses are now automatically underlined inside any Yahoo Messenger conversations allowing anyone to send mobile (SMS) and email messages with a single click while you are instant messaging with others.

Music Listening

While this is not a new feature, it is worthwhile to note, especialy when comparing YM with Skype and other popular IMs, that Yahoo Messenger integrates the LAUNCHcast Radio service. Launchcast allows you to create your own customized radio station or browse through your preferred stations by music theme and genre. Songs can be skipped, paused and rated while the service silently learns gradually all about your preferences .

Your visible status message that other Yahoo Messenger users see next to your name can also be set to display the song title, artist and album you are listening to, for anyone to see. If your friends click on your status message, they will hear part of the song, and will be tuned into your station. All of this is completely free. For those wanting a higher and more sophisticated level of service the LAUNCHcast Plus offering adds commercial-free radio plus unlimited song skipping, higher audio quality, exclusive stations, and a few other extras.

Stealth settings and privacy

Also this feature is not new to Yahoo Messenger, but it remains in my opinion one of the most useful and best implemented privacy protection facility for IM I have seen around. If you are instant messaging and don't want to be interrupted, you can use Stealth Settings to appear invisible to everyone except the people you want to talk to. If you want to appear completely invisible and hide from all of your contacts you can use the "Invisible to Everyone" privacy mode.

You can selectively appear online or offline to specific friends or groups of friends on Messenger using the Stealth Settings option. You can choose to always appear offline on web pages by editing your preferences in Messenger or Yahoo! Profiles. Contacts to whom you appear invisible are displayed in italicized characters, while those who can see you are shown in standard Roman characters.

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice allows anyone to set-up alerts that notify you when a specific person comes online. The system also allows the automatic setting up of messages that will be delivered to any such specific party as soon as she is online. If you desire to block the notification feature of the Service sent to other users or if you don't want to receive messages from such users, an "Ignore" feature allows full isolation from both. Not only. The "Ignore" feature also allows you to create a list of users you wish to block, which you can review and edit from time to time.

Spam reporting

Ahead of Skype Yahoo Messenger now gives you the opportunity to report instant messages you receive as spam. If you choose to report spam, Yahoo! will be sent information about the conversation including the Yahoo! ID of the member being reported, text of the conversation, and your Yahoo! ID.

I think this is a very positive addition and one which by its own existence will automatically curb down wasteful interruptions and unsolicited calls to sell products or services via IM. Well done.

And in truth, the list of features doesn't end here. Emoticons, audibles, IM environments, weather forecast, news alerts, message archives, VoIP and conference calls, SMS and mobile phone support (works only in certain countries), contact cards, and more make Yahoo Messenger with Voice a true real-time communication powerhouse with no rivals.

During the first half of 2006 Yahoo Messenger users will also have direct interoperability with their contacts using the rival IM platform MSN Messenger, allowing them to share IMs and emoticons, see the presence status of those on the other platform as if they were on YM, and easily add new contacts from either service to their Messenger Lists.

The new Yahoo Messenger 7.5 Beta requires nearly 20 MB of hard disk space to be installed and Windows PC computer. While Yahoo Messenger is available also for Mac and Linux/Unix computers, the features available on those other operating platforms are not, at present, matching the Windows toolset available in this new version.

Regarding Privacy issues, please note that Yahoo Messenger does collect information about your usage of the product.

Limitations when compared to Skype:

a) PC-Windows only (at least for now - YM for other platforms exist but they don't support all the above new features).

b) Ad-supported. Even if the most ads I have seen are promotion for other Yahoo services, I do find graphically rich visual display ads to always detract something from my user experience. This is particularly so in terms of my ability to focus and operate undistracted as well as in the perceived quality and "professional" quality of the tool I am using.

c) Interface rich. While I must truly compliment the Yahoo Messenger UI team, one of the key challenges of the evolution of YM has been the need to maintain things easy, intuitive and unintimidating. While I think that overall the new YM has successfully overcome these obstacles, it is my personal feeling that further "quieting down" and the muting of some of the more visually distracting components of the interface will further benefit Yahoo Messenger and its users.

More info:Yahoo Messenger Help page.