Yahoo! IM Inside E-mail

(Extracted from Reuters, February 12, 2007) Yahoo! Inc., the world’s largest consumer e-mail provider, on Monday said it has embedded instant messaging features inside its e-mail program, bridging a generational divide that has confused many users. Heavy Internet users, especially younger, Web-savvy users of social networking sites or office workers, have long toggled between e-mail and instant messaging services. But for more occasional users of consumer e-mail services, the allure of instant messaging has remained far from obvious. Consumers can now run the two programs in one Web browser. There is no need to download Yahoo! Messenger software, a complication for users who are not technically inclined. Each instant messaging dialogue will take place in a new conversation window within Yahoo Mail, allowing people to chat with multiple friends simultaneously, without leaving e-mail. John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo! Mail, said in a phone interview embedding instant messaging makes e-mail “an even more social experience” — by transforming how one communicates from a letter-writing experience into a back-and-forth chat.

This was the feature I was waiting for a long time.