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Microsoft and Yahoo have agreed to make their instant-messaging services compatible with each other, and the deal is expected to be announced today (Wednesday), reports the Associated Press (via MarketingVOX), citing unnamed sources. Until now, none of the leading consumer IM systems have communicated directly with each other (enterprise versions have), although Microsoft has reportedly been in talks with AOL over possible partnerships with MSN.
The Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger combined user base would become nearly as large as that of market leader AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), which has 51.5 million unique U.S. users, according to Nielsen/NetRatings; MSN Messenger has 27.3 million, and Yahoo Messenger has 21.9 million.
Google last month launched its own service, Google Talk, which includes voice chat. IM has become important as a business communication tool, with service providers adding video and internet telephone functions to them.
Arbitron has reached a settlement with the State of New York, in a move that will resolve all claims against Arbitron that were alleged in the lawsuit filed against the company by the NY Attorney General relating to the marketing…
Just weeks after shuttering the print edition of PC Magazine and moving it entirely online, Ziff Davis has announced that it is closing the books on Electronic Gaming Magazine, due to the sale of its collection of video game sites,…
Angered by a London bus advertisement that sent her to a website where she was told that she was going to hell, to spend all eternity in torment, comedy writer Ariane Sherine decided to launch a counter-campaign.
She began raising…
Time Warner said today that the economy has been more challenging in terms of its advertising business than it had expected, particularly at AOL and the Time Inc. publishing units.
The company said it will post a net operating loss…
On its Google Checkout page, Google claims a “Checkout” icon can increase ad click-through by 10%. (At least one client, Fred Lerner of e-commerce network Ritz Interactive, claims the Checkout icon increased clickthroughs by 23%.)
What’s more, Google Checkout users purportedly…
Even through a recession U.S. consumers redeem just 1%-3% of paper coupons, but up to half of the coupons that Kroger sends to its customers are redeemed - because it uses a data-mining firm it part-owns to target specific customers.
Kroger,…
