Finally! Microsoft & Yahoo! Merge IM Networks

As of today, beta users of Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger IM client (like me) now have the option to add Yahoo contacts to Messenger. Together the networks comprise 350 million accounts and is the first time two large, commercial networks joined forces. The proposed merge was announced nine months ago, and has been anxiously awaited by many users who have buddies on both networks. To chat with your Yahoo! buddies, you just add them as a contact as you would anyone else. I’m surprised there is not a way to import your current Yahoo! buddy list at this time, that was certainly a feature I was expecting to see. However, according to the Live Messenger blog, they remind us: "Remember, this is only the first version.  And though we are planning to add many cross-network features in the future, this should be more than enough to get you started." So perhaps this will be one of the upcoming features. I hope so!