Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have announced an agreement to connect users of their Instant Messaging products. This move would connect MSN Messenger users to Yahoo Messenger users, creating an IM network with some 275 Million users.

Not many specific details about the planned interoperability are available at the moment, so far we know that:

• Users will be able to see their contacts online status from either network
• Users will be able to send Emoticons and Smileys to each other - no confirmation for custom Emoticons currently available in MSN Messenger
• Users on either MSN or Yahoo Messenger can add contacts from either network
• Interoperability supported is expected to be released sometime in the second quarter of 2006

Microsoft will most likely implement interoperability within MSN Messenger 8.0. No further details are available.