Yahoo! Messenger

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Yahoo! Messenger

Screenshot  Yahoo! Messenger Beta for Windows Vista displaying Contact List
Developer(s)	Yahoo!
Initial release	Yahoo! Pager on March 9, 1998.[1]
Stable release	9.0.0.2162 (Windows) / 2.5.3 (Mac) / 1.0.6 (Unix)
Preview release	3.0 build 178870 (Mac OS X) / August 28, 2008
Operating system	Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone, WUI, UNIX (no longer supported)
Type	VoIP/Instant messaging client
License	Proprietary adware
Website	messenger.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Messenger is an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger is provided free of charge and can be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo! ID" which also allows access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail, where users can be automatically notified when they receive new email. Yahoo! also offers PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service, file transfers, webcam hosting, text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.

Yahoo! Messenger was originally launched under the name Yahoo! Pager on March 9, 1998.^[1]

In addition to instant messaging features similar to those offered by ICQ, it also offers (on Microsoft Windows) features such as: IMVironments (customizing the look of Instant Message windows, some of which include authorized themes of famous cartoons such as Garfield or Dilbert), address-book integration and Custom Status Messages.^[2] It was also the first major IM client to feature BUZZing and music-status. Another recently added feature is customized avatars.

Contents 1 Announcements 2 Features 2.1 Yahoo! Voice 2.2 Voicemail and file sharing 2.3 Plug-ins 2.4 Yahoo! Mail integration 2.5 Chat 2.6 Webcam 2.7 URI scheme 2.8 Offline messaging 2.9 Interoperability 2.10 Games 2.11 Main process 3 Malware 4 SPIM 5 Canceled releases 6 Upcoming releases 7 Latest releases 8 Feature and release history 8.1 Windows 8.2 Mac 9 Compatible software 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

Announcements

On December 5, 2007, Yahoo! Messenger announced the release of Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista as a Beta Release. It includes transparent Glass Windows and a new skin and GUI for the Windows Sidebar and program. Also integrated new tabs for going between different chat windows. As of October 25, 2008, Yahoo! Messenger for Vista version is no longer available.

On October 29, 2007, Yahoo! Messenger announced the release of Yahoo! Messenger 9 Beta. It features a new and improved interface, new emoticons (also hidden emotions^[3]), the integration with Flickr account and a new in-line media player which enables the user to view maps, photos and videos from sites like Yahoo! Video and YouTube right in the IM window.^[4]

Yahoo! has announced a partnership with Microsoft to join their instant messaging networks. This would make Yahoo! Messenger compatible with Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service. It also made Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger compatible with Yahoo!'s Network. This change has taken effect as of 2006-07-13 - Yahoo! Messenger has integrated instant messaging with Windows Live Messenger users, and is fully functional.

British Telecommunications' BT Communicator software is based on Yahoo! Messenger. BT Communicator was withdrawn on 2006-12-31.^[5]

Features

Yahoo! Voice

Yahoo! Voice is a Voice over IP PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service,^[6][7] provided by Yahoo! via its Yahoo! Messenger instant messaging application. It is also available for the Mac OS X platform.^[8]

Voicemail and file sharing

Yahoo! added voicemail and file sending capabilities to their client. File-sharing of sizes up to 2GB was added to Yahoo messenger

Plug-ins

As of 8.0, Yahoo! Messenger has added the ability for users to create plug-ins (via the use of the freely available Yahoo! Messenger Plug-in SDK), which are then hosted and showcased on the Yahoo! Plug-in gallery. Yahoo now no longer provides plugin development SDK.^[9]

Yahoo! Mail integration

Yahoo! plans to integrate Yahoo! Mail Beta and Yahoo! Messenger.^[10] Conversations will be archived and stored in the same manner as emails. This allows users to search within their chat logs easily, and to have them centrally stored and accessible from any computer.

Chat

All versions of Yahoo! Messenger have included the ability to access Yahoo! Chat rooms. On June 19, 2005, with no advance warning, Yahoo! disabled users' ability to create their own chat rooms. The move came after KPRC-TV in Houston, Texas reported that many of the user-created rooms were geared toward pedophilia. Many regulars in these rooms used the rooms to set up meetings to have sex with children and trade lewd pictures. While it was thought this move came as a result of several advertisers pulling their ads from Yahoo!, a more likely cause was a $10 million lawsuit filed by watchdog groups of internet portals on behalf of a 12-year-old victim of molestation.^[11]. Yahoo! has since closed n

Webcam

4544

URI scheme

Yahoo! Messenger's installation process automatically installs an extra URI scheme ("protocol") handler into some web browsers, so that URIs beginning "ymsgr:" can open a new Yahoo! Messenger window with specified parameters. This is similar in function to the mailto: URI scheme, which creates a new e-mail message using the system's default mail program. For instance, a web page might include a link like the following in its HTML source to open a window for sending a message to the YIM user notarealuser:

<a href="ymsgr:sendim?notarealuser">Send Message</a>

To specify a message body, the m parameter is used, so that the link location might look like this:

ymsgr:sendim?notarealuser&m=This+is+my+message

* ymsgr:sendim? Example: ymsgr:sendim?myid

   * ymsgr:addfriend? Example: ymsgr:addfriend?myid
   * ymsgr:sendfile? Example: ymsgr:sendfile?myid
   * ymsgr:call? Example: ymsgr:call?1-800-555-7654 
   * ymsgr:callPhone? Example: ymsgr:callPhone?1-800-555-7654
   * YMSGR:chat? "opens chat room list"
   * ymsgr:im? Opens "send an im window"
   * ymsgr:getimv?doodle
   * ymsgr:getimv?yfighter

Offline messaging

Offline messaging, a feature long offered by Yahoo!, allows online users to send messages to their contacts, even if said contacts are not signed in at the time. The sender's offline contacts will receive these messages when they next go online.

Interoperability

On October 13, 2005, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced plans to introduce interoperability between their two messengers, creating the second-largest real-time communications service userbase worldwide: 40 percent of all users (AIM currently holds 56 percent). The announcement comes after years of third-party interoperability success (most notably, Trillian, Pidgin) and criticisms that the major real-time communications services were locking their networks. Microsoft has also had talks with AOL in an attempt to introduce further interoperability, but so far, AOL seems unwilling to participate.

Interoperability between Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger was launched July 12, 2006. This allows Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger users to chat to each other without the need to create an account on the other service, provided both contacts use the latest versions of the clients. For now, it's impossible to talk using the voice service among both messengers.

Games

There are various games and applications available that can be accessed via the conversation window by clicking the games icon and challenging your current contact. It requires Java to work.

Main process

The Windows version of Yahoo! Messenger previously used ypager.exe as the name of the instance of the client. It was changed to yahoomessenger.exe since the beta of version 7.5.0.

Malware

Yahoo! Messenger (along with other networks such as Windows Live Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger) is often used as a conduit or "vector" for delivering malicious software such as spyware, viruses, worms, and trojans to unsuspecting computer users. The three methods used by hackers to deliver malware over the IM vector are (1) sending a file transfer with a virus-infected file, (2) delivering a message with socially engineered content containing a web address (URL) containing active malicious code and (3) sending specially crafted messages exploiting security vulnerabilities in the client software. Viruses and worms with colorful names such as W32.Yalove or W32/Spybot-MQ have been identified as targeting users of the Yahoo! Messenger network over the past few years.

The most common method of delivering a malicious payload is the use of social engineering to construct a message that appears to be coming from a contact on the recipient's contact list. A socially engineered message is one that is written in a friendly, informal manner, that could easily be mistaken as coming from a friend. The message usually will say something like "Click here to see pics of me from vacation!" or "Is this you?" with a web address—known as a "poison URL" -- for the recipient to click. Upon clicking the web address, the recipient is connected to a website containing active content, which is immediately downloaded to the recipient's computer. In most cases, the payload contains an installer, a number of hidden files containing text, and code which causes the same socially engineered message with poison URL to be sent to every contact on the contact list. When the message is sent to all contacts, the cycle starts again, as each contact believes they are receiving a message from a trusted friend. In this manner, IM-borne malware is capable of propagating very rapidly through company and external networks.

Worms and viruses are discovered on a regular basis by security companies, particularly by the three companies with IM-specific security products, Akonix Systems, FaceTime Communications, and Symantec. According to IM security researchers at Akonix, the number of new threats identified each month is 30 to 35, with a high of 88 in October, 2006.

SPIM

Yahoo! Messenger users are subject to unsolicited messages (SPIM) and the problem remains unresolved. Blogs and websites addressing this issue are supportive of the chat environment, and writers genuinely want to continue using the service, yet express frustration about Yahoo's apparent failure to address spam and other related problems. User queries are met with forms and replies that Yahoo is "working to resolve the problem," yet there is no evident progress.^[12][13] As of 2007 it is estimated that at least 60% of all users who use Yahoo chat rooms are bots.^[14] Yahoo has introduced a CAPTCHA system to help filter out bots from joining chat rooms but it has done little to actually stop the problem and has only inconvenienced human users.

Canceled releases

Yahoo! released a preview version of Yahoo! Messenger: Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista. It has been designed to exploit the new design elements of Vista's Windows Presentation Foundation and entitled a whole new user interface and features. It lacked some basic functions such as webcam support and Chat. It has been discontinued.

Upcoming releases

The Mac OS X client version 3.0 Beta 3 has been released: file transfers have been re-enabled as have group conferences.

Latest releases

• Windows - 9.0.0.2162
• Mac OS X - 3.0 Beta 4 (build 178870) - February 10, 2009
  • Several third-party clients exist that can connect to the Yahoo! Messenger network, such as Adium and the now-discontinued Fire and Proteus. Adium can access the chat rooms, while the others cannot.
• Unix - 1.0.4 / September 2003. It can still be downloaded from Softpedia.
  • Version 1.0.6 can be downloaded from the Unix Beta page: http://public.yahoo.com/~mmk/

Feature and release history

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Windows

There are many versions between those listed here and prior to last version listed here. These are "major releases". See one of several sites listed in external links to find other, older versions of the product.

Oldest version for which customer care support is available: 8.0 (as of April 2, 2007)

Oldest version that can log in (has not reached end of life): 6.0 (as of April 2, 2008)

Yahoo! Messenger Blog has announced "we will officially retire Yahoo! Messenger versions 6.0 through 7.5 in August 15, 2009"

Version	Release date	Notes
1.0	March 9, 1998
3.0	August 17, 2000
3.5
4.0
4.1
5.0	November 2001
5.5	August 15, 2002
5.6
6.0	August 2004	Support for Windows 95 and Windows NT dropped.[15]
6.1
7.0.0.426	August 8, 2005	Renamed to "Yahoo! Messenger with Voice" Drag-and-drop photo sharing Drag-and-drop file sharing PC-to-PC calling Voicemail Ringtones Yahoo! 360° integration Pop-up Contact Cards Spam Reporting New tabs New emoticons Archive updates LiveWords (Beta)
7.0.0.437	August 30, 2005
7.5		Added 'always-on' SWF advertisements
8.0.0.505	June 20, 2006	Plugins possible
8.0.0.508	July 13, 2006	Interoperability between Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger contacts
8.0.0.701	August 10, 2006	The release date signifies the release of a beta version. This is not clearly documented on the Yahoo site.
8.0.0.716	September 15, 2006
8.1.0.195	October 24, 2006	Renamed to "Yahoo! Messenger" Ability to check for updates from the help menu
8.1.0.209	December 4, 2006	Patched an ActiveX Control Buffer Overflow
8.1.0.239[16]	January 19, 2007	Improvements in voice quality and sign-in, fixes for minor bugs with Windows Vista
8.1.0.244	March 14, 2007
8.1.0.249[17]	March 28, 2007	Patches a security flaw
8.1.0.401	June 8, 2007	Fixes a vulnerability with the Webcam ActiveX control
8.1.0.402	June 15, 2007	Fixes a buffer overflow in an ActiveX control
8.1.0.413	July 17, 2007
8.1.0.416[18]	August 22, 2007	Changes to voice library for better Vista support. (Users can get voice in Windows Vista without using a proxy app anymore, provided they still install codec themselves) Fix to two Cam exploits
8.1.0.419	August 29, 2007	Two more security patches
8.1.0.421	September 6, 2007
9.0.0.797 Beta[19]	October 29, 2007	New beta release of Yahoo! Messenger. It provides an improved user interface. Brand new skins and emoticons Flickr integration in the photo sharing feature New in-line media player New features for voice calls Unicode support for better international messaging.
9.0.0.907 Beta[20]	November 7, 2007	Fixed issues with Windows Vista installation problem Message formatting in the IM window Compact list view enabled
9.0.0.922 Beta	December 17, 2007
9.0.0.1389 Beta[21]	May 27, 2008	Bigger emoticons Games are back! Status message improvements New contact list format button Import Contacts - new & improved Voice in chat rooms for Vista users & faster Captcha process Yahoo! Updates
9.0.0.1912 [22]	September 19, 2008	Pingbox New skins Return of the (original) emoticons Ignore list enhancements Inline video & picture viewer New emoticons inspired by our users Import Contacts wizard Yahoo! Updates Call forwarding & new voicemail delivery Yahoo! Games are back Changes to the look and feel
9.0.0.2018	October 16, 2008
9.0.0.2034 [23][24]	November 6, 2008	Implements several bug fixes that reduces the number of crashes that occur on Windows Vista.
9.0.0.2112[25]	January 8, 2009	Various bug fixes to address sign-in issues that some users were experiencing. Another fix for a Windows Vista crash that occurred due to a conflict between 9.0 and IOLO antivirus software. A new location for the typing notification message. The typing notification now appears inline with the conversation. Added text ads in the status bar of individual IM windows where the typing notification used to be. A new version of the offline message window.
9.0.0.2123	January 24, 2009	Left aligned voice user's ID in Yahoo! Chat and conferences. Fixed fading issue with voice user ID in Yahoo! Chat and conferences.
9.0.0.2128[26]	February 4, 2009	Fix for the sign-in issues that have been affecting some users. If you were seeing an error code “81003005” when trying to sign in
9.0.0.2133	February 18, 2009	Test build for users still experiencing the sign-in issue which gives you error code “81003005” when trying to sign in.
9.0.0.2136[27]	February 20, 2009	Includes fixes that should help those that were having problems installing 9.0. Alleviates problems that may have been caused by software conflicts with anti-virus programs or add-ons like Speedbit Video Accelerator.
9.0.0.2152	March 18, 2009
9.0.0.2160	May 13, 2009
9.0.0.2161	May 22, 2009	Test build issued by Yahoo![citation needed] The option to disable the IMVironments feature has been removed from preferences. This change has not been documented on Yahoo's website.
9.0.0.2162	May 26, 2009

Mac

Version	Release date	Notes
2.5.3 [28]	September 24, 2003	Chat Webcam Conference chat
3.0 beta 1 (build 17006)	June 28, 2006	New UI Display Images Avatars Support Stealth Settings Interoperability between Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger contacts YMSG14
Prior Releases	Undocumented
3.0 beta 1 revision 2 (build 18274)	July 13, 2006	Auto Reconnect YMSG14 related bug fixes.
3.0 beta 2 (build 65474) [29]	September 6, 2007	Tabbed IM windows Chat rooms Improved stability for webcam and file transfer More emoticons Message archiving YMSG15 No voice calling Fixed scrolling up issue when Safari 3/Webkit 522+ is installed.
3.0 beta 2 revision 2 (build 75170) [30]	October 25, 2007	Improved stability and compatibility with Mac OS X Version 10.5 (Leopard) Some small interface improvements, including a new Show/Hide Display Images button in the IM and chat room windows Improved chat room layout, with the list of chatters in a left hand, scrollable panel with age/sex/location details available on hover (if the user is sharing his/her profile) Contextual (right click) menu's added to chatroom adding support for finally viewing a persons cam who isn't on contact list who's in the room.
3.0 beta 2 revision 3 (build 78326) [31]	November 21, 2007	Improved stability and compatibility with Mac OS X Version 10.5 (Leopard) Crash Reporter now works under Leopard. Improvements to the sign in process when behind a firewall. Couple of crash bugs fixed.
3.0 beta 3 (build 98855) [32]	March 25, 2008
3.0 beta 3 (build 126432) [32]	August 28, 2008
3.0 Beta 4 (build 156957)	February 10, 2009	File transfer, Display images, voice, chat rooms, stealth settings webcam. Added clearer messaging when receiving anonymous messages from your Pingbox Added a preference to separately enable/disable archiving for chat room conversations. When you report an IM as spam, it also adds the sender to your ignore list Cancel automatic sign in when you’re launching Yahoo! Messenger for Mac Various performance and memory bug fixes Added a new message style called “Kobi lite”.[33]

Compatible software

Digsby Adium BitlBee Centericq Fire imeem IMVU Gyachi Tokbox

MECA Messenger meebo Meetro Miranda IM Paltalk Pidgin (formerly Gaim) Proteus PlayXpert

Qnext SIM Trillian Trillian Pro Trillian Astra Windows Live Messenger Kopete VoxOx

See also

• Comparison of instant messaging clients
• Comparison of instant messaging protocols
• Comparison of IRC clients
• Instant Messaging

References

External links

• Turkish Language Pack for Yahoo! Messenger 9.0
• Yahoo! Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger - Official Blog

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