Yahoo to Show Off New Messenger for Vista at CES

Peter Galli Yahoo is working on a new, next-generation version of its Messenger product designed specifically for Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system and which uses the Windows Presentation Foundation framework.

Yahoo has used the WPF to build dynamic features on top of Yahoo Messenger's core communications features, and the company will use this week's International CES conference in Las Vegas to preview the alpha version of the product and announce its roadmap going forward.

Matthew Skyrm, the director of product management for Yahoo Messenger, told me that the current plan is to have the public beta available in the second quarter of 2007, with the final release expected by the end of the year.

"We also decided that a new coat of paint isn't really going to cut it if we want to wow users, and so we decided to work closely with Microsoft and build Yahoo Messenger for Vista," he told me.

The primary focus of the release is the consumer market, and there will be a lot of emphasis on the user experience. New and unique features are not the primary focus for this release; the experience is.

As such, the new product will have a Vista-optimized cinematic user interface and a visual design around the core Yahoo Messenger communication features, Skyrm told me.

Click here to see a slide-show of screenshots from Yahoo Messenger for Windows Vista.

Yahoo has also used the WPF to enable users start a chat without opening a chat window, resize the contacts window, and use a color wheel to easily change the background color.

Yahoo will still offer the existing Yahoo Messenger product that is optimized for Windows XP, and will also continue to enhance it.

The company also released a beta of its messenger for the Mac OS 10 last year.

Another new innovation in this upcoming version of Messenger is a custom gadget that takes advantage of the Windows Sidebar feature in Vista, which is on by default.

This allows users to keep close tabs on their friends and family by dragging and dropping that icon into the sidebar. That icon then becomes part of the sidebar and is permanently displayed.

Messenger for Vista also takes advantage of high resolution displays with a scalable vector-based user interface so that "as 200 PPI [pixels per inch] displays become more popular, we will be right there and ready to support them,' Skyrm says.

It also brings the ability to interact with interest groups in themed environments, which is proprietary to Yahoo because of the Yahoo Network, "the largest Internet suite of properties in the world that we can tap into and which no one else can," Skyrm told me.

In addition, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger friends can be added to the contact list, and users will be able to see when they are online. Photos can also be accessed from the desktop or Flickr and shared.