Yahoo Messenger to Go VoIP

Yahoo is no dummy, well other then the fact they had Tom Cruise come and speak to the company. I just don't see scientology as the proper way to get a Yahooian motivated. Although the Yahooian I know may enjoy scientology, but that maybe just because he's from Wisconsin. I digress, they are following the lead of AOL and Microsoft by adding VoIP to their messenger client. This is mainly a move to help retain customers as VoIP becomes more prevalent. Jupiter Research estimates that 20 million households will have VoIP by the year 2010. This Yahoo Messenger with Voice will also have Phone-In and Phone-Out services, for a additional fee, but will allow users to make and receive calls to and from traditional land and cellular lines. Phone-In and Phone-Out will no doubt be integrated in other Yahoo services such as mail, contacts and I would almost bet search in some form.

This move was inevitable for Yahoo and I expect any other Internet chat client that wants to survey long term will have some sort of VoIP support in due time.