Time to take a closer look at IM.
Here we can see that worldwide MSN-Windows Live Messenger is taking a big lead, whereas Yahoo! Messenger is taking the lead in the U.S. Google is way behind.
Some features compared:
| Instant Messaging Clients | MSN-Windows Live Messenger* | Yahoo! Messenger* | Google Talk* |
| Add your own emoticons | yes | no | no |
| Video (webcam) | yes | yes | no |
| Appear Offline | yes | yes | no |
| Status per contact | no | yes, stealth online and offline | no |
| Leave Offline IM | yes | yes | no |
| Block | yes, right click menu and from conversation window | yes, ignore list hidden in preferences | yes, right click menu |
| Personal Message** | yes | no | no |
| Personalized Status** | no | status message with online or busy status | custom message with online or busy status |
| More | features | features | features |
* not taking into account beta versions
** a Personal Message is not directly tied to a status, a Personalized Status is
With Windows Live Messenger you can talk to Yahoo! IM users and vice versa.
One feature Windows Live Messenger users have been asking for for a long time is already available in Yahoo! Messenger, the ability to set your status per contact (be it limited to online/appear offline). Of course you can temporarily block contacts but that would also mean you can not talk to them as opposed to Yahoo! Messenger's Stealth feature:
So should Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger co-exist after a (still possible) merger or....