Entered CNET Catalog: 08/10/2005
SKU: SERVYAHOOMESSENGERVOICE
Manufacturer: Yahoo! Inc.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 08/12/2005
Yahoo now calls version 7.0 of its instant-messaging tool Yahoo Messenger with Voice, playing up this app's ability to double as a Net-based phone service. Yahoo's tool is the second most popular instant messenger behind AIM, whose VoIP-enhanced update remains in a beta test version code-named text chat; a host of vendors are building phone capabilities into their IM clients. Yahoo recommends that you reserve 21.3MB on your hard drive to download this program, which has an installation time of 1 minute via broadband but up to 49 minutes if you're dialing up on a 56Kbps modem.
Upside: Yahoo Messenger with Voice looks and feels the same as Yahoo Messenger 6.0. The biggest enhancement is the VoIP capability, which lets you speak clearly with other users of the program. Like its rivals, Yahoo Messenger with Voice lets users make voice calls via a computer microphone and speakers, but it's the only messenger service with free voicemail. In our informal tests, we found the sound quality to be as good as or better than a telephone landline. Just hook up a headset and mic to your computer and hit the Call button in Messenger's chat window. Without having to hunt for instructions, we dragged and dropped our latest snapshots into the program to show them off to a friend. Yahoo Messenger with Voice introduces the LiveWords feature, where you can conduct Web searches by highlighting text within your chat and rolling over a magnifying glass icon. If you or your friends use Yahoo 360 blogs, you can now check updates from Messenger's main window. Yahoo Messenger with Voice also detects and blocks more IM spam, or spim.
Downside: Take a few extra minutes to do a custom installation of Yahoo Messenger with Voice so that you can cherry-pick your preferences. Unfortunately, the default installation is aggressive in changing your Web browser's home page and search engine to Yahoo if you don't tell it not to. And mastering the LiveWords search was tricky for us at first; we had to consult Help to learn that you must roll over the magnifying glass icon, but not click it, to pop up three initial search results. Then you must click in those results to open the searches in a Web browser. Like most IM tools, Yahoo Messenger shuts out Mac users. Yahoo provides an online knowledge base but no e-mail chat support.
Outlook: Yahoo Messenger with Voice is the richest IM tool on the market so far, thanks to its ease of use and multimedia integration. Not only does this Messenger serve as a Net phone, it also lets you share searches, multiple photos, files, and blog entries while you chat. But there's plenty of competition from other IM, VoIP, and social-networking tools. We look forward to seeing how AOL's next version of AIM will compare to Yahoo Messenger with Voice. Return soon for a more detailed review and rating.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13out of 13 user reviews
perfect IM
Pros: the best functionality
Cons: nothing...
out of 13 user reviews
Great VOIP
Pros: Better and cheaper than SkypeOut
Cons: Nothing really
out of 13 user reviews
Good voip, can be better
Pros: Cheaper than SkypeOut
Cons: Voice quality average and a slight voice delay
out of 13 user reviews
I've been using Yahoo for years and this is a excellent improvement.
Pros: It is easy to use. and is very user friendly.
Cons: There is no problem I can pinpoint at this moment from I've been using Yahoo Messenger. No cons.
out of 13 user reviews
This thing is a virus of which has infested my registry
Pros: Absolutely nothing, couldn't even use anything.
Cons: Crashing, Infesting of my Yahoo registry settings, tons of crashing, no chats, useless addon crap.
First I hated the interface, but I knew I could change that, I right-clicked, and then it crashed, I clicked my status, it crashed, if I did mostly anything, it crashed, I uninstalled it AND it's crappy addons, my entire COMPUTER crashed, and restarted, I went back to a previous version, namely one that didn't suck, apparently this thing infested my Yahoo registry settings, I've tried to clean it out, but it has defenses, and thus every version crashes with the same sequence of events.
Thank you Yahoo, you've just lost another person from your service, and a possible future customer to your pay services, you can cram it all where the sun doesn't shine.
out of 13 user reviews
it's the best messenger
Pros: everything i ever wanted
Cons: it could use some transmission encryption
out of 13 user reviews
Great addition to a great program
Pros: user friendly and works easily with existing message program
Cons: echo on the voice line is disturbing but may be my problem not Yahoo's
out of 13 user reviews
Messenger with Voice is totally Yahoo-sless
Pros: Looks like it MIGHT have some nifty features... I love the privacy idea.
Cons: Unable to open product, no customer support available
out of 13 user reviews
Best IM to make international calls.
Pros: Beats other IM in fees without sacrificing quality and features.
Cons: Doesn’t have desktop sharing and file transfer features.
out of 13 user reviews
Finally, a VOIP that works!!
Pros: Fast connection (Broadband) both voice and camera worked great!!!!
Cons: Lots of features with small learning curve
out of 13 user reviews
Bestest IM out there yet!
Pros: Ease of set up, ease of use, free internet calling, drag & drop file sharing? What more do you want?
Cons: Hard to FIND it on the website TO download it
out of 13 user reviews
Yahoo! Messenger with voice took online IM's to a new level of typing and talking!
Pros: Incredible calling feature known as VoIP
Cons: None as yet. =)
With Yahoo everything is bigger and better. You can report abuse but, haven't seen any punishment for the abuser as yet when writing and sending the report abuse form, what Yahoo! staff take up what actions to curve well the ruthless somewhat strange prople who live their lives on Yahoo! Next great feature to curve out bot messages from sending IM's upon entering Yahoo! public rooms has a Spam feature to list that bot or person a spammer.However some people have taken up he lame profession of downloading Yah____ as an antibooter [ssshh! it protects you from being booted] and downloading booters has taken up lame programs and don't know the technical issues on how they complete the task of making an end user reboot. blah! Another prime feature is voicemail, did I say voicemail? Yep voicemail on an Instant messenger, you got to love Yahoo! programmers. More emoticons have entered the lives of Yahoo! users with some really incredible emoticons. Try them! out of 13 user reviews
downgrade version of yahoo
Pros: supports voice
Cons: no user rooms
although new yahoo supports voice calls but the same cant call outside yahoo. meaning, there is no difference from any other chat client have voice and yahoo's voice call, they only differs in name.
moreover, yahoo had just remove the pride of yahoo's feature, its yahoo user rooms. hence, they downgraded themselves.
i can say that MIRC is better than yahoo if only MIRC supports webcam. reason? because i can create my own user rooms or channel with my peers and create my own topic on it and i can kick unwanted chatter or spammer out the room. i dont know what yahoo admins ate that they remove the user rooms. perhaps they ate bad enough
