Looking to cash in on the growing buzz around PC-to-PC voice over IP services, Yahoo on Wednesday added voice calling capabilities to a new beta of its instant messaging client. The Yahoo Messenger makeover puts the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Web portal up against startups Skype Technologies S.A. and Teleo Inc., two companies that have found success by offering IM and voice connection services from a downloadable application.
While Skype and Teleo provide users with the ability to make and receive calls from and to traditional telephone lines, Yahoo Inc."s will be limited to PC-to-PC calling to contacts on the messenger buddy list. Frazier Miller, director of product management for Yahoo Messenger, said the landscape of consumer VOIP technology has changed dramatically since voice-chat capabilities were first embedded in the IM client in the late 1990s.