MSN opens up to AOL,Yahoo!

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp. will open its online messaging service for the workplace to America Online Inc. and Yahoo Inc.'s systems, in a big step toward allowing users of different networks to communicate with each other, the companies said.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, will open up its instant messaging software used by businesses, but consumers using its free MSN Messenger service will not get the same inter-operability, at least for now, said Taylor Collyer, a Microsoft marketing manager.

Unlike MSN Messenger, Microsoft's separately offered messaging software allows businesses to install instant messaging within corporate networks, where conversations can be monitored and saved, much like enterprise e-mail.

The ability to connect to AOL and Yahoo's instant messaging networks will be an add-on feature to the next version of Microsoft software that enables messaging, called Live Communications Server, due out by the end of this year, Collyer said.

Instant messaging, which allows individual users to send and receive short text messages with each other on their computer screens, has been a huge hit among consumers, growing rapidly over the last several years.

But many businesses have been reluctant to implement or approve the use of instant messaging in the workplace due to fears that such systems could lead to security breaches or abused by employees.

Representatives from Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc., said that businesses have been asking for messaging systems that could be implemented in the workplace, and said they see opportunity for growth in this area.

"Companies are willing to pay for true enterprise instant messaging," Collyer said.

Users of unified messaging services such as Trillian can use a single software program to send and receive instant messages from AOL, MSN, Yahoo and other providers, as long as they have an account with each service.