Summary

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http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8875665/

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• Yahoo Inc. has begun allowing users to make telephone calls and search the Internet via its instant messaging system instead of relying only on Web browsers or e-mail, the company said Monday.
• "IM is becoming the hub of the Internet experience for teens and tweens," Joe Laslo, an analyst with Jupiter Research in New York, said of how teenagers and "tweens," or children between the ages of nine to 12 years old, are making IM the center of their online activities.
• The upgrade of Yahoo's instant messaging service is designed to attract and hold a youthful audience used to using broadband Web connections, while fending off rival moves in voice-calling, analysts said.
• The focus on voice and other enhancements in Yahoo's instant messaging service follows similar improvements that competitor America Online has made in its AIM service.
• Yahoo, of Sunnyvale, California is also trying to head off the rising popularity of the Internet phone calling service Skype, which has caught fire among young users across Europe and now boasts some 48 million registered users of its free call software around the world.
• "Skype is approaching IM from the voice-based communications world," Laslo said.
• The new Yahoo service, renamed "Yahoo Messenger with Voice," boasts high-quality voice calling capabilities allowing consumers to make phone calls between personal computers to friends and family anywhere in the world.
• Users can highlight a term from an IM conversation and quickly view the search results, or news headlines tied to that term of phrase.
• The service, called "LiveWords," allows IM users to search for background on, for example, actor Clint Eastwood, or a stock quote, like YHOO.
• LiveWord focus on news, sports, entertainment, education and financial terms, Miller said.

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