Yahoo and Lycos sign instant messaging deal
7 May 2004
Internet rivals Yahoo and Lycos have reportedly signed a deal to swap web chat and instant-messenger technologies in a bid to cut costs.
From this week Yahoo's one million European web chat users will be switched over the next three months to Lycos Europe's chat platform.
The companies announced that deal will nearly double the size of the chat community and later this year Lycos Europe will start using Yahoo Instant Messenger as its sole instant messenger technology.
Both firms stressed that the switch would not be complicated for users, Reuters news agency reports. Yahoo chat users will be able to keep their current registration information, but will have to reapply for a new chat nickname.
"From our own standpoint, standalone Web chat was not a business priority of ours. On the other side, IM is a priority for us on a global level," James Barfield, consumer and networked services director for Yahoo Europe, said.
The changes will reportedly affect Yahoo Europe users in Britain and Ireland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, as well as Lycos Europe customers across the continent.
Lycos and Yahoo announced last December that they would be collaborating on a variety of business across Europe and Lycos also agreed to extend its contract with Yahoo's Overture division.
Apply for your free web assessment - get a complete health check and optimisation action plan from Weboptimiser, the experts.
Related news
|
|
Leading brand search engine marketing since 1996
Founded in 1996 as an SEO company, Weboptimiser is today one of the Internet marketing sector's best-known and most respected search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) search engine marketing companies.
With a unique portfolio of brand-friendly services, including usability, contextual advertising and web analytics, a pioneering methodology that covers all 4 stages of interaction between a web site and its visitors, we make our clients sites faster, smarter, busier and more profitable.
