Group hug! Friends on Yahoo! and MSN can soon share instant messages.

For instant messaging fans, this rates right up there with the Berlin Wall.

Working hand-in-hand with our friends at MSN, we're hammering out a solution to connect our two thriving global IM communities.

Which means soon (we're thinking the first half of 2006), friends on Yahoo! Messenger with Voice and MSN Messenger can see when friends are online, share IMs and emoticons, easily add new contacts from either service to their Messenger Lists, and more.

Some time ago this update was found on Yahoo Messenger website. Well Yahoo/MSN crew if you haven't checked recently we are into the second quarter of 2006. The clock is clicking!! Tick Tock... Tick Tock...

This is no doubt this is the cause of Yahoo putting an end to their longest standing chat protocol, Java Chat. Read their notice here.