Infotix -- A Technology notepad

Yahoo Inc., the world's second-largest supplier of instant-messaging, has begun offering a new version that works inside a Web browser rather than requiring users to download a separate piece of software.By dispensing with the need to install and run a separate IM program, Yahoo is looking to reach out to tens of millions of consumers around the world who use the Web in Internet cafes instead of on personal computers at work or at home.
Web-based IM is nothing new. Meebo.com grew popular among early technology adopters with a Web-based service that allows users to simultaneously sign on to AIM, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google IM programs. Rival Google Talk has been embedded inside Google's e-mail program, Gmail, for more than a year.But Yahoo brings the advantages of Web-based IM to a far larger market of tens of millions of active users.
One attraction of Yahoo's new Web-based IM service is an archive feature that allows a user to search back to find all previous conversations with any of their IM contacts. Another feature likely to impress heavy users is the ability to manage 10 or more simultaneous conversations in just one IM window.