These days, it’s all about personalization and sharing. From your picture on a postage stamp to your Tivo lineup, it’s all about how you like it. From blogging every move to emailing that sneezing panda video, you have a propensity to share (maybe even over-share). You’ll see we kept that in mind with the newest version of Yahoo! Messenger, which I have the honor of unveiling today.

We’re not the only ones addicted to Yahoo! Messenger. With a growing user base of more than 94 million users worldwide, Yahoo! Messenger is often one of the first communication tools that most people see and use when they turn on their computers every day. And, on average, they spend nearly an hour a day on Yahoo! Messenger. Our team appreciates the magnitude there and making Yahoo! Messenger even more indispensable is what gets us out of bed every morning.

Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta, designed for Windows, sports not only a new look, it lets you share videos, Flickr photos, and personalize your experience in all new ways. It also recognizes that you do more than IM your contacts and it’s now available in more countries than ever. Here’s a rundown of the new features:

• More contact options. When you hover over a friend in your contact list, you’ll see you can send an instant message, launch a voice call, or text message your friend’s mobile phone with one click. You’ll also note we’ve integrated Yahoo! Address Book so you can view, contact, and edit friends from your contact list. Got a lot of friends? We’ve added a search bar to help you track someone down quickly.
• Monitoring your mood. You can personalize your Messenger windows with the skin of your choice and include emoticons in your status message so that friends and family know your mood – good or bad – all the time.
• Get your media in-line. Sharing images, videos, maps and more is a whole new experience. Just send a link to a video and the in-line player will show it right in the conversation window for both you and your friend to see. So, when your friend asks for directions to the movie theater you’re meeting at that night, send a map that displays right in the IM window.
• More fun with Flickr. If you use Flickr, we know you love to share. So now you can easily share photos from your Flickr photostream right in the IM window.
• Express yourself. Remember our “Emoticontest” from June? Today’s new Messenger features our six attitude-filled emoticon winners: “thumbs up,” “thumbs down,” “rock on,” “it wasn’t me,” “don’t want to see it,” and “hurry up.”
• Global ties. It’s not just the features we’ve enhanced in this newest version of Yahoo! Messenger. We’ve also expanded into six new markets with localized versions for Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, and Vietnam..

In case we haven’t met, I’m the new VP for Yahoo! Messenger and I’m psyched to be part of this great team. Before joining the Messenger team, I’d spent six years working on Yahoo! Mail so I’ve been helping users communicate for quite awhile. I’m anxious for your feedback. Try out the new beta and let us know what you think. And head over to the Yahoo! Messenger blog for regular updates from our team.

Sabrina Ellis
VP, Yahoo! Messenger