So, it's been flying around the web. Yahoo does VoIP.

From Advanced IP Pipeline I first caught the news that Yahoo was unveiling a beta IM that supports voice calling - VoIP. It also includes other features such as voicemail that are comparative to those at Skype. Yahoo Messenger 7.0 has replaced the wold walkie-talkie voice component with a more true VoIP component - where conversation is unrestricted and open.

The calling features of v. 7.0 includes free PC-to-PC and messenger-to-messenger (buddy-to-buddy), as well as free voicemail and call history. Although it was not apparent at first, they also do PC-to-PSTN calling - calls to any end phone. Many people missed this fact (read below) and so many people were bashing Yahoo for saying they did VoIP without adding in the PC-to-PSTN component - without it, the release would have been more like VoIM.

Yahoo has minimized this aspect of the service in their press release package. And even in their website content, actually, as Tom Keating found out. Perhaps because it is not proprietary, but rather made possible through a third party, Net2Phone. Even then, it would be good to know, don't you think? Perhaps a bit more newsworthy than Pc-to-PC calling in the first place.

Here is the title of the press release on Business Wire: "Yahoo! Messenger Announces Free, High-Quality Worldwide Calling" - and yes, they do. PC-to-PC. Nothing in the release about PC-to-PSTN. The only area of the Yahoo Messenger or Yahoo Messenger Beta sites that actually contain the nugget of info that is the true BIG NEWS - the help pages. Go figure. I think Yahoo won themselves an unexpected amount of bad press. But we'll see how they recover.

Although off topic, the new Messenger has upgraded features such as better photo sharing, integration with 360 and spim control.