Yahoo Messenger Mac 3 Beta 1 Review
Incase you missed it, Yahoo released beta version 1 of their Yahoo Messenger 3 for the Mac. Overall, it’s an excellent leap forward.
Now, most reviews you might read about Yahoo Messenger Mac 3.0 Beta 1 will end up saying that Adium rocks and is superior in most ways. Were as I can’t deny that, I can stick to reviewing just Yahoo Messenger.
The old messenger was just that, old. It looked like it was built in the 90’s and it was simply lacking in most ways. The new messenger however brings style and usability back.
It’s new look and feel very much matches the Mac OS. It’s sleek, elegant and easy on the eyes. All graphics, except the smilies, are now polished and ready to go. Even the message windows now have a nice chat bubble look and feel.
The only new feature I see is Buzz, but that may have been there before. I’m also excited to see nothing but chat. No stocks, no ads, no distractions. It’s focused on chat, as an instant messenger should be.
The only real missing feature is tabs. I have a hard time using Yahoo Messenger without tabs. Three conversations going and in separate windows while you are working on multiple projects and reading email is just hard to do. I feel that I’m going to forget about someone or loose a window.
Overall the new Yahoo Messenger 3.0 Beta 1 is very cool and worth the checkout. It’s a great facelift and I have been using it often. However, if they really want to keep me using it, they need to add tabs. They also say integrated MSN chat is coming but I’d rather see integrated AOL chat.
Good job Yahoo and I’m glad to see that you haven’t forgotten about us Mac fans!!
There are two major thing missing if you ask me. Firstly, wheres the voice capability? It is promised in the next Beta, but if the likes of SkyPE can manage to launch it from day one and after so much time, its very poor!
Also it supports Firewire cams but not USB. Opposite to the last version now, it supported USB but not firewire.
Overall a very good upgrade, especially the file transfer (finally works 100% of the time and much slicker) but hurry things along yahoo… you have a lot of catching up to do!
- Jason Westwood July 26th, 2006 at 8:28 am
Internet Explorer 6.0 - Windows XP
I can find no way to save conversations other than copy and paste. That seems to be a shortcoming that is hard to believe
- Denny August 6th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Mozilla Firefox 1.0.6 - Mac OS X
That one must not have made it yet either. They did say it’s beta.
- Thomas August 8th, 2006 at 7:49 am
Flock 0.7.4.1 - Mac OS X
And almost a year since the last comment and we’re still in beta 1. Hurry up Yahoo!
- Scott June 15th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Safari 522.11 - Mac OS X
I totally agree. Yahoo is going so slow. In the right direction, but way to slow. The web version is going to out-do the Mac version soon.
- Thomas June 15th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3 - Mac OS X
They have now update to Beta 2 - and left all the Mac users that are still on 10.3 in the dark (10.4 is required for Beta 2). Any idea where I can download the Beta 1 version (it has been replaced on the Yahoo website with Beta 2) or do I have to go back to the old 90s style… Adium does rock, except you cant use webcams on it…
- Mindy September 15th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Safari 312.6 - Mac OS X
That’s a good question Mindy and I’m unsure the answer. I think I may have beta 1 or beta 1 on one of my machines I could send you.
- Thomas September 16th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 - Mac OS X
I miss some old features such as playing games with buddies within messenger, some plug-ins, IMVironments (doodle). Otherwise, it’s fine for chatting only.
- sandy May 13th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Safari 525.18 - Mac OS X
Sandy. Meebo has games in chat.
http://www.meebo.com
- Thomas May 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Safari 525.18 - Mac OS X
Yahoo messenger 3.0 beta 3 is better but two thing I am facing problems with are yahoo messenger keep on crashing on me atleast twice a day and the voice quality for pc to pc calls and pc to phone are ridiculously awful. Yahoo is way to slow………..
- Saurabh Nigam August 19th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1 - Mac OS X
Where is the message Archive capability? Thats a very important feature-to save conversations-where is it? Can I down grade to get it? Let me know…
- Me October 13th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.3 - Mac OS X
Yahoo says archiving is in the latest version.
- Thomas October 14th, 2008 at 6:06 am
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.3 - Mac OS X