Finally, The Internet As Intended.

Yahoo! Messenger 8 is now out of beta. It’s interoperability with MSN Messenger is huge, but the most exciting new feature is its support for web standards based plug-ins.  Now anyone can build tools for the 100 million + messenger users.  Plugins for file sharing and ecards are already popular. Those and about 120 others are available on the plug-in gallery.

This is yet another opportunity for Online Community purveyors to extend their community beyond the borders of their destination web site. As I said before your community members are out there communicating and collaborating away in places that are *not* your site. You can now give them the tools to take their community with them by developing useful widgets, plug-ins, and bookmarklets that operate all the places they do -which isn’t just your destination website.