Yahoo! and Microsoft came out with exciting news for the web users last year that the two companies were collaborating to launch a service in the second quarter of 2006, which would allow the users of their messenger applications to communicate with each other.

Users would be allowed to send and receive messages and share buddy lists between the two networks. This was great news considering Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger are two of the world’s most widely used instant messaging applications around.

The decision would bring a lot of convenience to the end user, as they would have to load up just one application to communicate with people on both the services.

However, the latest news in is that the development of this service has been delayed and it would still take sometime for both the companies to bring interoperability between the two services.

Microsoft said on the delay: “We will continue to jointly innovate and explore the delivery of enhanced services to users, including voice, which we believe, is an important component of IM interoperability.” The company added that they have to address some technical issues to support voice interoperability and other advance features between the two networks.