All-new Yahoo Messenger 9.0 Beta hit today. Awesomeness!

Hmm... Apparently I had no clear-cut category to put this in... Either Social Media, or Web, but Social Media I think will get this one. Anyways, I digress... Today, Yahoo released their newest beta for Yahoo Messenger 9.0 Beta, and let me say so far, it's pure awesomeness! Some great streamlining of the UI, new options including the greatest status/message bar combo ever implemented, I think, and icons for people whom Yahoo calls "All-Stars" or "Power Users", or whatever. Either way, it's referring to old-school users (apparently I'm one of those).

So I got the new beta, played with it for a few minutes, had to change a few of the Preferences real quick, and got it tweaked just the way I like it--so far. There's some great improvements to the UI, it's much more streamlined. It still has the curvy-ish feel that the previous 9.0beta releases had, although now it feels much less clunky, and those rounded corners/curves have been offset by some very nice crisp defined lines in the design concept. It's feeling more advanced with each release, which is a good thing. "Pretty" as the other versions may have been, it felt like a toy. Maybe I'm just superficial like that, but it gives the user a much different mindset when looking at something that's refined, functional, yet elegant (Hello, Apple).

I left a comment on the Yahoo Messenger Blog, about the biggest feature they need to implement--tabbed browsing. Here's that comment below:

So far, I'm enjoying the streamlined UI, some extra spiffyness in the options, and the status message thing is sweetness. But still, oh great Yahoo Messenger Gods and Goddesses... Why no tabbed chat option??

Seriously... Trillian has had it for a long time... AdiumX on the Mac has it... Why is it that in the previous beta (didn't see it in this one) there is an option to have all messages from un-added contacts appear in one window (whether that's tabbed or not I don't know, never had the chance to test it), but simple regular tabbed chat windows haven't made it yet?

Here's what you do. Set up a tabbed chat option (look at AdiumX's setup--Trillian's was lamesauce). Make it possible to switch from one tab to another mouselessly (AdiumX allows you to Alt-Left/Alt-Right to go from one to the other... genius!), and I will never look for a replacement for Yahoo Messenger ever again (in the forseeable future--if a YM-compatible client comes out with the ability to IM real physical objects, well, then you're stuck haha).

You have my word on that. So please... Tabbed chatting FOR THE WIN! :D

See? This is what is needed to just totally kick the crap out of any other chat client... Trillian and Adium are aware of this, but, well, none of the major IM providers themselves seem to care. C'mon Yahoo, step up and force the mindset change to the public! Tabbed functionality has already taken the browsing world by storm, even IE has it (although has got to be the worst implementation of tabs EVAR). Do this, others will follow, and you'll be credited with the "idea". Firefox did it "first" that the mainstream public knew about, even though Opera and others had it well before FF.

Anyways, that's my one gripe. Other than that, it's pretty pimp-status. I'll post more updates through my normal everyday use of it in the next week or so.

Download the all-new Yahoo Messenger 9.0 Beta here!