Actually, I am really shocked that it took them this long to come up with some ideas for a VoIP solution. Well, better late than never for Yahoo I guess.

Yahoo late Tuesday will introduce a test version of instant messaging software that promotes VoIP communication and the Internet media company’s new social network.

Yahoo, whose No. 2 instant chat service has an estimated 65 million users, will offer a free update to Yahoo Messenger during its test phase. In addition to letting people send standard instant text messages, the new version is designed to make it easy to call friends free via computer, send a short text message to a mobile device, share photos or post content to a personal Web log.

Despite the bevy of updates, Yahoo said it focused particularly on VoIP enhancements by placing a “click to call” button front and center, by adding voicemail features and by optimizing voice connections to and from those with broadband and those with dial-up.

“E-mail was the killer application from the mid to late ’90s, then instant chat came second, now VoIP is opening up the third chapter,” Frazier Miller, director of Yahoo Messenger, said in an interview. [Read the rest]