Only 30% of 200 firms surveyed recently bought corporate IM software, says Osterman Research.

FORBES: Instant Headache

Other features of the new IM software show how the company is trying to make itself more ubiquitous in user's lives.

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Corporate versions of popular consumer IM software let employees send instant messages safely from behind company firewalls, handle archiving and screen for content.

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Yahoo confirmed it would add the interoperability features adopted by IMUnified in the near future to its IM software, according to a Yahoo spokeswoman.

CNN: AOL rivals team on IM interoperability

Its consumer IM software can let any user chat with most any other by "spoofing, " disguising instant messages as native to the recipient's system.

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Carl Tyler, a veteran of Lotus and IBM who now runs Instant Technologies, an enterprise IM software group, thinks one of the biggest etiquette breaches by Gen Y recruits involves newbies typing paragraph upon paragraph of chat.

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The software is an important addition to Google's catalog, but offering IM and chat is just keeping up with the Joneses.

FORBES: Google's Big Bet: Beyond Instant Messaging