This could be the best thing Yahoo Messenger can hope for:
In an attempt to gauge demand for paid services on its Yahoo Messenger application, the company releases a survey hinting that paid, interoperable IM services could be on the way. [CNet News.com]
Yahoo Messenger is trying hard to be the worst of the Messengers at the moment, I am still constantly surprised that anyone at all uses it and aggravated when I am forced to use it. But If allowed you to connect with MSN and AOL, I can see it being a contender. This would only be temporary, though, if AOL and MSN decided to start working together as well. If all of the 3 clients allowed access to both of the others, I think that most users would continue to use their current favorite or would switch to the better of the 3 which is currently MSN by a mile.