Instant messaging from Microsoft received a significant Mac-centric upgrade last week with the release of Messenger for Mac 6.0 [1]. The latest version is a universal binary, offers Spotlight searching of transcripts, and interoperates with Yahoo's Messenger service. Microsoft Messenger is a free 8.6 MB download and has no fees for its use.

The latest version offers a custom status message showing the currently playing track in iTunes. It also handles custom and animated emoticons, a feature that doesn't exactly thrill us, but it's nice that the Mac version is in parity with Windows on this front.

iChat and AOL Instant Messenger users can't be reached with the single-user version of the Microsoft product, but corporate users with a Microsoft Office Live Communications Server can connect with AIM, iChat, and Yahoo IM users.

[1]: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=msnmessenger

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