RSSMSN Issues New Messenger Beta
By David Worthington | Published October 29, 2004, 2:22 AM
Microsoft Beta Place testers have reported that they have received a refresh of the MSN Messenger 7 beta, which includes many bug fixes. MSN Messenger 7 is slated to have new personalization options borrowed from Microsoft's ThreeDegrees concept, new transactional services, improved contact management, and integration with MSN Search.
The ThreeDegrees test bed is the territory of Microsoft's maverick NetGen product group. Developed with the goal of facilitating social interaction within a group of friends or family members, Three Degrees aims to allow users to "do fun things together."
To this end, ThreeDegrees has functions calls "winks" and "nudges." Microsoft describes Winks as animations with sound that grab the attention of IM contacts and convey personal expression. America Online has a name for these too - "AIM Expressions". While Winks make users the center of attention; Nudges provoke attention. Nudges alert IM partners by making notification windows vibrate.
MSN included the Winks feature in Messenger 7, but has since removed it because testers found ways of exploiting the feature for the purpose of loading malicious content onto a contact's computer. Nudges remain in the beta.
Although Microsoft has abandoned Winks in the present release, other initiatives to personalize the client such as Avatars in Korea and emotion packs in the United Kingdom are lead-ins for value added transaction services. The Messenger 7 beta broadens the scope of testing to include background wallpapers, packages of emoticons, and display pictures. Tests of the transactional business model will be conducted in the United States, UK and France.
Rival America Online already has infrastructure in place to cash in on personalization. When it released its AIM 5.9 clients, AOL rolled out year-long and monthly subscription plans that include access to their collection AIM expressions, buddy wallpapers, buddy sounds, 2-D buddy and animated "SuperBuddy" icons.
Additional options include the ability to set status before log in, and a new "invisibility" mode. Microsoft has also exposed display pictures more frequently through the client, and a new contact management feature helps contacts stay connected.
I like it.... very feature-packed.
Not good for some whinners who don't like the extra stuffs.
Stop using it and don't complain, ok?
Picky ppl...
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Dang am I tired of all the so called improvements.
You know what would be nice....? Leave the IM stuff alone. What kind of moron is going to pay for Emoticons and buddy icons and themes for the IM client? That is just stupid. How about using IM for what it was meant for???? Sending instant messages. No need to have the IM window shake or vibrate to get someone's attention. If I want to talk to you I can see your window. No need to annoy me while you're waiting on my reply. How about just good old IM. The way that AIM 4.0 used to be and ICQ99. MSN is just garbage. All these kids or morons who want all this fluffy crap in their IM Programs need to go back to watching TV, playing video games, and knitting.
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I agree, its so retarded and ridiculously expensive to buy a freaking emotion. I can't believe people would actually pay for this crap...
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It's very easy: if you don't like, don't use it and stop complaining...
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If you don't want the bells and whistles you can allways use windows messenger... It's not like you are forced to download and use MSN messenger (that's a new one for microsoft).
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Or you could just use an alternative IM program like Miranda, GAIM or Trillian. They're free, highly customizable, and connect to all of the popular IM protocols.
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MSN should release a purely text based messenger. This way you don't have the perks of explorer crashing whenever MSN Messenger decides to load some oversized display picture that some other user has. As for file transfers and pictures in IM, who needs it? 13 year olds? The effictiveness of this IM seems to be the primary focus from MSN. What about efficiency? I really don't see how adding more features to be exploited will help people send instant messages. The keyword being "instant"; 10 second instants (once all the crap is loaded).
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Miranda IM is a very good alternative for bloat-haters.
I agree. There is plenty of choice right now for IM users. Most people just need to be educated or accept that there are alternatives to the company-made programs that are in many cases subjectively better.
I like MSN Messenger as a program compared to Yahoo, AIM, and ICQ. I believe Microsoft, for a full featured client, is making a better product.
But I still use Miranda. That way, I get no bloat, and I can talk to anyone on any service.
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