RSSMySpace Officially Launches IM Client
By the Betanews Staff | Published June 20, 2007, 11:16 AM
MySpace said Tuesday that it has officially launched the beta of its instant messaging client to the public, about a year after it had first released it in a limited beta test. Since then, 17 million users worldwide have installed the client. While it enters into a very crowded market, MySpace hopes that its IM service will be able to take advantage of the tight integration with the popular social network site to grow quickly.
Functionality included within the client includes video chat and image sharing. It would also alert users when they receive new mail, comments, or friend requests through their MySpace profiles. The software only works on Windows, and no decision has been made to port the IM service to Mac or Linux, MySpace says.
The messenger itself is fairly clean, with a little content/promotion window at the bottom of the contact list... not as obtrusive as other messengers' advertising windows, as it only offers links to videos and other MySpace content. Nothing really revolutionary about the app's features to speak of, but does notify you immediately when any messages/ comments/ subscribed content updates are received, which I find faster and more convenient that having a notification email to meander it's way through the servers, only to need deleted. One thing: As of this writing, the user doesn't have the option of turning off the "MySpaceIM Now" welcome window that pops up whenever you log in. All in all, if your friends have all migrated to MySpace, and you want a more rapid means of BS'ing than having to refresh your MySpace inbox page or wait for a notification email, you might find this at least a little useful.
My two multi-network IM clients of choice, being Trillian for PC (with their forthcoming Trillian Astra release), and Shape Service's IM+ (currently available as a beta for Blackberry/S60 mobiles) both support the MySpace IM protocol. So I'll probably use my MySpace credentials and connect through them; since I'll be online anyway with one or the other of those two apps.
*EDIT: I logged in just now, and whatever content the contact list was trying to load in it's bottom feature window was being blocked by my custom HOSTS file - which could only mean an ad server. However, such is to be expected now that it's going "live," and after all, it's a free app...
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|They need to fix the bug that prevents the user from changing their Myspace IM name
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|Why????????? Who really needs yet another IM running?
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|it would be a smart move to interconnect with another IM provider like GTalk
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|Woohoo, a 4th or 5th client to add to have running at the same time, for the poor souls that don't use a multi-protocol client. Talk about a waste of memory, doubled or quadrupled wasted effort, time, and efficiency.
What's worse is, if you have friends that are on myspace and use just that messenger, you'll have no way of talking to them unless you download yet another messenger. Lets hope the multiprotocol folks with adium, trillian, pidgin, miranda and others get this included.
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|stoooopid. myspace is done for with the invention of Facebook and its Development Platform.
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|Isn't Facebook for college students? The whole world is not in school.
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|Will it allow you to block all the disgustingly obnoxious stuff that's all over MySpace now? The last thing anyone needs is ugly backgrounds and annoying pop music on an IM client.
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|Yet another client for the multi-protocol programs to add support for. Yeay. Now the child hunters can talk to their kids in real time!
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