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MSN Messenger 7.0 Beta Preview
Aalaap Ghag, Dec 26, 2004 0000 hrs ISTInstant messaging has come a really long way. From basic text-based chat to graphical emoticons replacing text substitutions to video and audio conferencing
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Instant messaging has come a really long way. From basic text-based chat (primitive IRC) to graphical emoticons replacing text substitutions to video and audio conferencing, instant messaging has evolved more than any other Internet technology. While there are several players in the global instant messaging market, here in our country, the ring has only two major ones: Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger.
With nothing substantial (and relevant to communication) left to innovate on, both are scrambling, with eccentric features in their next-of-kin products, to woo the cosmetic-happy crowd over from each other's user base. Features like display pictures and high quality emoticons are understandably well received and up to a certain extent, also quite useful. But features like Yahoo's Audibles and IMvironments are simply a waste of time and bandwidth. Till version 6.2, MSN Messenger had only the good and useful features - display pictures and high quality emoticons, but now they've gone and done it too.
Let's take a peek at the reasons why I won't be upgrading to the new MSN Messenger 7.0, unless my life depends on it.
Winks
At first there were text-only messages that made people find innovative uses for the symbols and punctuation marks to represent faces: :-). Then we were given emoticons, little icon-sized pictures that displayed the actual picture, which the symbols were trying to represent. What next? Little icon-sized pictures that not only show faces and expressions, but also talk! Those are Yahoo's Audibles for you. Not content with just having little jabbering icons, Microsoft decided to go not just one, but several steps further by giving full window Flash animations called Winks. They pop up, make a loud noise and disappear without actually serving any purpose. Sound familiar?
If you download the new public beta, you may notice that Winks do not work. That's because of the recent security hole in the older release that let script kiddies transfer their own potentially hazardous Flash files in place of the ones that Messenger provides. Of course this will be fixed in the final release and you'll be able to Wink again.
Nudges
What do you do when the person you're talking to seems to have strayed away from the conversation? Call out his name? Wave your hand? Poke him with it? How about holding him with both your arms and shaking him like a coffee shaker? Yes, THAT will get his attention. Yahoo has had this feature for years - the Buzz, which vibrates the entire message window and also gives out a sound just in case the chatter is looking away from the computer.
Microsoft pulled a CTRL+C-CTRL+V on this feature and added Nudges in MSN Messenger 7.0, but sans sound. ThatÂ’s not the only thing they changed - it gets jiggy only when the conversation window is in focus. If your buddy has the window minimized, it won't nudge till he opens it. So basically, even if you just go away and come back a few hours later, the window will still nudge because the other guy sent it to you a long time ago. Of course if you just leave the room in the middle of the conversation, your buddy has more to worry about than you not receiving his nudge!
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