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 Meebo is hot and on a roll (not in the hot dog kinda way)
Meebo is hot and on a roll (not in the hot dog kinda way)

dwergs says ( 19 Jan 2007 ):

 

meeboAfter its launch in 2005, our favorite multi-IM web client meebo is still full of energy. In fact, the people behind the AJAX-based service just raised $9 million in funding, so expect to hear a lot about meebo in 2007. Second round investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson has a good nose for gold, as proven by previous investments in Hotmail and Skype.

Meebo is not just well off financially: the service just reached 1 million registered users (proof!), receives more than 1.2 million daily logins (averaging 70 minutes per session) and transfers 75 million instant messages per day.

Plans for next month include an API that will support partners who want to push meebo to users.

>> Give Meebo a try (eg. if school/work blocks standard IM software).

>> Other third-party webmessenger clients.



 Annoying the hell out of people on Messenger
Annoying the hell out of people on Messenger

dwergs says ( 19 Jan 2007 ):

 

Anne Zelenka, lead writer for Web Worker Daily, considers instant messaging as "an ideal platform for making a pest of yourself" and has summed up several ways to annoy the hell out of your contacts. My selection:

- Disregard any presence indicators such as busy or away. Your needs are more important than anyone else’s.

msn display picture- But don’t set your own presence indicators when you’re busy or away from the computer. That way people trying to get a quick answer from you will feel first hopeful and then frustrated.

- Expect instantaneous replies because when someone is IM’ing with you, s/he should only be IM’ing with you, not doing anything else.

- Don’t ever use correct capitalization or punctuation. ur 2 kewl 4 dat!

- Send large files without asking whether it’s okay. You know better than anyone what people need.

- Sprinkle emoticons liberally into your messages. One in a sentence is good, two is better, three provides maximum distraction and visual harassment.

More of her tips here.

Vote for what annoys you most on MSN/Windows Live Messenger and/or add your own experiences on our forum.

UPDATE: Talking about sprinkling emoticons, this month's animated emoticon contest is still on until the 31st. You're currently going to need to upload more than hundred new animated emoticons in order to compete for the 50 bucks. Be sure to check the rules.



 Trovit finds you jobs, cars and homes via Messenger
Trovit finds you jobs, cars and homes via Messenger

dwergs says ( 18 Jan 2007 ):

 

trovitNeed a house, a job and a car to get you from your new house to your new job? Trovit is here to help, and has launched three Messenger bots that search through classified ads based on your keywords.

>> Add Trovit Homes Bot (eg. sale villa ibiza or rent penthouse london)
>> Add Trovit Cars Bot (eg. ford gt40)
>> Add Trovit Jobs Bot (eg. bartender barcelona)

At the time of writing, there were 89.878 homes, 116.208 cars and 322.945 jobs in the database. You can also set custom alerts (eg. ALERT keywords) to get automatically notified over Messenger (use STOP to cancel them).

Trovit is currently available in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (and sometimes that messes up the results, unfortunately). It was developed with Blobsy, seperate bots are available for Google Talk and support for Yahoo!, Skype and ICQ is in the works.

>> Read the news on the Trovit Blog.



 Help Wendy to make Messenger better
Help Wendy to make Messenger better

Inky says ( 18 Jan 2007 ):

 

Wendy The Mighty (who writes like she should drink a bit less sugar-laden hot chocolate!) recently wrote a post on the MessengerSays blog about how we can help her make Messenger even better by opting in on the CEIP, or Customer Experience Improvement Program.

With CEIP Microsoft collects usabillity data about their products, such as what UI elements are most frequently used (do you always use the Tools menu, or the conversation UI?), when things go wrong (messages could not be sent, sign in fails), etc.

From MessengerSays:

"Since only a very small percentage of people actually opt in to CEIP data collection, it takes awhile for the spike in data [which indicates problems] to present itself to those looking for such things. If, however, MANY people opted in, we could see those spikes, theoretically, almost as they happen, and an investigation with a fix to follow could occur within MINUTES as opposed to hours or even, <cringes> days.

It also increments "datapoints" that keep track of how often a user may navigate using a certian type of UI. And there are datapoints that increment if a user uses a Help link, etc. All will help us make sure that our UI is usable, and that our features are intuitive and easily reachable.
"

So how can you help? By enabling the CEIP in MSN or Windows Live Messenger, of course! Here's how you can opt-in:

• Sign into Messenger.
• Under Help, Click on the "Customer Experience Improvement Program" menu option.
• elect the "I want to help make Microsoft software and services even better." radio button
• Click on OK.
• Exit completely out of Messenger.
• Sign in again.

>> View post by Wendy The Mighty

>> What kind of data is collected?



 eMSN becomes IMHere
eMSN becomes IMHere

dwergs says ( 17 Jan 2007 ):

 

eMSN, a Messenger client for Java-enabled mobiles and RIM Blackberries, has been renamed after its Dutch developers were approached by Microsoft's legal forces. From its current version 7.0.7 on, the software will go under the name of IMHere.

We first reported about this mobile client last year when it was updated with the useful Snap&Sketch feature.

It's not the first time Microsoft gets annoyed by seeing their MSN trademark in product or domain names. Back in 2003 for instance, the company claimed everywhere-msn.com from Paulo Taylor, whose web-based Messenger client Everywhere MSN is now known as eBuddy.

>> Download the free IMHere client here.



 Windows Live Messenger, easy as 1-2-3
Windows Live Messenger, easy as 1-2-3

dwergs says ( 16 Jan 2007 ):

 

windows live messenger easy as 1 2 3Though already launched in 2006 -at least according to the copyright notice- we haven't seen this official Windows Live Messenger page linked or advertised anywhere (I guess get.live.com/messenger would be a good place to start). Under the "Easy as 1-2-3" motto it offers a number of screenshot-supported tutorials on using Windows Live Messenger, ranging from how to add a buddy, to setting up IM for your mobile phone.

It's far from a comprehensive online manual (not even a how-to on adding custom emoticons!) but it might put some new WLM converts users on the right track. Not for your average Messer then.

>> Visit Windows Live Messenger - Easy as 1-2-3.

[Reported by: Bruno and Beau Giles]



 Free Wink and Emoticon set from Microsoft
Free Wink and Emoticon set from Microsoft

dwergs says ( 15 Jan 2007 ):

 

A few weeks ago, Microsoft launched a marketing campaign for Windows Live Spaces called "Dave vs. Carl". Dave Bossard and Carl Langhorn are two slackers trying to escape from their office cubicle islands by challenging each other in games of milk chugging, t-shirt folding, surfballing (my personal fave), etc. Carl is currently leading 3 wins to 2. Anyway, you can get a free Messenger Wink of one slingshotting the other over here.

free windows live mail emoticonsAnother freebie from Microsoft are these "exclusive new emoticons" sent out to users of Hotmail-successor Windows Live Mail. A set of only five, but you'll like them if you're a fan of Apothix's Glasson emoticons available through CustoMess. For a one-click install go to this page and hit the "Download now" button.



Click Here!

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