Read/WriteWeb has an interesting post announcing the official release of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice and info on plug-ins.
Third-party developers can create plug-ins (aka widgets) for the platform. This has already proven to be very popular – since opening up the plug-in platform on June 20, third party and Yahoo! developers have developed 180 plug-ins worldwide.
The most popular plug-ins for Y! Messenger are currently utilities like Pando (a way to share large files and folders), YEmote (emoticons), an eCards widget, an iTunes “remote” and a drawing/photo tool.
I don’t know how many plug-ins are out for Windows Live Messenger, but Yahoo! currently sounds like it’s been more successful in this area.
Microsoft this week launched Windows Live Gallery, a one-stop shop to personalize your Windows Live experience. Live Gallery helps you find all the cool & useful Gadgets, Toolbar custom buttons, Messenger Bots and much more.
Since Windows Live Messenger plug-ins functionality is still in beta and is not turned on by default, there aren’t any available on there. For the same reason, I’m not surprised there aren’t as many plug-ins for Windows Live Messenger as there are for Yahoo! Messenger.
As many of you would know, many users have been experiencing problems such as missing contacts and Leah from the Messenger Team blogged about it acknowledging the problem
Windows Live Messenger is currently experiencing technical difficulties
Person A: So what kind of technical difficulties are we talking?
Person B: Apparently, some people are signing in and then are unable to see some/all of their contact list. And a little notification that says something about “Due to a connection problem…â€
Person A: Oh dear! What should these people do?
Person B: NOT WORRY. The Messenger team is working hard to fix the problem. They sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this is causing Messenger customers. They’re asking that people be patient and check back on the blog for more information.
Person A: Guess what I heard? Even the Messenger Blogger, Leah, is running into this problem on her computer. So she’s gonna make SURE this gets fixed as fast as possible. Isn’t that reassuring?
Person B: That is very reassuring. Will she let us know when there is more information?
Person A: Absolutely. (She promised me herself)
MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger celebrates its 7th birthday next week. The first MSN Messenger was released on the 22nd of July 1999. To celebrate, there’s some free Meegos for all from 3H, Kiwee and Quebles. So Happy Birthday Messenger!
Published on
4 years, 1 month ago in
Software.
Just spotted a review of the currently pre-beta StuffPlug 3. Check it out at TechThisOut!
The latest Channel 9 video focusing on Windows Live Messenger has arrived and this time it goes deep:
Ever wonder how the Live Messenger system works and why Live Messenger does what it does (and doesn’t)? Meet some of the developers and visionaries behind Windows Live Messenger and find out. We go pretty deep here, so fasten your seatbelts. This ain’t no marketing video… By the way, some of the Niners’ questions get answered towards the end of the interview. Enjoy!!
At 56 minutes in length (and 200MB+ in size!), there is lots of technical information to take in. Leah says you get to hear:
- The fundamentals of Instant Messaging
- Details on how Sharing Folders were built
- An explanation of add-ins
- The technical side of Yahoo! + WLM interoperability
According to one of the comments, Sharing Folders information is encrypted. Why not passwords?
If you’re a hardcore Fanatic, this is definitely one to see. Going by the still image, they appear to be talking about CS servers (eg. baymb-cs3.msgr.hotmail.com), so this is probably the most in-depth look provided by the team we’ve seen to date.
