Subscribe to our RSS feed to get the latest news posts from Messenger Stuff.If you're a web developer then there are several interesting websites and resources out there to help you integrate Windows Live Messenger with your site.
This post aims to be a quick reference to some of the most helpful bits of information. If you think there is anything that I've missed off that should be added to the list please leave a comment to this post with the URL. Also, please note that these resources are only about the web technologies available, not things for the client such as Agents, Alerts or Activities, and not for semi-related things like the Contacts Control.
This post aims to be a quick reference to some of the most helpful bits of information. If you think there is anything that I've missed off that should be added to the list please leave a comment to this post with the URL. Also, please note that these resources are only about the web technologies available, not things for the client such as Agents, Alerts or Activities, and not for semi-related things like the Contacts Control.
- Windows Live Dev: Messenger - the site for official info on the IM Control, Presence API, Messenger Library and more, including links to MSDN documentation
- Messenger Web APIs forum - official forum for discussion about developing using the available Messenger web technologies
- Messenger Developer Blog - stay up-to-date with all the latest goings on from the Messenger & Contacts Web Platform group
- MessengerDev - an unofficial blog about the javascript Messenger Library
- Relevant posts on Angus Logan's blog - find blog posts about the controls and APIs on the blog of the Technical Product Manager for the Windows Live Platform
- LiveSide tutorials - step-by-step guides and explanations to using the APIs
- Windows Live Messenger Library example - try it out and download the javascript source code
Messenger has always been loved by people who enjoy customizing things. Using skins, various display pictures and emoticons are the normal method, but in recent years this has expanded into winks, backgrounds and dynamic display pictures. Now various programs have made this content free and easy to access. I want to chat a little about a new piece of software I've found: IMBooster.
The program works with both Windows Live and Yahoo! Messenger and provides many themed packs containing various pieces of custom content. Adding itself directly into Messenger, IMBooster allows you to download various packs, video clips and even create your own winks from your webcam. This unique idea really makes the software stand out and gets a thumbs up from me.
100% free and clean of adware is also a bonus, as this kind of software is renounced as creating annoyances across the network (such as Smiley Central). However, there were definite compatibility issues, for me Messenger just crashed when I signed in (maybe because I'm using Windows Vista). Nevertheless it still is a useful piece of software and for those who simply want to 'pimp out' your IM client IMBooster is a must.
>> Download IMBooster
>> Visit the official website
The program works with both Windows Live and Yahoo! Messenger and provides many themed packs containing various pieces of custom content. Adding itself directly into Messenger, IMBooster allows you to download various packs, video clips and even create your own winks from your webcam. This unique idea really makes the software stand out and gets a thumbs up from me.
100% free and clean of adware is also a bonus, as this kind of software is renounced as creating annoyances across the network (such as Smiley Central). However, there were definite compatibility issues, for me Messenger just crashed when I signed in (maybe because I'm using Windows Vista). Nevertheless it still is a useful piece of software and for those who simply want to 'pimp out' your IM client IMBooster is a must.
>> Download IMBooster
>> Visit the official website
As some of you may or may not know, Facebook has rolled out a chat application on their website. It can be seen at the bottom right of any Facebook page, and it can be used to communicate with others. It's much like a messenger, in that it provides near instant messages, however, until recent news, it was just another browser based ajax cool thing.
However, this is soon to change. Facebook want to gain even more popularity by stepping it up a notch: jabber. One of the Facebook developers, David Reiss, posted Tuesday about a future addition to the Facebook chat.
Currently, jabber is quite accessible, even if not quite popular. Most people don't know, though, that Google Talk is based on the jabber protocol.
So what does this mean? This means that Facebook chat will be usable with many clients. A list of possible clients can be seen here. So is Facebook finally hitting a new market and making major competition to the already popular Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk? Only time will tell.
>> Facebook.com
>> David Reiss' article
However, this is soon to change. Facebook want to gain even more popularity by stepping it up a notch: jabber. One of the Facebook developers, David Reiss, posted Tuesday about a future addition to the Facebook chat.
Right now we're building a Jabber/XMPP interface for Facebook Chat. In the near future, users will be able to use Jabber/XMPP-based chat applications to connect to Facebook Chat to:
- Communicate with their friends
- See which of their friends are online and view their profile pictures
- Set their statuses
Currently, jabber is quite accessible, even if not quite popular. Most people don't know, though, that Google Talk is based on the jabber protocol.
So what does this mean? This means that Facebook chat will be usable with many clients. A list of possible clients can be seen here. So is Facebook finally hitting a new market and making major competition to the already popular Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk? Only time will tell.
>> Facebook.com
>> David Reiss' article
Although it doesn't always seem like it, the Windows Live Messenger team like to take care of their customers. Getting someone in at the weekend to remove a stupid message block and now explaining what went wrong.
Dharmesh Mehta, a lead on the Windows Live Messenger product management team who's emerging as something of a regular poster at MessengerSays (the official Windows Live Messenger team blog), has given an apology and some details of why YouTube was blocked for several hours last weekend.
The main things that worry me about what is said here are:
- one, how much of our messages are this third party seeing - there are severe privacy issues surrounding this, do the company only get sent URLs that appear in messages or all of our messages? how much control does Microsoft have over this? and why if "manually checking the URL" happens did someone still think to block YouTube.com?;
- and two, why does it take an uproar like this to get a website "unblocked" - while other legitimate websites are still blocked.
>> Post at "Inside Windows Live Messenger" blog (aka MessengerSays)
>> Send the Messenger team feedback
Dharmesh Mehta, a lead on the Windows Live Messenger product management team who's emerging as something of a regular poster at MessengerSays (the official Windows Live Messenger team blog), has given an apology and some details of why YouTube was blocked for several hours last weekend.
As some of you noticed, we had a problem from Friday night to Saturday morning where our Messenger service was incorrectly blocking some legitimate IP addresses. We sincerely apologize for any difficulties this caused our users. And we want to thank those of you that reported this problem to us so that we could quickly fix it. Because of your help, the incorrect block was only in place for a few hours.
As you can imagine, we are very serious about our efforts to block virus, malware and other harmful URLs from being passed on to our users. And we're continually working to improve this process so that we can keep our users safe without having a negative impact on your Messenger service.
There have been some pretty outlandish speculations on what happened so I'd like to give you some facts about our process for trying to block unsafe URLs and about what happened Friday night:
As always, we're open to feedback on how to make Messenger an even greater service. And again, our apologies to the users that were impacted by this.
As you can imagine, we are very serious about our efforts to block virus, malware and other harmful URLs from being passed on to our users. And we're continually working to improve this process so that we can keep our users safe without having a negative impact on your Messenger service.
There have been some pretty outlandish speculations on what happened so I'd like to give you some facts about our process for trying to block unsafe URLs and about what happened Friday night:
- There are a number of factors that can be used to determine whether a URL is potentially harmful: number of times a URL is sent, the frequency of the URL being sent, the number of accounts the URL is sent from, manually checking the URL, comparing with other "block lists", etc.
- When a URL is deemed harmful, a block can be instated for a specific URL (i.e. www.domain.com/page) or an entire domain (i.e. *.domain.com)
- This entire process for Messenger is managed by a 3rd party that is a Microsoft partner
- On Friday, Microsoft did not request to block any of the URLs that were accidentally blocked
The blocks were made by our partner as a result of their process to block harmful URLs - We are still investigating the specific reason our partner made these incorrect blocks and we will work with them to improve their process for detecting harmful URLs while not blocking safe ones
As always, we're open to feedback on how to make Messenger an even greater service. And again, our apologies to the users that were impacted by this.
The main things that worry me about what is said here are:
- one, how much of our messages are this third party seeing - there are severe privacy issues surrounding this, do the company only get sent URLs that appear in messages or all of our messages? how much control does Microsoft have over this? and why if "manually checking the URL" happens did someone still think to block YouTube.com?;
- and two, why does it take an uproar like this to get a website "unblocked" - while other legitimate websites are still blocked.
>> Post at "Inside Windows Live Messenger" blog (aka MessengerSays)
>> Send the Messenger team feedback
Just a quick note to let you know that the recently updated Zune software now supports Windows Live Messenger's "show what I'm listening to" personal message feature.
If you're fed up with you computer's media player looking like a spreadsheet or want to try something fresh for your music, pictures and videos then I thoroughly recommend giving the Zune software a try.
Whether you have a Zune device or not (which is more likely to be the case due to its current US exclusivity) you can give version 2.5 of the software a try for all your basic media player features and a lot more, including social features, marketplace integration and a great interface.
>> Download or find out more about the Zune software
If you're fed up with you computer's media player looking like a spreadsheet or want to try something fresh for your music, pictures and videos then I thoroughly recommend giving the Zune software a try.
Whether you have a Zune device or not (which is more likely to be the case due to its current US exclusivity) you can give version 2.5 of the software a try for all your basic media player features and a lot more, including social features, marketplace integration and a great interface.
>> Download or find out more about the Zune software