MSN Messenger is a web communications / messaging program, similar to other ones currently in the industry. It is in direct competition with
ICQ,
AOL Instant Messenger, and
Yahoo! Messenger.
Early versions of the software, released at about the same time as
Windows 2000 (the summer of 1999), were not very well
designed, and had a rather clunky
interface for what they tried to
accomplish. AOL had a more full-featured client, and a more
ingrained user-base, making it, at least in the beginning, the far
superior client.
A bit of publicity for MSN Instant Messenger came when they reverse engineered AOL's messenging protocol and allowed MSN users to bridge networks with one client and message their friends. This lead to a two week cat and mouse game where Microsoft and AOL reversed engineered each other's safegaurds, until AOL eventually found a way to block out MSN's clients completely. This brought Microsoft's first foray into instant messanging, for better or for worse, out into the light. The interface for the split messaging was especially poor, and was a
traditional v1 Microsoft app. (It is joked that it takes
Microsoft three tries to get something right). The
MSN Messenger project was a
deep dark black secret, and was kept secretive from even
spouses of those who worked on the
project.
MSN Messenger, now on version 3.6 (mid 2001), is a fully featured
communication client built into
MSN Explorer and available as a
stand-alone component. It features parity with many of
AOL Instant Messenger’s features including:
MSN IM is a
slicker interface to it's
web-based features, part of
Microsoft's strategy for a simple communications control panel. In just the
messenger, you can check your
hotmail email (although in AOL you can check any POP3 account), stock quotes, and see the MSN.com headlines. The items such as the stock ticker are more out of the way on a web
interface, and less in your face than the
AOL news ticker and the
like.
MSN is also
banner-free, while AOL has banners that, even to their own
admission, do not serve much purpose other than self promotion. (Mentioned during the aftermath of
Justin Frankel AIM hacking incident).
MSN Messenger is part of the
MSN family, making it currently the fastest growing online service. It uses Microsoft's
ubiquitous Passport login via a
hotmail or
msn.com email address to
authenticate. The major difference between
MSN and
AOL is that
Microsoft can take the hit of offering
free services, while offering free services would defeat AOL's primary base as a specialized ISP. Fair or not, that's the
logistics of it all. If
Microsoft plans on charging for
services in the future, there is going to have to be a
significant jump over what they currently offer, even thought the current feature set is quite
impressive.
MSN Messenger’s
interface principles is one of
non-interference. The
message windows pop up on the right side of the screen in a
non-intrusive box, if you are not currently active inside the MSN window. These windows
disappear if they have not been
activated in a while.
MSN Messenger has the advantage of
Microsoft's work with other "always on"
applications, and how to make them best available to the user (see also
Microsoft Office, one of the largest study in
application usability). The interface for
AIM is smaller overall, but the
MSN interface looks a little more polished and easier to use. They both use their screen space
equally as well.
AOL Instant Messenger has a large advantage over MSN in its platform
portability. AOL has clones of its published
protocol on many
platforms, including
Linux,
Macintosh, and
Windows.
Microsoft has a keen
eye on the
desktop market, and where the percentages lie, and thus has only written a client for
Windows, and the
Macintosh. The Macintosh client is not written by the same expert team that does
Macintosh Office, so it has many flaws that
Macintosh projects (oftentimes seemingly
back-burner projects) have, and not the attention to detail the Microsoft native
platform has.
MSN Messenger in the end is still the
new kid on the block in the
Instant Messenger wars.
AOL has the ground and the
people on their side, but MSN has the
marketing momentum and the price. Which one will win out over the
other? There is a lot of
watching and
hatching that currently has to be done, and
neither will simply fold up and die. Each side has their
trump cards (Microsoft will package MSN IM in
Windows XP and can integrate
MSN into
Office.NET, AOL owns all of
Instant Messenger and
ICQ), and we shall see how it shall play out.
Personally, I choose to use
both.
Update (3-19-02): MSN Messenger is also known as Windows Messenger, and there are now small advertisements in it. It uses the same interface as MSN Explorer. Thanks to stewacide for the update.