Communication has never been easier (Microsoft MSN Messenger Service)

Member Name: fluidfernando

Product:	Microsoft MSN Messenger Service
Date:	30/01/05 (273 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: FREE, Easy to use, Better than other IM's

Disadvantages: Hard to break the habit of going on it!

MSN Messenger is arguably the most used IM service in the world - definitely in the UK at least. To those who do not know what MSN Messenger is, let me explain.

MSN is software in which you can send instant messages to other MSN users. Doing this you can keep in touch with family, friends, and meet a whole host of new people.

Normally, you will need to have a hotmail e-mail address in which you sign on each time you want to use it. This is basically called the MSN Passport - you use that with your e-mail address as verification to sign on. It's not essential to have a Hotmail account though, you can use Yahoo I have seen, and AOL too and others.

MAIN SCREEN:
The look of MSN is simple, and clear. The bulk of the screen is made up of your contacts, a red symbol indicating they are offline, or green for online. When a contact is online you can talk to them by double clicking their name.

Along the left hand side there are several tabs, the default is the MSN contact list, but you can access other parts of MSN like Alerts, Dating section, Mobile Phones, etc - taking you to a website most likely - these I can't say have ever been used by me and most people will not use them.

You can set your status to several things if you are busy, working, eating, in the shower, etc - and these are :
ONLINE, BUSY, BE RIGHT BACK, OFFLINE (where no-one can talk to you), AWAY, OUT TO LUNCH, ON THE PHONE. These are there to tell any of your contacts that maybe you should not be disturbed etc... You are allowed up to 150 contacts.

You can organise your contacts into groups, like family, friends, etc so it is easier to see who is online.

CONVERSATION:
Conversation is very very simple, you simply type your text into the box at the bottom, hit enter and it will appear in the main screen - where you can see the user typing his responses. Whenever the recipient is typing something it will tell you on the screen too.

You can change an array of things on the screen, for example, you can change your font/color/size in the conventional ways - you can add smileys to express emotion - like :) will display a happy yellow smiley, and :$ expresses an embarrassed smiley.

You can also change your backgrounds to liven up the conversation slightly. You can choose from a few defaults or choose your own image.

A new feature is that you can nudge people, if they take long to reply or you are just willing to annoy them - it basically shakes their (and your) window so that they know you are there.

Another new feature is that you can send "winks" - these are hard to explain but they are preset temporary cartoons if you like that display in yours and the recipients screen but uses the whole window. For example, there is a lips wink where if you send it, it will give the recipient a huge kiss the size of his/her window - another example is a water balloon - where a boy stands and throws a water balloon at you!

You can also block people, if you do not wish to talk to them anymore. You can see them online but they will not be able to see you online.

One other feature is that you can have a display picture. This is an image that you can insert which comes up on screen to whoever you talk to - it could be a picture of you, or anything else.

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Overall MSN is a VERY good site, the service is superb and as a user of AOL, Yahoo, and MSN Messenger I will say MSN is the best by FAR - most of your friends will have MSN I am sure, and it is a brilliant way of talking to each other.

Summary: