The new Web IM, now on Windows Live

Windows Live Staff
1974's low-slung mini car of the future
Web IM...almost as futuristic as the car of the future

That's right, Web Messenger is now here on this very site! Just have a quick peek at the bottom of your browser window and you'll see a smooth little bar running across it that you can use to login to your favourite instant messaging service.

You may have loved it on Dolly and Celebrity FIX, and you might have tried it out in Hotmail. Maybe you haven't even heard of it before it, either way the big news is that we have the brand-speaking new version of Web Messenger right here on Windows Live, complete with a new interface.

You might be saying "great, but how the hell do I use it?" So without any further time-wasting here's our very quick and easy how-to guide.

1. If you can see the little Windows Live Messenger bar down the bottom of this page then you're only a couple of steps away. For the purposes of this guide, we're assuming you can. Currently, Web IM works for almost all browsers including Safari and Firefox, although Internet Explorer 6 users will need to upgrade if they wish to use the service.

2. To the far right of your screen you'll see the Sign In button, click on that first.

3. That'll take you through to Microsoft's MSN Passport service, where you'll be prompted to enter in your Windows Live ID

4. Once you've entered in your Windows Live ID and hit the Sign in button, you'll be returned to the Windows Live site and logged-in to Web Messenger. Now you can view and access all of your Windows Live Messenger contacts from your browser.

5. And start chatting to them just by clicking on their name — as you would in any other Messenger conversation.

Have fun!

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User comments
Have to try it out!
messenger is SO WICKED i can stay on this all day it just needs games
this new thing is so cool
Yay! Now i dnt have to dowload msn on every compppp. Happy Valentines Day people xx
To good
OBVIOUSLY, this is a direct attack (persuasion) to users that differ to the original live messenger due to several reasons..connectivity etc. I'm sure it happens to many of us when we get that error "..the service is temporarily unavailabe. Please try again later." which causes the upmost frustation, leading us to use other alternatives such as ebuddy and meebo. With this, users are encouraged to come back as it is still in the beta stage. I think its a great improvement or alternative to the original live messenger. The official launch of it should allow it to fluactuate on the browser rather than restrict it onto the Windows live page.
Awesome
the good - easy to use design, runs out of the browser (which means you can use messenger and use the internet with one program, instead of two), you can see all your convos at once. the meh - it doesnt really save on CPU and memory usage (so its not going to make your computer run a little faster just cos you only have one program open). the bad - you have to be on the live website to use it (with FB chat, you can pop out chat, and as long as you do not sign out of FB, you can chat without having FB open), there are already heaps of these - on pretty much every social networking site, along with other websites - and they can crash the browser. i will be sticking with the program for now - at least i won't forget and navigate away from my chats! and if i want to be able to see all my conversations in one window, i will just use something like Digsby.
i agree with blub and darylth what if the workers at windows live made a downloadable version so you wouldn't have to stay on the windows live site... it would be so much easier then...
new window live awesome i am so getting that.

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