A new feature list is out, is Messenger stealing Plus! ideas?
on Mon 23 Oct 2006 (20:42 GMT) (11192 views)
Some things to think about include:
- Theme of the client
- Adding features that Messenger Plus! Live offers as an addition to the original client
- Family Safety features - making sure your children and those younger are safe
- Windows Vista and Windows Aero (previously known as Aero Glass) enhancements
- Audio/video features
- Virus and malware protection
- File sharing and modifications to Sharing Folders
- Video sharing
- Windows Live Spaces within the main window (eg: blog directly from Messenger)
- Windows Live Mail within the main window (eg: send mail directly from Messenger)
- Added plug-ins and sharing activities
- Colour functionality in names by default
This was posted by Zack Whittaker, an intern at Microsoft, at MSBLOG. He then went on to say:
There is no such thing as a 'suggestion database', and most of the ideas have already been finalised. This was purely a way of getting the public's ideas on what they would like to see - so then I can pass them on, or it viewed by an employee.
So it looks like one of the main features of Plus!, adding colours to names, will definitely be included in the next main/milestone version along with "Adding features that Messenger Plus! Live offers as an addition to the original client".
This is a real disappointment; it seems that Plus! is too good for its own sake and will have no features left by the time version 10 of Messenger comes out. I wonder if any of this was discussed with Patchou when he went to Redmond - surely they wouldn't actually tell him that they are going to ruin his program.
Comment by absorbation: The feature list itself looks very nice, although I would target improving current features to get to their very best. I like the 'Theme of the client' part, may be a full skinning system will arrive for Messenger. Let's hope my file transfer criticisms got noticed to.
View the discussion thread at the Messenger Plus! forums View the full blog post
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upon further observation, the whole post there is just a hype generator, it's all for speculation -- and he's using his intern title to his advantage.
On the other hand. These suggested features look good. I just hope the improve 8.1 first before starting work on 9.0
Oh, he is so not a Microsoft Employee. Hell, I find it hard to believe he's a beta tester saying crap like "There is no such thing as a 'suggestion database'" since anyone who has used connect knows how to file suggestions. What, do you think they are all bit-bucketed?
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