Bad news for MSN Web Messenger users. Starting today, Microsoft will discontinue the service. If you still want to use the web based messenger, you must login from your Windows Live Hotmail account. MSN Web Messenger was released in August 2004 and now it will be integrated into Windows Live People.
The press release from Microsoft says that: “On June 30, MSN Web Messenger will close; however, customers will continue to have the opportunity to connect with each other using Windows Live Hotmail’s web-based IM, a version of Windows Live Messenger which is accessible through your Windows Live Hotmail account. We made the decision to retire MSN Web Messenger as part of our overall investment in updating and re-aligning our online services under the Windows Live brand. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause our customers.”
One of the advantages of the new service is that Web Messenger allows you to be logged in from different locations at the same time. Another advantage of the integration with your Hotmail account is that you can see when your Messenger friends are online while reading an e-mail and immediately start a chat to clarify something in your friend’s e-mail message.
It looks like June 30 is the cleaning day for Microsoft. Microsoft Money, Microsoft Encarta, and Windows Live OneCare will also be discontinued. On October 31, 2009, MSN Encarta Web sites worldwide will be dropped with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will be suspended on December 31, 2009.
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July 12th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
thanks for news.