Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) has a blog post entitled It's back: Xbox Live Friends list on Messenger where he writes
After a 14–month hiatus, it’s back! You can now check your Xbox Live friends
list from MSN Windows Live Messenger*. Don’t have Messenger
yet? Download it
here. If you already have messenger, click on the Xbox tab and you’ll see
your friends list. Plus, you can even click a friend to go to their profile
page. Nope…no word on when/if we’ll combine the Messenger and Xbox Live friends
lists, but at least we've got this back.
*Note this is for US and Japan
passport accounts only. Other regions may have this function, but it is purely
up to the regional Windows Live Messenger teams if they want an Xbox tab...the
Xbox team does not make this decision.
Edit: Having trouble signing in? Arne360 posts
some help.
It's been a good month for Windows Live Messenger users. First, we get interoperability with Yahoo! Messenger users and now this. Sweet.