November 8, 2007
@ 05:39 PM
Comments [4]
Embed Windows Live Messenger Anywhere on the Web

When I first saw the Meebo Me widget, I thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen on the Web. I immediately went to chat with some folks on our team and the response was that they were already way ahead of me. After a bunch of hard work, I’m glad to say that you can now embed the world’s most popular IM client into any Web page [including your blog or favorite social networking site] and let anyone who’s visiting that page chat with you while you’re online.

More details can be found in Casey’s post on the Windows Live Messenger team’s blog entitled Who wants IMs from the web? I do! I do! where she writes

The Windows Live™ Messenger IM Control lets people on the Web reach you in Messenger by showing your Messenger status on your web site, blog, or social networking profile. The Windows Live™ Messenger IM Control runs in the browser and lets site visitors message you without installing Messenger first. The IM Control is supported in IE6, IE7, and Firefox 2.0 on Windows and Firefox 2.0 on Mac OS. The IM Control is supported in 32 languages.

This is a nice addition to the IM button functionality announced in Ali's post.  An important difference between the two is that the new Windows Live™ Messenger IM Control allows people to send you IMs without installing Windows Live™ Messenger, and the IM button requires that they have it installed and are logged in.

I’ve already thrown it up on my Windows Live Space at http://carnage4life.spaces.live.com so anyone who wants to chat with me in real time can holla at me without having to install any bits.  I expect it won’t be long before someone figures out how to port it to the Facebook platform which is something I’d love to see. I’d do it myself but I have RSS Bandit feature planning to work on in my free time. Smile

To prevent IM spam (aka SPIM), there is a Human Interactive Proof (HIP) challenge before a conversation can be initiated from the Web. For users concerned about privacy and wondering if anyone can just copy & paste some HTML, change some values and then spam you from the Web…rest assured this has been considered. In order for your online presence to be detected or IM conversations begun from the Web, you first have to turn on this feature. Safe defaults and making sure our users are always in control of their Web experience is key. 

So what are you waiting for? Come over and say hello.    

Now playing: Jodeci - Come & Talk To Me


 

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Thursday, 08 November 2007 18:41:20 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
The idea of embedding IM in a blog page is in itself ingenious. IMHO, IM is the only web platform that Microsoft has a considerable market share. The Live platform should build itself around WLM. The announcement today it certainly the right direction to go. However, I have a few reservations.

1. Have you tried using the widget on your Spaces? I have. And I tried to embed it into my own page. So there are few problems: a. it's not simply not usable (plz try it Dare), b. you cannot fit the IM on your spaces without either chopping part of the IM (as you did on your page), or making it unreadable (because WLS must enforce the template and does not allow you to resize your widget/modules, a great deficiency compared to blogger/yahoo), c. you can make it fit on your space if you don't change anything but it's very ugly: it's only half of the size of a normal module (which you cannot resize anyway), so it has to occupy the top left of your page. I want my blog at the top (doesn't everyone) though. I got frustrated playing with it so I just cut it.

So poor integration with the rest of the Live platform is what I want to say.

2. I guess now we have the tech to actually embed WLM into Hotmail and will we see that anytime soon? I have a feeling that the strategy is: everyone must install the WLM desktop client but we permit channel (through this IM) for one-on-one communication. It's a good strategy for WLM except for those people whose WLM are blocked at work. And unlike Gmail, MS doesnt't embed the web-WLM into Hotmail. Gtalk is what kept my Gmail page from closing and as un-usable as Hotmail is (no shortcut, slow, ad-banner), I would really like to use Hotmail just for IM-ing at work. I think THAT is actually will make the web-WLM more successful.
Isaac
Thursday, 08 November 2007 19:46:53 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Isaac,
The widget seems to be working well given that I've gotten three IMs from people in the past hour. I'll forward to the members of the respective product teams about things that could be improved.
Dare Obasanjo
Friday, 09 November 2007 10:44:55 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
hey,

this works on firefox.. doesnt work on IE6 well.. guess it works on IE7..
Dev
Friday, 09 November 2007 11:51:16 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Doesn't really work in IE7 either as my browser kept crashing. Now that may be something corrupt on my end - but ...
Leo
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