We have a special treat for today - Ten years ago tomorrow, Microsoft launched one of its most innovative communication services – Windows Live Messenger (then known as MSN Messenger). Throughout its many stages of evolution over the years, Windows Live Messenger – with 330 million users – has become the most widely used free instant messaging service in the world. To celebrate ten fantastic years, we asked Danny Glasser (Partner Development Manager, Windows Live), one of the founding members of the Windows Live Messenger team to share how Microsoft decided to launch Windows Live Messenger. Here’s his story:

In 1997, while working on Microsoft NetMeeting, Danny was dealing with a flaw in the product. Users of NetMeeting, an audiovisual communication client, were having trouble finding the people they wanted to talk to. This wasn’t exactly ideal for a service that billed itself as a collaboration tool, so the team set out to find a fix. The proposed solution: Enable NetMeeting users to maintain a list of the people they cared about, to be able to see when those contacts were online, and to be able to initiate NetMeeting calls easily with those contacts. It was dubbed the “Buddy List” project.

NetMeeting is no more, but what the team came up with ultimately became the world’s number one instant messaging service. Ten years ago today, MSN Messenger made its debut. “It definitely felt like we were working on something special,” said Danny. “I don’t know that I could have predicted accurately the number of people who would use it, but we had a feeling it would be a big thing.”

Looking back, Danny said he’s amazed at how huge Messenger has become. At the outset, scalability was one of the team’s biggest concerns. Inside the hallway of a building on Microsoft’s RedWest campus the team put up a real-time counter showing the number of simultaneous online connections (SOCs) around the clock. They started with tens of thousands and hit the 1 million mark after a year; today, Windows Live Messenger sees about 40 million SOCs.

“To see the influence we have had, not just at Microsoft and with customers, but the way it has affected people's lives, I’m very gratified to have played a part in it” says Danny.

Amazing work indeed! Happy anniversary and congratulations (and thank you) to the Messenger “v1 team” and everyone who has worked hard to make Windows Live Messenger what it is today!

It’s interesting to note that although NetMeeting is no more, people across the globe use Windows Live Messenger to chat during business meetings. Nearly a quarter (21 percent) of Americans recently surveyed use Messenger during business meetings; of those people, roughly 83 percent say they IM “fairly often” during meetings to make after-work plans.

While it’s interesting to visit Messenger’s beginnings it’s exciting to think about how far the product has come.  Over the past year,  Messenger has delivered a host of fun ways to communicate and share including new ways to share photos, personalize how you chat and stay up to date with what your friends are doing across the web, including on Facebook and Flickr.

Care for a fun fact for the anniversary?

(This one is also in honor of the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing.)

Imagine if a single-page letter was mailed for every one of the 1.6 billion Messenger sessions that happen every day. The individual pages lined up one after another would stack up to the moon within a day! The weight would weigh 33 times more than the Endeavor Space Shuttle (with boosters and tank).

And by the way, using Messenger instead saves 2.8 million trees every day.  :-)

The following story is a small example of what happens in the 1.6 billion sessions shared every day on Messenger.

Amanda (USA/Holland): a long distance love story

My name is Amanda and I live in Ohio. My Windows Live Messenger story starts in January of 2004.

I met a guy on a website and we swapped Windows Live Messenger screen names. Using chat and voice chat we talked for over 40 hours in just 4 days! It was the perfect way to stay in touch especially since I was in Ohio and he was in Den Haag Holland. The phone bill would have been insane without the messenger!

We talked each day using Windows Live Messenger and finally met face to face in April 2004 and we immediately got engaged. When he had to return to Holland we continued to keep in touch almost strictly using Windows Live and Hotmail.

In September 2004 he moved from Holland to Ohio so we could get married. I'll never forget how excited and happy I was when he told me he was finally going to move! It was the best day in both of our lives at that point!

We got married on November 20th, 2004 and had a daughter Prudence February 7th, 2006. This year we celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary and none of it wouldn't have been possible without the connection we made thanks to Windows Live Messenger!

We easily logged thousands of hours of chat, voice chat, and webcam between the time we met online and the time we were finally together!

Over 6000 miles separated us but the distance didn't seem quite so big when we could see and hear each other every day.

- Amanda (Ohio, USA)

Windows Live takes privacy and security threats very seriously, employing a variety of ever-improving technical, educational and legal means to help keep customers and their data safe. That said, malicious attacks are always a risk, as hackers use increasingly sophisticated tools to circumvent security measures. And while we believe Windows Live is great platform for developers to build companion services on, we do not endorse services purporting to integrate with Windows Live unless they are built by Microsoft or by developers using official Windows Live APIs available at http://dev.live.com.

Today, Microsoft is filing suit against several people and businesses in which we allege that they undermine the security and privacy of Windows Live customers. This case alleges that the defendants engaged in instant messaging spam and phishing on Windows Live Messenger. (For reference, phishing is an attempt to collect user account credentials under false pretenses. Spimming is the act of sending unsolicited instant messages, usually junk advertisements, to other IM users.) The complaint, Microsoft Corporation v. Funmobile et al No. 09-2-21247-3 SEA, “FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES AND EQUITABLE RELIEF”, can be found in full in this pdf.

This filing is an important step in maintaining and improving the safety of our 320 million active Windows Live Messenger users. With today’s action, Microsoft is sending a clear message that this kind of activity is not allowed and that we’re taking proactive steps to protect our customers accordingly. As this case moves forward, we will keep you updated on progress.

If you would like more information, please check out a more detailed post on our Policy & Issues blog, Microsoft on the Issues that details the specifics of this legal action.

- The Windows Live team

12 more days until the big day - Messenger’s 10th Anniversary!  So here’s another Fun Fact from the Windows Live Messenger team, along with the latest story from one of our Messenger users.

Messenger Fun Fact:
1) The typing indicator () seems trivial today, but actually it was a tricky problem back in the early days – how could you show that someone was entering a message without showing every single character (and their typos). The Messenger team invented the typing indicator for that purpose, which today is used by every chat client.

2) The nudge was introduced with MSN Messenger 7.0 on April 7^th 2005. Since then it is even easier to get attention from your favorite chat partner - even if they might not always appreciate your nudges! ;-)

I didn’t even know that the Messenger team invented the “typing indicator” until today, but I don’t know what I’d do without it! :)  

Now for today’s user story, in his own words…

Lenin from Ecuador writes:

Hi, this is Lenin, writing from Cuenca, Ecuador.

Technology has been one of my passions for my whole life and since Internet appeared I haven’t gone away from my computer. I spent hours in the IRC channels until someone had the genial idea of creating MSN Messenger (in those faraway times).

It was the best thing that could have happened to chats, in all chats and IRCs, people were typing: “Use the Messenger", and everyone was speaking of its big usefulness. After spending a week chatting with someone, it was: "Give me your 'Hotmail' so I can add you to mess".

And since that era, 1999, in all the cybercafés it was heard the nice wav sound: "new message" at every moment. Everyone was using it, times changed, years passed, there were new versions released with new features and in every computer it was essential to have Messenger.

And now, 10 years after, being called Windows Live Messenger and having the chance to change the sound for new messages or nudges, but I don’t do it because I’m used to that "toorooroon", it is part of my life. All my contacts are there, I’ve changed my Passport something like 5 times, but my buddies remain, all my life is there.

Greets...!  

For more great Messenger stories, and to get to know the team who has been helping to build the Messenger you know and love today, check us out the Messenger team blog.

- The Messenger team

We announced in February that Windows Live was piloting a new feature unique to Hotmail we’re calling “quick add.”* Today, we’re happy to announce that Bing – Microsoft’s decision engine – has come to Windows Live Hotmail quick add, allowing you to “Bing and Decide” from the comfort of your inbox.

With Hotmail’s quick add feature, now enhanced with Bing, you can easily search, find, and insert content from the web straight into your e-mail messages. With just one click you can add restaurant reviews, movie times, images, videos, maps and more.

Give it a try:

1. Click New to create a new e-mail message.
2. Select a category from the Quick add pane on the right.
3. Type what you want to find in the Bing search box.
4. Click Insert on the Bing search result that you’d like to add to your message

To try it firsthand, go to Windows Live Hotmail and check out the right-hand side of the screen when composing a new message. Let us know how you like it.

   - Your Windows Live Hotmail team

* Currently available in select languages and geographies (Australia, Canada, China, India, US, and UK)

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The 10th Anniversary of Windows Live Messenger is less than 2 weeks away.  As part of the celebration, we’re posting fun/touching stories from users, and today’s Messenger story was sent to us from Mr. Zhang in China.  It’s a great story. Let us know if you’ve tried this yourself and what your results were! :)

But first, a quick Messenger fun fact:  Windows Live Messenger is available in 76 countries and 48 languages – Messenger users can say “I love you” not only in English, Spanish, German and Japanese (the initial 4 languages that Messenger was released in) but also Chinese, Estonian, Thai, Catalan, Hindi and many more.

How many languages can you say ‘I love you’ in?  Try it out… I could only get to 5… :)

Tips on how to propose via Windows Live Messenger

(Sent in by Mr. Zhang in China)

A few days ago a coworker of mine successfully proposed to his girlfriend via his Windows Live status message. It caused such a commotion around here that everyone and their dog knew. For those of you who are still digging around in your brains for a creative proposing strategy, let me share with you his little success story.  Let’s start off from the beginning. One regular afternoon at work, he suddenly changed his Windows Live Messenger status message to: “Today I am proposing. Everyone, please help me send a text at 19:00 that says: XiaXue, please marry Liu YunShan!” At first we thought he was just playing around, but he told us he was being serious!

So for the whole day, he kept signing in and out, in and out. It was impossible for anyone who was on Messenger with a pair of eyes to not see his message. It immediately became the hottest topic on Messenger as everyone became interested in helping him out.

Right after work, we all found a good place near the main entrance to hide and watch “the show.” I even borrowed our company’s video camera to record that special moment. As planned, the lucky lady appeared at around 6pm. Completely clueless, she walked into our building as we bombarded her with our paparazzi-like photography skills. Before she knew it, he appeared right there in front of her, down on one knee. In his hand was a bouquet of 99 fresh red roses. At that moment, everyone in the entire building melted.

Just when she thought things were over, her cell phone began to ring. One ring after another, the Messenger proposal volunteers’ messages all came flooding into her cell phone. OMG, it must have lasted for at least 5 minutes. She burst into tears as she read the proposal messages:

“Speaking on behalf of the entire company, I strongly ask that you marry XiaoShan! He has been nominated as the best employee for years! With him, at least your stomach will always be filled!”

“XiaoXue, please take good care of XiaoShan”

“XiaoXue, marry XiaoShan! He is mature, stable, career-driven, has a house, almost has a car… Wait, this is what I’m looking for in a husband! PS: he has sexy legs :) Marry him!”

“Sister in-law, please pay mercy to XiaoShan, he has been singing Single Love Song every day, we’re all about to explode. If he sings that again, beat him up! Hehe, wish you guys the best!”

“Beautiful XiaoXue, marry XiaoShan!”

“XiaoXue, marry the beasty XiaoShan!” …

So touching! *sniff*

The proposal strategy was successful: the couple went and registered the next day.

One of my friends heard about this success story and decided to follow suit. He, however, did not ask for help. He just went ahead and proposed to his girlfriend in his status message:

“My dearest Lan, here are 999 roses, please be my beautiful bride, will you marry me?”

After crying her eyes out, Lan agreed. Sure, it was pretty cheesy, but a few days later they registered too. We must admit that this strategy works, and it works pretty darn well.

From these two experiences, I have derived a few key points that I would like to share with all the clueless men out there.

1. When proposing, if you are asking for help (XiaoShan’s case), make sure your words are succinct. This will attract more eyeballs and thus increase your success rate. If you are proposing in your status message (Lan’s case), then you gotta be cheesy. Some cheese and corn will do it best. Below is my friend’s plan. Unfortunately, he has nobody to say it to. Notice how he used a lot of roses?
   
    
2. You must sign in and sign out at least once per minute! Make sure everyone in your list sees your message!
3. Choose your sign-in time wisely. Best time is during working hours when everyone is on Messenger. ; )

Thanks, and good luck!

(For this and other great stories about Windows Live Messenger, see the Messenger team blog)

(Updated July 9 and 10, 2009, to correct the number of languages and markets where Messenger is available, and to correct the name of the contributor of this story.) 

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It’s finally summer in Seattle, and baseball games when the roof on Safeco Field is open are the best. With Windows Live Calendar and subscriptions to a couple of online calendars, I can figure out when the Seattle Mariners are playing at home and what the weather forecast is. Then I’ll know when I should try to score some tickets.

Why subscribe instead of import calendars?

Well, there are a few differences between subscribing and importing:

• If you subscribe to an online calendar, whenever the third-party calendar is updated, your calendar is updated as well. This is great for calendars on the web, like sports schedules. To subscribe to an online calendar, all you need to know is the URL for the calendar and then paste it into Windows Live Calendar.
• If you import an online calendar, you don’t get calendar updates, you get a copy or “snapshot” of the calendar. This is great for uploading calendars from a computer, like migrating from an old calendar to Windows Live Calendar. To import a calendar, you need to save the .ics file to your computer and then import it into Windows Live Calendar.

After a little web searching on Bing, I found the two calendars that I need: the Mariner’s home game schedule for 2009, and the weekly Seattle weather forecast.

To subscribe to an online calendar:

1. Go to Windows Live Calendar and sign in with your Windows Live ID.
2. Click Subscribe at the top of the web page.
3. In the Calendar URL box, paste the URL for the online calendar, name the calendar, change the color (if you want), and click Subscribe to calendar.

Subscribing to the Mariner’s home game schedule

Windows Live Calendar lets you know that your subscription was added. Just click Done to see your calendars. And if the events don't show up on your calendar right away, check back because it will be updated shortly.

And now, just repeat for the Seattle weather calendar.

Voila, the Seattle weather forecast is there, too

Darn, no home games this week. I guess I’ll just have to keep checking my Windows Live Calendar.

Dawn Hollingsworth, CrackerJack fan
- Windows Live team

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