In a move to extend the reach of its Windows Live Messenger chat service, Microsoft today released some tools to add chat to Websites. Any Website can add a chat feature and tap into the 320 million active Windows Live Messenger users. It is quick and dirty way to add a social element to any Website, and at the same time it is yet one more distribution point for Live Messenger (consumers who want to chat on Websites with the feature will have to sign up if they don’t already have an account.).
The growing acceptance of Facebook Connect, which offers Websites much more than chat, is lighting a fire under other Web companies to offer similar services. Chat is the sort of feature that most sites wouldn’t build for themselves, but which increase visitor engagement on a site (even is that is engagement with other users instead of with the site itself).
AIM, ball is in your court.
Why am I thinking of Java applets five years ago?
Exactly. This has been done over and over and over. What is the difference between web chat and a message board anyway? I’d rather chat somewhere more anonymous like http://f2bbs.com
Nice but there have been many chat widgets available over the years that basically do the same thing.
The key is the massive installed base that Live Messenger brings to the table, not any technical novelty.
Any good ones ..I have a drupal site.any reccomendations
drupalmodules.com =P
It would greatly benefit Live Messenger users but unfortunately Live Messenger isn’t that popular in all countries.. And i think it is only popular in the United States.
Live Messenger is the #1 instant messenger worldwide. It’s actually HUGE latam and europe as well as the US. check out Comscore.
James Senior, Live Services Evangelist, Microsoft
one of the things i don’t like about windows live messenger is it has a contact list limit. skype allows unlimited contacts, yet windows live messenger only allows less than 2000.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
more like dead wrong.
The guy is right.
MSFTs Messenger is by far the most popular.
And this move will make it even more.
Hi wats up
MSN is # 1 in Canada as well!
REBR _ZAXO QREAQ
Great post! Check out my site too http://macmaniapodcast.com.
good move…
I just wish it were a bit easier to use. Its not as straight forward as adding Google Friend Connect for instance. I guess I wait until someone makes a component for Joomla.
Oh yes. Google Friend Connect is definitely very easy to install. Facebook Connect is a little more involved, but still manageable. Live Messenger Toolkit is definitely not for the part-time webmaster.
Google Talk has this feature long time ago…
http://www.goog...rvice/badge/New
Vladimir – This is quite a bit more than the Google Badge, check out http://dev.live.com/messenger for more info.
thx
Nice feauture the Google Badge. Does anybody know if Skype has anything similar?
yes: http://www.skyp.../share/buttons/
This is great, but wasn’t this available over a year ago?
Hey Mike,
from our blog post::
We heard from developers that they “want to control the entire experience, just give us APIs and we’ll build it”. To provide the best experience for everyone using Windows Live Messenger there is a certain baseline of functionality that needs to exist. Building this functionality was a lot of effort and while some great implementations were built, most developers felt the effort required was a lot so they asked for tools to make it easier for them to develop faster.
We decided to deliver a set of 16 JavaScript/HTML controls that can be skinned using CSS and extended using the Windows Live Messenger Library. These controls make it very fast for Web developers to let their users connect and share with their friends no matter where they are.
From v1 to v2.5 we also got some great feature requests and we have delivered a bunch of these, included:
Automatic Sign In: Once a user opts into using Messenger on the site by using the “softer” opt-in screen, they can be automatically signed in by the Web site even if they use a different PC.
Cross page state – you can now use this on content portals where users click between pages without losing their signed in status.
Performance – the web based performance has been increased and should be similar to the Windows Live Messenger client when connected via HTTP.
Connecting people who aren’t Windows Live Messenger friends, yet – People have connections/relationships all across the web, we have now made it possible to for users to take these relationships and get to know the people more via IM (both web and client) and then if the user so chooses add that person to their WLM contact list. Anyone who opts into using Messenger on their website makes it possible for the website to play “match maker” for contacts and show the presence of people on any IM client (Web/phone/Xbox/desktop).
How is this superior than using Meembo’s API’s which connect to MSN but also AIM Yahoo and Myspace?
Does it feel strange for users to chat with friends via Meebo, Microsoft, Yahoo, or any IM when at another website? Particularly a new website.
Anyone had success with any IM badge, widget in terms of extending the IM conversation at your site?
I don’t think it’s strange but I guess it’s just a matter of preference. None of these services are forcing users to login so in the end it’s a feature that the user can take advantage of or leave to others.
are there any live site that’s has this implemented that I can check out?
I think the headline is misleading here. AFAIK, this has nothing to do with “chat” in the traditional sense (e.g. IRC). It allows you to embed MSN IM on your site. But this seems all too typically tone deaf from Microsoft these days. I want a service that can help my site users interact. If some set of those use Messenger and can enjoy more features, great. But near as I can tell there is no group chat, no anonymous or third party auth features, and no site-specific ’subcommunity’ stuff. What exactly does this do for the relationship between my site and my visitors other than reduce ALT-TAB?
What Messenger Toolkit does is a little bit more than just chatting with your contacts. It also allows you to chat with other users on the website (of course, provided that they already logged in to Messenger). So even if those other users are not on your contact list, you can still chat with them via the website. A major deal breaker is the lack of group chat functionality / wall-type widget.
you can do multi person conversations of people who aren’t on your buddy list upto 15 people.
you might wanna look at:
http://www.bumpin.com
Does Windows Live Messanger Toolkit expose the video chat and application sharing features?
Video/Audio/App sharing features are not available in the current beta. We are not sure if/when we will add that functionality.
This just looks like more clutter. I think it’s for people that don’t mind their websites looking like a MySpace website. You should put tons of animated gifs around it too. Then it will REALLY look like bad design from the 90’s.
I believe this can be used as online customer support as well. It should not look like myspace-kind-of-page. Using a tool for good or for bad is up to people…
u suk
Any example of sites using it or a MSFT demo page ? couldn’t find one …
Hey – see http://messenge....mslivelabs.com and http://dev.live.com/messenger
thx
Actually, Meebo is so much easier to take a snippet of code and implement in under 3 minutes end to end.
The new messenger only works with MSN’s messenger, whereas you can consolidate and have it completely web based via Meebo. This is a no-brainer unless you happen to be MS fanboy.
Presently Meebo is accessing the Windows Live Messenger network in an unauthorized fashion by hacking into the network and putting end-users at risk by requesting their credentials.
what is this tool very slow?
Doesn’t Yahoo! PingBox do this as well?
Pingbox is more similar to the IM control which is one aspect of the Web Toolkit.
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hai
i love u
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I wrote a PHP-plugin (http://wlmwt.se...g.net/wlmwt.zip) which makes integration in PHP 5 even easier and works well with the sourcecode from the supercool XHTML-generator (http://messenge...mslivelabs.com/). (My script is roughly written: shred it or make use of it as you like
To assist the integration of the Web Toolkit via my plugin I have made an interactive tutorial on setting up the Web Toolkit in less than 30 minutes: http://wlmwt.sefzig.net/ (German).
My Wordpress-Blog already hosts the Webbar, more UI-features are soon to come: http://blog.sefzig.net.
Help needed. Can anyone help jcministries.biz/services figure out which mesenger would be best for chat their on that page? Sincerely Pastor John Crough
Love ya ol. What is this Live messenger thing? We only know gmail n facebook chat.
For the corporate websites it is better to use high professional and advanced live chat applications and software. Check out: http://www.activereception.com, – it is an online support and sales platform with built in live chat features
Totally agree with you, Kate. For business organizations, professional applications are suitable and helpful. They can analyze visitors’ navigation info to help get more potential customers. Try Comm100 Live Chat, a free hosted online chat software.
http://www.comm...0.com/livechat/
This is actually a nice thing for me especially since I am logged into msn all day and would be so convenient if i can chat with my visitors who need some help right on the spot. It beat having to have another app running on my PC just for chatting. What would be cool is if they make it in such a way that the visitor doesn’t have to signup with messenger or have to be logged into it.
facebook connect
OggChat is another one to check out. It is web based and integrates with GMail: Check out: http://www.oggchat.com.
I’ve got alot friends on skype plus Live Messenger. Because I love Live Messenger, is it possible to merge the two to import skype contacts into Live Meseenger
thanks for the post, i tried it on my website for a few months but got the complaints i was expecting about having to sign up for an account so ive opted for the paid version of providesupport