4 ms·

Live Messenger had essentially become irrelevant long before the Skype purchase. Most of my contact list had moved to gtalk, and of course for a lot of people i

Live Messenger had essentially become irrelevant long before the Skype purchase. Most of my contact list had moved to gtalk, and of course for a lot of people in the in-Facebook functionality replaced it.

dpark 14y ago
I wouldn't call a product with 300+ million active users irrelevant. However, it wasn't on a significantly upward trajectory anymore. Google was very smart to tightly (and smoothly) integrate its chat service into its mail service. They did an excellent job leveraging a successful product to turn what was basically a me-too product into another very successful product. Ditto for Facebook, I guess, although I think they were actually pretty late to the game, considering how obvious a fit it was.
- corresation 14y ago
  I have to be a little skeptical about Microsoft's claims. I was one of those active users in that I'd registered my hotmail account when I installed Windows 7, and Messenger came along for the ride - as with tens if not hundreds of millions of others - however it had long been replaced with other services. Not least because it became more and more obnoxious. It was a very self-important little IM.
  - dpark 14y ago
    I'm confused. Were you logging in every month to a product you didn't use? If not, you weren't in the active users set.
    - corresation 14y ago
      You aren't confused, though apparently that is sarcastic? Windows 7 automatically logs into Messenger if you follow the default behaviour and associate your hotmail account.
      - dpark 14y ago
        I wasn't being sarcastic. I was legitimately asking what the scenario is that would have you logging into Messenger on a regular basis while never using it. I'm still not clear what scenario has you logging into Messenger automatically on Windows 7. Were/are you running the Messenger client? I'm not aware of any Win7 SKU that shipped with Messenger. That's part of Windows [Live] Essentials. Maybe some OEMs shipped with this preinstalled? I don't recall Windows 7 by itself ever asking me to provide it with my LiveId/Microsoft Account.
      - jimbobimbo 14y ago
        It's Windows 8 that does it. Windows 7 and earlier require Windows Essentials to be installed.

dpark 14y ago

I wouldn't call a product with 300+ million active users irrelevant. However, it wasn't on a significantly upward trajectory anymore. Google was very smart to tightly (and smoothly) integrate its chat service into its mail service. They did an excellent job leveraging a successful product to turn what was basically a me-too product into another very successful product. Ditto for Facebook, I guess, although I think they were actually pretty late to the game, considering how obvious a fit it was.

corresation 14y ago
I have to be a little skeptical about Microsoft's claims. I was one of those active users in that I'd registered my hotmail account when I installed Windows 7, and Messenger came along for the ride - as with tens if not hundreds of millions of others - however it had long been replaced with other services. Not least because it became more and more obnoxious. It was a very self-important little IM.
- dpark 14y ago
  I'm confused. Were you logging in every month to a product you didn't use? If not, you weren't in the active users set.
  - corresation 14y ago
    You aren't confused, though apparently that is sarcastic? Windows 7 automatically logs into Messenger if you follow the default behaviour and associate your hotmail account.
    - dpark 14y ago
      I wasn't being sarcastic. I was legitimately asking what the scenario is that would have you logging into Messenger on a regular basis while never using it. I'm still not clear what scenario has you logging into Messenger automatically on Windows 7. Were/are you running the Messenger client? I'm not aware of any Win7 SKU that shipped with Messenger. That's part of Windows [Live] Essentials. Maybe some OEMs shipped with this preinstalled? I don't recall Windows 7 by itself ever asking me to provide it with my LiveId/Microsoft Account.
    - jimbobimbo 14y ago
      It's Windows 8 that does it. Windows 7 and earlier require Windows Essentials to be installed.