Inside Windows Live Messenger:

  posted by Dharmesh

Greetings Messenger fans –

As some of you noticed, we had a problem from Friday night to Saturday morning where our Messenger service was incorrectly blocking some legitimate IP addresses.  We sincerely apologize for any difficulties this caused our users.  And we want to thank those of you that reported this problem to us so that we could quickly fix it.  Because of your help, the incorrect block was only in place for a few hours. 

As you can imagine, we are very serious about our efforts to block virus, malware and other harmful URLs from being passed on to our users.  And we're continually working to improve this process so that we can keep our users safe without having a negative impact on your Messenger service.

There have been some pretty outlandish speculations on what happened so I'd like to give you some facts about our process for trying to block unsafe URLs and about what happened Friday night:

• There are a number of factors that can be used to determine whether a URL is potentially harmful: number of times a URL is sent, the frequency of the URL being sent, the number of accounts the URL is sent from, manually checking the URL, comparing with other "block lists", etc.
• When a URL is deemed harmful, a block can be instated for a specific URL (i.e. www.<domain>.com/<page>) or an entire domain (i.e. *.<domain>.com)
• This entire process for Messenger is managed by a 3rd party that is a Microsoft partner
• On Friday, Microsoft did not request to block any of the URLs that were accidentally blocked
• The blocks were made by our partner as a result of their process to block harmful URLs
• We are still investigating the specific reason our partner made these incorrect blocks and we will work with them to improve their process for detecting harmful URLs while not blocking safe ones

As always, we're open to feedback on how to make Messenger an even greater service.  And again, our apologies to the users that were impacted by this.

  posted by Dharmesh

Greetings Messenger fans –

I have a great follow-up to the recent news about an incredibly successful first year for the i’m Initiative. Windows Live Hotmail announced today that they are joining in on the i’m Initiative started with Windows Live Messenger.  This means that now you can use either Messenger or Hotmail (or both) and help raise money for the cause of your choice.  Check out Hotmail’s blog for the details. 

This means that for all you passionate i’m participants out there, now’s the time to double down and start having your email use help make a difference like it has with Messenger. 

New to ?  Then go to http://im.live.com to learn more.

  posted by Dharmesh

Greetings Messenger fans –

Let me first introduce myself as I’m new to MessengerSays. My name’s Dharmesh Mehta and I lead the Windows Live Messenger product management team. Although I’ve been a user for many years, I just joined the team that builds and delivers Messenger. It’s been a busy and interesting time as I’ve been learning a ton about the vast array of Messenger capabilities, features and initiatives – some of which I’d never seen before (for a cool game, check out Fishticuffs). So the reason I’m posting here today is to share progress we’ve made with what I think is one of our coolest initiatives.

Many of the things we build are geared at making Messenger better for you – our customers. However, this initiative is about a great thing that Windows Live Messenger lets our customers do for the broader community. The program I’m talking about is the i'm Initiative – where every time someone who has chosen to participate in the i’m Initiative has a conversation using Messenger, Microsoft shares a portion of our advertising revenue with the organization selected by the customer. We started this initiative a year ago, and we’re happy to report that thanks to the support of many great Windows Live Messenger customers, Microsoft has donated $1.3 million to ten of the world’s most effective social cause organizations.

Because of your enthusiasm, we’re also excited to announce that we will be continuing this program. And with no set limit on the amount donated to each organization, the more i’m conversations people have, the more money that goes toward addressing some of the world’s most urgent social issues.

That basic idea is that we believe every successful business has a responsibility to use its resources and influence to make a positive impact on the world and its people, and Windows Live Messenger is helping to further this commitment. The organizations currently involved in the i’m Initiative (and their emoticon codes) are the

• American Red Cross - ready to help, code = *red+u
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America - providing a positive place for kids, code = *bgca
• The Humane Society of the United States - saving animals = *hsus
• National AIDS Fund - fighting AIDS, code = *naf
• National MS Society - joining the MS movement, code = *mssoc
• ninemillion.org - helping 9 million refugee kids, code = *9mil
• Sierra Club - exploring and protecting the planet, code = *sierra
• StopGlobalWarming.org - stopping global warming, code = *help
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure - finding the cure, code = *komen
• UNICEF - helping kids survive, code = *unicef

There are of course many other organizations out there that are confronting our world’s urgent issues that we know people would love to see as a part of the i'm Initiative, and rest assured we’re researching others to add on in the future.

The i’m Initiative is currently open to all residents of the US and you can join at http://im.live.com. It’s completely free for you to join and use Windows Live Messenger, and it takes only a minute to get started. We’re also exploring possibilities for expanding the program internationally in the future, but for the time being this remains a US-only program.

Lastly, on behalf of all of the organizations involved in the i’m Initiative, a heartfelt thanks to all of you who have supported the effort. Just by doing what you do every day, you are making a difference. Keep it up!

Hey all you Messenger lovers!  Everyone loves games, so we wanted to tell you about the Windows Live Messenger Jigsaw Too Sweepstakes going on now through February 28th, 2008 on MSN Games.

You can play the sweeps every day to see if you are an instant winner of a one month free subscription to the Instant Games Clubhouse which grants you all access to exclusive games on Messenger!  Also, you will automatically be entered to win a chance at the Grand Prize which is a Canon Powershot digital camera prize package.   We'll be giving away 3 Grand Prizes, so there are even more chances for you to be a big winner! 

If you haven't played Messenger Jigsaw Too: Photo Edition yet, you have to go check it out. You can upload your own pictures from your "My Pictures" folder right into the Jigsaw Too: Photo Edition game and bammo....you and your friends are putting together your favorite pics from that awesome trip you took together!  Pretty sweet, huh?

Now, go play and stay tuned for our next sweepstakes in March '08.  You can win a 50" plasma screen TV!!

  posted by Jura

Hi all,

Back in November we shipped the final version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 along with several other Windows Live applications and services. A lot of you have already upgraded, and for that we thank you and hope you’re enjoying it as much as we enjoyed building it. Starting soon, we’re going to make it easier for those of you who haven’t upgraded yet to get onto our latest and greatest.

This will happen in two phases. First, everyone running Windows XP or Windows Vista will get a prompt encouraging you to upgrade. When you accept the upgrade, the new unified installer will launch and start upgrading Messenger. While it’s installing, you’ll have the option to download and install other Windows Live applications. You don’t have to take any of them, but we think you’ll like them and hope you’ll give them a try.

It will take a couple of weeks for us to get this upgrade out to all users, so if you don’t get it right away don’t worry, it’s coming. If you don’t want to wait, you can go to http://get.live.com/messenger/overview to download and install Messenger 8.5 right now.

After everyone’s gotten the optional upgrade, those of you still running a beta version of Messenger 8.5 will receive a required upgrade to the final version. When this phase kicks in you’ll be blocked from logging in until you complete the upgrade. The final version is even better and more stable than the beta versions, we want you to have the best experience possible!

A special note for those of you running Messenger 8.5 Beta on Windows XP 64-bit or Windows 2003 Server: the final version of Messenger 8.5 will not install or run on your OS. We don’t want you to get stuck out in the cold so you will not receive the mandatory upgrade to the final version. However, these operating systems won’t be supported by future Messenger versions. You may stay on your current beta version, or to get to a more stable final version we recommend that you uninstall Messenger 8.5 and go back to Messenger 8.1. 

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If you have a comment on this post please comment! For other questions/concerns/discussion topics/rants/raves/etc - please head over to the Windows Live Messenger Newsgroup.