Releases: Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, Opera

June 20th, 2006

Three big software releases today:

Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger

You can get Windows Live Messenger final from Live.com. It sports a brand new look, the ability to contact friends on Yahoo! Messenger (soon), folder sharing, et al. Make sure you grab Mess Patch to remove all the junk from Windows Live Messenger and Messenger Plus! Live when it’s out to complete the IM experience.

I’ve had some bad experiences with Windows Live Messenger beta so I’m going to wait a while before upgrading; certainly waiting for Messenger Plus to be updated and Yahoo! Messenger support.

Yahoo! Messenger 8.0 (Beta)

Yahoo has released a beta version of their version 8 messenger. No MSN Messenger integration yet but it seems like you can now write plug-ins for Yahoo! Messenger.

Opera 9

Opera, the browser for the "Firefox is too popular so it must suck, I’m going to use another browser just to be different" crowd has released version 9.

The new marketing campaign gets a big WTF from me - I don’t understand it and it doesn’t tell me why I should use Opera. Opera 9 has integrated BitTorrent, content blocker, widgets, rich text editor support, per-site preferences and thumbnails on tabs.