1: Multiple Profiles:
Did you know you can create as many as 6 profiles of your Yahoo Id ..? This is like having 6 aliases of your one Yahoo Id.. So, for different people, you can use different profiles for communication and nobody can find out your Yahoo email address if you use a different profile.
So, to create a new profile, you have to goto this link…Sign in if you arent already Signed in to Yahoo. ..Now click on Create New Public Proflie link and you’ll be taken to a profile creation page where you can enter the details .. You can create profiles of different genders too .. So if you wanna fool your friend, you can create a girl’s id and chat with him .. .. When you sign in to Yahoo Messenger, You’ll see a drop down list of your profiles with which you can send the messege ..

You can login with any of these profiles with your Yahoo password.. (helpful when using a webinterface like Ebuddy or Meebo ) .. Cool na .. ?

2: Extra Mail address:
You can add another email address to your default Yahoo email address.. Consider this case : you created a profile say shahrukh_khan and now if someone sends email to this profile, the email will bounce because there is no Inbox of that address. So if you want to receive email on this address, you can just create another email address within your default Yahoo email address. (You can create only one extra email address on one Yahoo ID) .. To do this, Click on this link
Or
-> Sign in to Yahoo Mail, Click on Options on the top right.
-> Under the Mail Management header, Click on Mail Addresses.
-> Now in the next screen, Click on Get Started link under Extra Email Address header.
-> Choose whatever address you want and click on Check availabilty.
-> If its available, you’ll be taken to an Image verification and then you will have another email address to your Yahoo Id.

You can send emails from this address… Whenever you compose a mail, you’ll get a dropdown list from where you can select the From address. .

3: AddressGuard:
Now this is one feature I love .. ! AddressGuard is a disposable email feature for you to combat spams .. Earlier I used Mailinator for this purpose but Mailinator can be checked by anyone so I stopped using it .. With AddressGuard you can create upto 500 disposable email addresses which you can use for signing up at sites that you consider suspicious .. When you start getting spam on a disposable email address,just delete it and thats the end of it .. .. You can even send messages through this disposable email address .. !
To create disposable address, login to Yahoo Mail and click on Options. Under the Spam header, click on AddressGuard link and then follow the simple procedure to create disposable email address ..
(!) AddressGuard feature isnt there in US version of Yahoo mail … so if you want to use this feature, change your Preferred Content to Yahoo India .. To do so:
Yahoo Mail > Options > Account Information { Enter password } > Under the Member Information header, click on Edit and select the Preferred Content to Yahoo India.. Sign out and then sign in again .. .. You should see AddressGuard in the mail options now .. so start using it .. !!

4: Yahoo Search:
Before Google, Yahoo was considered the best search engine .. (well . . atleast I considered it .. but anyways .. ) .. Although overshadowed by Google, Yahoo still provides some great searching options .. Apart from regular Yahoo Search, there is this Yahoo Mindset which is quite inituitive ..
The concept behind Yahoo Mindset is that it will show you results according to your mindset (cant find another word ) .. It will categorize the search results in two types: Shopping and Researching.. So if you search for Nokia and move the slider to Shopping, you’ll find links where you can buy Nokia cellphones .. and if you move the slider to Researching, you’ll get Wikipedia page on Nokia . .. If you move the slider to the center, you’ll get the normal Yahoo search result … Very innovative .. !
And when we are at it, There is another search utility by Yahoo .. Its AllTheWeb LiveSearch .. It will show search results as you type … very cool indeed .. !
Then there is MyWeb .. You can save your search and share it with your contacts .. I dont feel very comfortable using it .. But you might wanna try … ..

5: Flickr
Now this is for those who dont know what Flickr is .. Those using it must be knowing that you can login to Flickr with your Yahoo Id … Now to the others .. Flickr is one of the best photo sharing websites and it was taken over by Yahoo a while ago .. So now you can sign in to Flickr using your Yahoo Id and merge your Flickr account with your Yahoo id … Those who havent ever used Flickr should try it .. You’ll love it …

Now I am really tired writing all the stuff .. I hope it will be usefull to you ……. .. Keep visiting . !

• The interface: It clearly says “The Future of MSN Messenger” in the main window. They have redesigned the interface yet again .. I said “Wow ..!” when I first looked at it ..! Its more colorful (You can customize the colors) and its more sleek.. You can find most of the common task in the main interface without right clicking .. Just hover over a contact and most useful tasks are visible ..
  

• Offline Messaging: Its finally arrived for MSN Messenger (Oops) … Windows Live Messenger supports Offline messaging now .. It tells you that your messages will be delivered when next time they sign in to the service ..
  
  There is an Offline Message section in options window too :
  
  
• Video Chat: The Video and voice chat is redesigned and it looks sleek ..! This isnt of much interest to me, but others may be interested in it ..
• Shared Search: This was there in 7.5 too .. Its more like Yahoo Messenger’s s: keyword search . .. Just put a keyword and click on Search button and first three results are displayed in the conversation window .. And unlike Yahoo messenger, the search results are shown in multi user conversation windows too …
• Personal Music Message: Guess, they have infact listened to some of my suggestions .. Now MSN Messenger installs a plugin to Windows Media Player that will allow users to set their personal message to whatever song they are listening too .. Better late then never ..
  
  The link in the status message opens music.msn.com site for the song and album information .. It gives a notification window when its changing your status :
  
• Better Contact Options: Phew .. This is the best thing they have added IMHO .. Now you can set Nicknames of your contacts, so its easy to identify who is who .. As I stopped using Messenger Plus after Sandi’s investigations, this was the feature that I found missing since .. Thankfully they have added it ..
  
• In built virus scanning: You can install a free virus scanner from Windows Live Security centre. And then all files you share will be first scanned for viruses before you can run them .. The thinking is good … but how many people will trust Microsoft’s antivirus ..? Anyways its free so I decided to test it .. But it didnt installed on my system (it got stuck on 27% ) .. I guess it was due to poor performance of my connection …
  
• Shared Folders: The file sharing is now redesigned as Shared Folders .. It didnt work on my system as it requires NTFS..

Any Problems ..?
Apart from complicating file transfers, I didnt find anything mentionable as annoying .. The resource usage is increased though .. Most features require your contacts to be using the same version to work as I wasnt able to send or receive files from my friends who were using 7.5 version ..

Overall ..
Overall I find it good .. With this version, MSN messenger is now coming at par with Yahoo Messenger providing roughly all the features available in YIM … Both have changed voice chatting to PC to PC calling .. Both have integrated search features and photo sharing features … Both now eats same amount of memory (wasnt this expected ?) .. Anyways .. lookwise Windows Live Messenger appeals to me .. Lets see what features they will add in the final version ..

I have uploaded more screenshots to Flickr and added more comments there .. Check those too ..

• First feature that I will like in any program is it to become less bloated. For messenger clients, having the programs as modular will be a good thing. Although I dont use Gaim but I still like its modular features. If you dont use Voice and Video chat that frequently, why load those modules into memory and increase the resources usage ..? The best thing about Gaim is that you add the modules that you use and the ones that you dont, just dump them ..
   So, (Apropos YIM)  photo sharing is a good feature but how many people actually use it ..? Or how many people use it on regular basis ..? Wont it be good if  you can turn off certain “features”  that you dont frequently use ..? (I turn off Nudge and Wink the moment I install MSN Messenger and IMvironment and Audibles in Yahoo Messenger.)  I would love if I could decomplile that radio from Yahoo messenger somehow .. 
• Centralised customization: I am not sure what to call this ..  Its just that whatever customization I make to the messenger program, that is, my font settings – my avatar settings – configuration – all that should be saved to the central server so that whenever I reinstall or log in from a different computer, I get my customized settings and I dont havt to configure it everytime .. Yahoo saves some of this already  like ignored list, mobile settings but I have to manually configure the options about disabling the YIM from Windows Startup or fonts or webcam and all that .. When the installer run or when I log in from a different computer, the program should check for my customized settings on the IM Server and configure itself like that automatically .. that will be kewl .. 
• Advanced contacts features: Such as I dont know how many people have me on their contact list.. There should be some option to find this out and an option to deny friendship (whatever) would be as welcome. Many people have added 4 of my profiles in their list .. If they group message, I get 4 copies of the same message .. There should be an option where I could delete myself from their contact lists .. Some of my friends will also want to find out who has put them on ignore but I can live without this feature .. 
• More functionality in chatrooms: The conference starter should have some advanced rights such as kick user or disable posting links in the conf window .. These features can be directly ripped off from IRC (Don’t look at me like that .. File sharing was also ripped from there ) .. The features of ICQ can be a source of inspiration to messenger developers .. 
• It will be good if that photo sharing feature can be extended to conferences too ..So that I can show an image to many people at once .. As Yahoo has purchased Flickr, I am sure they will add it to YIM some day … So it could work if I can upload a picture to Flickr and share it with my friends directly from the Conference window .. Just like the simple photo sharing thing in YIM works ..
• I hate it that I cant set nicknames for my contacts on MSN Messenger .. This is the only feature I liked in Msnplus so that I can name my contacts in a way I can remember them .. ~ ~ I have found another way ~ ~ is one of my friend’s display name .. It takes half of the messenger window’s width and I always forget who is it .. And then when someone changes his display name .. You are lost .. So please .. MSN people .. give us the option to edit contact details ..
• I like that s: keyword search in Yahoo messenger .. I’ll be glad if they add it to conference windows too . .And some extensions to the features like Image search or blog search ..  Although I am skeptical that they will let the users to configure which search engine to use .. .. But still I like Yahoo Search too .. ..
• I have always wondered why MSN people havent yet added the support of Media Player to MSN Messenger… That is changing the status to whatever song is being played .. Although you can use plugins for that why isnt its being natively supported when both WMP and MSN are Microsoft’s products .. I use Foobar and a plugin for changing Yahoo status but how kewl it will be if the messenger will let you configure your media player and lets you choose if you want to show what song are you listening to and all that ..

Hmm.. Thats all I can think of now .. I have deliberately left out encrypted connections because I feel its more bane than boon … I’ll add more when I think of them .. You people too contribute to the list ..  ..

Yahoo and Microsoft will now command upwards of 44 percent of the market, according to research firm Radicati Group, putting new pressure on market leader AOL, which holds around 56 percent market share with AIM and ICQ. And according to recent comScore Media Metrix numbers, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger together reach 33.5 million unique users each month, more than the 23 million running AIM.

It is not clear though that will they announce a new multiprotocol client or just connect their network .. I hope they wont go ahead and kill rivals this fashion.. When they are opening up, they should make it an open protocol like Xmpp . .. Although I see no reason to believe that they will encourage more IM service to join them .. I think this move is more in defence to Google Talk .. Anyways .. Lets see what happens ..
I hope that good features from both the client will add up and bad features will be minimized ..

The link to the story is here

A preliminary

The instant messeging has been around for quite a long time now. What started with Unix’s chat program and slowly matured into IRC and then ICQ, was soon to become big business. I wont talk about the Irc’s history or how it matured but come straight to point .. The instant messenger users can be
classified into two types.. First, who are new to instant messeging, or email or the Internet itself and the second one who have been here for a long time . ..
The first type of people- who have just found out chatrooms, take pleasure in chatting in open chatrooms … Where they meet new people, befriend them, flirt with them, flame them and et all .. They are in process of increasing their contacts over the net .. Now the second type , since they’ve been around for some time now, they have many contacts on their lists .. Most of the time when they come online, they talk to their contacts and create closed chatrooms where the participants are invited and not everyone can join .. They may occasionally goto the open chatrooms for time pass but more often this is the case ..
My journey with Internet started long time ago .. Those days they had Yahoo’s Java chat and a program called Cheetah Chat for people not using Java chat .. As I enjoy chatting, my contact list soon grew big enough .. And now these days, for most of the time I am online, I am conversating with my existing friends and I seldom get time to goto chatrooms and flirt and all that .. So you see these closed chatrooms or just “Conferences” from here on (in YIM’s syntax) are as important as Open Chatrooms (Chatrooms from here on) …

Features

Now the Instant messengers have graduated from just being text messengers to Voice messengers, they support live webcams, you can send and recieve files with them, share photos and more (?) … The nuisance have also grown, the popular clients are bloated with many un necessary features, there are security threats, software called booters to crash your client. The resource usage have since increased manyfold …

Comparison

I will compare two popular clients here .. Yahoo Messenger and Msn Messenger. I have deliberately left AIM out because I dont use it .. And I am sure everyone on the Internet have atleast a Yahoo Id and a Msn id .. So the majority of the users wont be left out ..

What I like in Msn Messenger

• 1. First thing that I like about it is its integration with my operating system .. (This is a nuisance to most people though, sometime to me too ) .. It will integrate very well with Outlook or Outlook express and tell you if your contacts are online or if you have any unread messege (if you use Hotmail) ..
• 2. Application sharing and Whiteboard is another nice addon .. It can be very useful sometime ..
• 3. One good thing about Msn is Passport .. The Passport Network is one of its biggest strengths .. Passport enabled website will show if you are online, and you can use a single Passport Id accross all supported websites (Liked it ? Read on, you will hate it ) .. And yeah .. you can choose your Passport Id anything as you want .. If can be admin@yoursite.com too ..
• 4. As Public chatrooms were closed by Microsoft, only Conferences are left .. and in Conferences, you have the basic set of features .. .. ( I dont seem to find any other good thing about Msn )

What I dislike in Msn Messenger

I wont be very considerate here >:) ..

• 1. The first deterrent in using Msn Messenger for me is sharing my email address .. So if you are in some conference, and a new person joins, he will know your email address .. I simply hate this ..
• 2. Then there are those ugly emoticons and nudge (ewww) ..
• 3. When you are online and someone invite you to a conference, you get added without your consent .. it never asks you .. what a crap .. I dont understand what is the logic behind this “feature” …
• 4. I hate those ugly advertisements in every part of Messenger .. You need a pack of winks ? Pay for it .. You need dynamic avatar ? .. Pay for it .. Eww ..
• 5. [Edit: This was added later] I just found out that I cannot ingore a person when I am in conference .. I am sure this is a bug and it wont be there in the final version .. When I tried to block a person, it said “Your block of xxx does not apply to this conversation” ..
• 6. Whenever I click on any link in Msn Messenger .. say to check Hotmail , a new window of Internet Explorer opens and not my default browser .. And for the fact that Maxthon can handle DDE messeges for other programs too, it seems that it is hard coded in the Messenger to call Internet Explorer, so even Maxthon can not install hook on the new window The newest version of Maxthon 1.5 takes care of this..
• 7. Having one set of lock and keys is dangerous .. So if your Passport account is compromised by any way .. say someone installed a keylogger on your system and got hold of your Passport account info, then all the sites which you access with Passport are compromised .. This is a grave security threat ..
• 8. The messege archive is saved in text format, without any encryption .. So anyone can look whats inside them ..
• 9. The interface of Msn Messenger conversation window is such that number of messeges that come in a window is very less .. A typical “Your friend says: ” and then a newline before the messege .. This takes so much space …
• 10. No offline messeges support

What I like in Yahoo Messenger

• 1. The best thing in Yahoo Messenger is support for multiple profiles. You can have as many as six aliases to your default Yahoo Id and when you login to Yahoo Messengers, you can select which profile you use when talking to anyone .. This takes care of sharing email address problem .. No one can find out your email address lest you tell them ..
• 2. Offline messeges support. A weakness in MSN Messenger is YIM’s strong point .. This together with Mobile support makes a great combination .. Your contacts can reach you even when you are not online too ..
• 3. Stealth settings: Another great feature, you can set whom you want to appear online or offline .. Comes very handy when you are talking to your friends and not want to appear online to office people .. There are more utilization too
• 4. I like the Yahoo Search integration in YIM since version 7 onwards .. The s: searchword shortcut is very usefull for me ..

What I dislike in Yahoo Messenger

• 1. The offline messeges support have been made somewhat jerky since version 6. All the offline messeges are deleted when you see them and they are not saved even when archiving is enabled .. The only way to save all offline messeges is to reply to them .. Bad point ..
• 2. Less features in Conferences .. The Conference starter should atleast have power to kick users out of the room .. Photo sharing and Yahoo Search integration should also be done in Conferences too ..
• 3. What is the use of “hidden emoticons” ..? I mean what is the logic behind making some emoticons hidden from user ..? They can always find them out .. “Hidden emoticons” should be also added to emoticon list ..
• 4. Resource utilization: Yahoo Messenger is slowly becoming a bloatware .. The resource usage for YIM 7 is around 42 Mb on my system .. further open IM windows add to that .. MSN Messenger 7.5 on the other side takes very less resource .. It takes around 18 Mb with a conf window open ..
• 5. So many booters around .. I have to run antibooter software most of the time to discourage booters .. This also adds to resource usage of YIM .. Most of the time Antibooter + Yim (1 Conf and around 3 IM windows generally) takes around 74 Mb of Ram .. .. I remember 64 Mb was sufficient for Win 95 (an operating system) and this is a software .. Eek ..
• 6. What is the point of Online Installation ..?? If you want to upgrade Yahoo Messenger, you have to run the installer which downloads the files from Yahoo servers to install .. If network connection fails (very frequent for me), installation fails .. And you cannot run Yahoo Messenger while its downloading new installation files .. I dont see the logic behind this .. Anyways, you can find out the installation file by checking your firewall log and then download it with your download manager ..:P
• 7. I dont understand why Voice Chat was replaced with complicated Call feature .. Only addon that I see is you can now save voice messeges as archive ..
• 8. That advertisement frame in chatrooms .. It irritates me a lot ..Sometime when it gets refreshed, it changes it size and takes more than half of the chat window .. Ewww

Hmm.. So those were some of the issues that I notice daily while using messengers .. I havent added many bloat things to dislikes as you can disable them through preferences .. As most of the time Audibles and IMVironts are disabled on my system … In the next part I will talk about features that I want to see in my favorite IM Clients .. So .. keep a watch ..