Messenger 9, GTalk integration, Messenger API and OSX client

In a presentation to the Georgia Institute of Technology's IEEE Student Branch yesterday, Microsoft employee and Georgia Tech AndrewJenks had some surprises in store. "It wasn't originally planned to beannounced yesterday, but when he found out he was coming down (sincethis is his alma mater) he wanted to announce it", so instead of hisplanned talk on "Life and development at Microsoft", he spent the hourannouncing a new Messenger API - "the Tech Preview will be releasedduring MIX 08 and the Beta 1 will be released when WLMessenger 9 shipsin late 08 or early 09", according to Steven Hollingsworth (knownonline at Neowin and elsewhere as AmpCoder), a Georgia Tech student andIEEE Student Chapter member who attended the presentation.
According to his "Ampcoder" post at Neowin,Hollingsworth said "The API is very basic right now but by the time thefirst beta is released, the team hopes that they can include fullsupport for everything that the full messenger client uses, includingaudio/visual protocols and other things on top of the basic textmessaging and nudge messaging that the API currently includes".Hollingsworth was upset that he didn't bring a camera, but did takenotes on the presentation:

Internal builds are already at WLM 9 and includes many of the APIcomponents. They have a team working on multi-person audio/video chatfor WLM that may or may not be in 9, but should be in by 10. They arealso trying to work out a way for WLM users to chat with AIM/GTalk/ICQusers like the way Yahoo! works now, and they have an internal versionthat works with GTalk already (but very basic). MS will no longerupdate the MSN Messenger for Mac, but they are going to release a brandnew client for Mac OS X that is according to him "Really, really cooland awesome" but he would not provide anymore details due to his NDA.

Those plans may change, Hollingsworth quoted Jenks as saying, but"this is the current schedule". Apparently Jenks provided quite adetailed demo, described by Hollingsworth:

Quote:

One feature of the API he demonstrated was he created a VistaSidebar gadget that showed a single contact and their status. Doubleclicking on it opened up a chat, dragging text, images, or files to thegadget automatically started a file transfer or sent the text. Anotheruse was for servers "talking" to administrators, and he showed how hecould have a server linked with the API that would alert the adminthrough WLM by text whenever the HDD space was low and he could getthat forwarded to his cell phone. and he also showed a user-created appthat would show exactly where all of your friends were in the worldusing some of the abilities of the API and the information provided byyour contacts. Also, he showed how he could recreate the entireWLMessenger program (with his horrible UI that he joked about) in onlya little over 400 lines of code, with full chat/nudge/file transfersupport between it and the real version of WLM.

Some additional tidbits, including news of a newer version of Windows Live Messenger for the Xbox:

Quote:

He did all of his coding in Visual C#, and he said that a newerversion of the Server API would be released soon. Oh, he said that theWLM that is integrated into the Xbox Live platform was version 7, andthey are currently working on upgrading that to WLM 8.5 and possiblyeven 9.
I think that is about everything, we talked for a couple of hoursafter the presentation, but that is all covered under beta NDAs that weare both under.

So just to review, according to what Hollingsworth reported that Jenks said:

New API coming for Messenger, hopefully including "full support for everything the full messenger client uses"
API Tech Preview to be released at Mix08, Beta 1 API ready with Messenger 9 final
Messenger 9 ships in late 08 or early 09
MS is trying to work out a way for WLM users to chat with AIM/GTalk/ICQ: basic internal version of GTalk working now
Brand new version of Messenger for Mac OS X coming - "really cool and awesome", MSN Messenger for Mac will not be updated
Xbox Live, now using Messenger 7, will be upgraded to 8.5 or possibly 9

And even more annoying

Just look at *some* of the features below!

LiveSide.net grabbed, posted (and later, at Microsoft’s request, pulled) the feature list for WLM 9.0. On the feature list for the beta of WLM 9 (according to a cached version of LiveSide’s list):

Multiple Points Of Presence Support - Now you can sign intoMessenger v9 from several different locations and remain signed in, Inv8.5 and under, signing in at a new PC will sign you out anywhere else
Signature sounds - Make sound signatures instead of just graphical ones
Per contact sounds - chose a sound to associate with each of your contacts’ actions
Animated Display Pictures - now you can use animated .gif files as your display picture
Links in Status Message - Links in the status message are now clickable
SPIM reporting - report and block users who spam you via IM

So far no word on when Microsoft plans to make the WLM 9 betaavailable privately or publicly. And still no update on when the finalrelease is due, though it sounds like late 2008/early 2009 is the working target. (And so far, no mention from the Softies of the alleged GTalk integration.)
Meanwhile, speaking of Microsoft and Live services, Microsoft’s Live Search engine lost query-share for the month of October, according to data from ComScore.
Microsoft’s loss of .6 percent was Google’s gain. Comscore reportedthat the Google sites increased their search ranking to 58.5 percent ofU.S. searches, gaining 1.5 share points over September’s total. Yahoosites ranked second with 22.9 percent, followed by Microsoft sites with9.7 percent. Ask Network’s share was 4.7 percentand Time WarnerNetwork’s 4.2 percent.
Microsoft’s goal of getting to 30 percent search share within three to five years is looking pretty elusive right now….

You can download Messenger 9 here