Web Based MSN Roundup
Web based instant messaging is becoming more and more popular as people want to use MSN or AIM at uni or work, where the application isn’t installed.
I’ve notice a large amount of people on my contact list tend to use the services, so I’m going to do a bit of a roundup of web based MSN services.
MEEBO: This is my personal favourite for many reasons. Firstly, it’s AJAX powered. So basically… no popups. It’s all done in one page. It also allows you to sign into other services like AIM, Jabber, gTalk and Yahoo messenger. It’s a Silicon Valley based project and has a pretty decent budget.
(9/10)
MSN Web Messenger: This is Microsoft’s own version of web based MSN. It uses popups for everything which can be very annoying, and is also very image heavy. These two features (problems?) leave it to be quite clunky and annoying to use. However, if you want something that very closely reassembles the normal MSN client, this is the choice for you.
(6.5/10)
eBUDDY (aka eMESSENGER): This seems to be the big favorite of people on my MSN. I was surprised when I logged in, it seems to have changed a lot since I gave it a try about 12 months ago. To its advantage it keeps all conversations in one popup window, providing tabs within. The interface however is really cluttered. My main beef with it is that it a) Displays a display picture advertising eBuddy b) Sends an automatic message to anyone you talk to advertising the service. This second one in particular annoys me. I hate stupid auto messages. eBuddy in my experience seems to be the most popular client out there at the moment.
(4/10)
I LOVE IM: I’d never heard of this site until it was suggested to me by Doc. To be honest it surprised me. Despite using popups it is surprisingly fast and easy to use. It’s quick in loading, but does refresh the windows to load good content. It also uses the native MSN emoticons, which some of the other clients lack.
(7/10)
MESSENGERFX: I’d also never heard of this one, and so it was a huge surprise when it was probably one of the best I had seen. It’s AJAX based like Meebo, and includes all your conversation windows as virtual windows inside a single page. Unlike Meebo, it is aimed solely at MSN users, and lacks several features like history. Being MSN based though, it does use the native MSN emoticons, which is one of my biggest bugs about Meebo. It unfortunately does display an ad for the client as your display pic.
(9/10)
I also tried MSN2GO, but couldn’t get it to successfully log in.
In conclusion, I expected meebo to be a clear winner, but I was hit with the surprise contender of messengerfx. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but are both easily ahead of all the other clients out there. If you want to log your conversations, and use more than just MSN, meebo is the client for you. However, if your looking for something that acts similarly to MSN and is easy to dive right into at uni or work, messengerfx is probably the way to go.
viplav said,
August 1, 2006 at 10:29 pm
if MESSENGERFX is not so good(as said by you) then y u have given 9/10 to it
johnsee said,
August 1, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Where do i say it’s not so good?
I think I said:
“…so it was a huge surprise when it was probably one of the best I had seen.”
dan said,
August 1, 2006 at 11:19 pm
im sorry viplav… “err” (in a jeering tone) lol
Michael said,
August 29, 2006 at 11:23 pm
eBuddy is indeed the most popular (Ajax) web based service: over 30 million users worldwide.
I always use eBuddy : prefer to have my conversation in tabs on one window. It is also nice that most MSN/Yahoo/AIM features are supported on eBuddy (most emoticons, picture, nudges etc)
For me it looks the most like the real thing and has improved a lot on speed.
hello said,
September 12, 2006 at 12:20 am
OH FUCK OFF
Amber said,
September 14, 2006 at 8:02 am
nice ebuddy ad ;)
for me, i have to use imhaha and koolim now because of course university admins are retards and block any IM that gets in thier way.
a mattar of time before they block these two.
Nancy said,
September 19, 2006 at 2:13 am
Yea i also use koolim.com at school. it still works.
nicole said,
September 22, 2006 at 3:49 am
Yes, koolim hasnt gotted blocked yet. i like to use this site.
kel said,
January 8, 2007 at 9:36 pm
any one got any ideas of how i can get on msn at school as they have blocked most sites or anyone have site that may not be bloked please message back :D
thanks
kel
amanda said,
January 26, 2007 at 2:29 am
Check out the new embedded version of Kool IM.
www.koolim.com
LuzTeTT said,
August 7, 2007 at 11:31 am
My school administrators have blocked just about EVERY website I could possibly use … and they’ve logged all of my access attempts … and I’m absolutely sure they’re watching my screen with desktop monitoring software. >.
sarah said,
September 27, 2007 at 2:37 am
this sucks none of them work on my computer at school!
car tag ms said,
October 21, 2007 at 7:15 am
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