I've had it installed for a week now.. and Im ready to share my thoughts..

I like the look and feel, its got the updated skin and has retained the same feel so I'm not having to spend precious time figuring out where things went.. of course if you update your messenger from an ancient version then what I just said doesnt apply and its your own fault for not keeping up! haha..

I do love the 'sharing folders' feature that will finally allow people to share files without worrying about firewall issues! Naturally I expect the mean spirited grandfathers at RIAA to formulate some kind of lawsuit to stop such a feature because it could become another avenue for mp3 sharing..

Live Spaces, Live Search, Live Toolbar, Rhapsody??? Funny how one can learn about all kinds of new services Microsoft is pumping out under their 'Live' flagship all through this 'little' tool.. I dont think I'll be using them but I'm starting to think that 'messenger' might need to be renamed 'portal' and messaging contacts is just a part of what this new application can do.

I decided to test the application by tryin my unique logic on it.. and was surprised. Heres why, I saw the 'Find a contact or number..' textbox at the top and decided to punch in a friends phone number and hit enter. The search result suggested that I could call the number.. I clicked on that suggestion and up popped the Live Call application... apparently Microsoft has partnered up with Verizon and now do VOIP (charges apply). Very cool but Im fine with just texting people on their mobile devices if I really need to get a hold of them, which this can do also.

A worrying concern is that with all this activity going on (graphical ticker at the bottom of the messenger of latest videos - video carousel/etc).. I cant help but think that from a bandwidth perspective this 'little' application is taking up a larger chunk of traffic than one would expect. I luckily have broadband service but that doesnt mean I want my rich client showing me things I dont want and use my bandwidth/cpu processing also.. so Im gonna go de-activate such things (video carousel) immediately.

This 'little' application has a 61MB memory footprint and takes up 28MB disk space. I can see why products such as Trillian and Jabber are becoming popular, but for those who have mainly Microsoft (and now Yahoo! - yes you can message them directly too now) buddies.. this is the tool of choice.

Note: To utilize all the cool functionality, it does require that the person you are messaging with to have the same version (or really close) of the messenger too.