I tried using Microsoft Live Messenger, the heir to the MSN Messenger legacy. MSN Messenger was a serviceable option for people who did not have Skype. I tried using Live Messenger today with my mom who lives in Israel.
To my surprise, when I tried to connect and use my trusted Logitech Quickcam Pro webcam, which worked for the better of 3 years and does so faithfully with Skype day in and day out, I was told by Live Messenger that I did not have a webcam or audio devices. Welcome to 2009, but no audio? Guess what, it all still works with Skype and worse off, even with the long in the tooth Windows Messenger.
Looking at Yahoo! Answers for some direction, I found out that the accepted answer was, well, ‘there’s no answer and something is wrong’. Windows Live being Microsoft’s moniker for the startup way and the new spirit reinvigorating the giant software company, I went to the development team’s blog. Maybe I could post my issue there, at least as a comment. Sadly, Microsoft continues to disappoint. The comments a post about a new feature about ‘3D emoticons’ all talk about problems and issues with Live Messenger. Any responses? no. How many comments? Look at the image below. Why would I share my comment with them? Do they care?
It is disheartening that new features, as crucial as 3D emoticons is, take precedence over the meat and potatoes of instant messaging, like audio and video chat. If Microsoft is looking to change, become more accessible, more like a startup or worse, like Google, they should LISTEN. The worst evidence of their deaf ears is the URL of the blog: “MessengerSays.spaces.live.comâ€. They say, we listen.
Microsoft needs a conversation. Not a monologue. They have the resources, to listen to people’s comments. We want their products to work and comments on a blog show the best example of them caring back about us. Until then, Messenger is uninstalled.
