Whoa! Messengers are a rage and all set to make e-mails redundant...but for storage facilities!
Just look at the new .NET messenger (MSN Messenger 4.5 in new avatar) with a pleasant interface and loads of features. If Yahoo had it all, it introduced a unique ’IMVironment’ and theme concept. How far would AIM and ICQ be, with a million users globally?
Now imagine a typical problem for a user subscribing to all of these services - Me. I connect to the net using dial up connection from my home PC. MSN messenger logs in before Yahoo! Messenger 5. Then a small square box pops from bottom-right corner telling me that I have ’n’ messages in my hotmail and I click on it. It opens my browser. By this time Yahoo! Messenger pops a rectangular box and a message box giving me a similar message. Clicking on it, stops the loading of hotmail web page and starts loading Yahoo! page. Then some online friends want to chat with me from Yahoo! and then from MSN and ultimately my desktop is all cluttered up.
Have any of you faced a similar problem?
Have any of you heard that India has great IT potential? India can make competing softwares. I believe that...but...I wish we could lead and be innovative rather than copy.
I stumbled upon Indiatimes Messenger 2.0. Before downloading the 1.52 MB setup file, I thought that what’s the point in using yet another cluttering source and besides, how many friends use Indiatimes email service as compared to Yahoo or MSN? But then there was something that caught my eye.
Its a 5-in-one messenger: Now what’s that? Well it’s a single interface that connects you to 5 messenger services viz., Indiatimes, Yahoo!, AIM, ICQ and MSN...all at the same time. Its amazing! It works like this.
You need to have an account at Indiatimes first. The messenger will guide you to the page where you can get an account for free - the usual registration stuff. So you enter the id and password and you are ’’authenticated’’ as they call it. You can then change/user where there are options of the other 4 services. Select one, say Yahoo!, then enter Yahoo a/c id and password and you are connected to Yahoo. Then connect to MSN and so on.
DOES THAT BUG YOU? Well actually this is only a one-time operation. If you select ’’Remember my id and password’’ option, then you DO NOT have to go through any of these hassles again. Just give your Indiatimes a/c id and password and you are connected to all the services.
The layout is neat and simple...no cluttering. It has all basic features such as sending and receiving instant messages, sending and receiving URLs, search and add friends, block a contact, having minimized icon in taskbar and system tray, emoticons, online status (I am Online, I am away etc) indicator, changing font type, size and colour. It indicates online/offline friends and incoming messages at bottom right corner, with customized sound alerts et al.
What is different?
Emoticons: The emoticons have Indianized versions like [aunty], which looks like South Indian lady with big eyes, ’bindi’ and hair bun, and they look more 3 D such as the new MSN ones.
5 Friend Lists in Single Window: The connect to 5 services at one time gives all your friend list in a single window interface clearly distinguished as offline and online by grouping as well as by changing the light indicator on left of each name. It’s Amazing in the sense that it imports your friend list from respective servers and arranges them as Offline Contacts 1. Indiatimes 2. Yahoo 3. MSN etc with a +/- sign on left side. Below is Online Contacts 1. Indiatimes 2. Yahoo 3. MSN etc. The +/- sign. Similar to folder tree structure.
Cross-messenger conference:
The unique difference is the conference features. The Indiatimes messenger user can invite friends across the 5 services to chat in a single window. Thus a friend in AIM can chat with another in ICQ and Yahoo. The conference can be used for more serious purpose and transcripts can be saved or printed.
Indian Context:
It has Indian Weather, stocks and News access, which are instantly loaded with button click in same window. The News is mainly in Indian context and includes Indian News, Cities News, Health news, Entertainment, International News, Infotech News etc. The stock options indicate the day’s gainers on BSE and NSE. The weather report indicates min and max temperature and sunny/rainy day in major Indian cities. If you need more information, click on the link ’’more’’ and it takes you to appropriate section in Indiatimes website. Similar to Yahoo! but with Indian users in mind.
There are other subtle advantages like any web page referenced through messenger opens in new browser. So it does not stop one browser page from loading and starts another. It indicates when person opposite is typing out a message
But besides the above cross-messenger application I do not approve of Indiatimes Messenger. This is because of
1)There is no file transfer feature.
2)There is no provision of chatting using microphones and speakers.
3)No video or web cam unlike Yahoo!
4)You cannot send messages to mobile like Yahoo
5)No IMVironments like Yahoo! So no Yahoo fighting
6)The messenger can be connected by dial up or LAN but it does not connect through proxy servers or firewalls.
Ho hum! If you feel that these drawbacks are trifle and the 5-in-1 feature is still good, here is one SUPER drawback:
There is no security!!!!! There are no security settings, no permission, no authorization. So creep in worms, creep in hackers, creep in all who can....my PC has its gate open for you.
The only authorization is when it allows you to set whether someone can add you to their friends list directly or require permission from you
But many of these features will be added soon. It’s in their list of ’’Coming Soon’’.
Conclusion: Not at all a bad messenger but still lagging behind and I recommend you to wait till a new version comes up.