In response to Instant Messaging Insanity, Gnomie Riaan from London writes:

I’ve been a keen user of Trillian for a while now and agree on some of your
points but not all. The interoperability issue between the networks is enough
to drive one insane, I agree - who cares what network you’re on? But at the
same time, MSN is trying quite hard to appeal to a wide audience. I’ve been
talking to them about what’s next (after v7), and it sounds exciting. Though
I agree about emoticons, you’ll be surprised how much money is being made from
that in the teenager market.

What do you make of the silly nudge/wink stuff that’s in v7? Don’t quite
get it, must admit. There’s an interesting post about MSN missing a much talked-about blogging feature with version 7. Quite a shame.

I think they could have probably waited a bit longer and released a version
that made a bigger difference… nice try, but not quite there. At the same
time, I’ve been having some problems with Trillian; whenever I get e-mail, the
pop-up just says “Trillian event” and most of the time, if I initiate a
conversation, the other person does not see it. So even Trillian ain’t that
great.

I am looking forward to MSN Messenger 8, though - it promises more dynamic
screen usage (thumbnails, etc.) and more user interaction. (Shared MP3 / Video, etc.) Let’s see.