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Windows Live Wave 4: Messenger Companion

By on March 20, 2010 8:41 AM
14 comments

Many of you might’ve realised that an old Milestone 2 build of Windows Live Essentials Wave 4 has been leaked to the web (we heard that development is currently at Milestone 3). From the screenshots leaked, you might’ve noticed and wondered about a new icon in the installer – called Companion. In Milestone 3, this little piece of software has been renamed the Windows Live Messenger Companion, and will be available along with Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety, Sync, as well as new additions such as the Outlook Connector Pack and Microsoft Silverlight (KB960353) (thanks Ugosan for the tip!).

So, what exactly is Messenger Companion? This is what a description of it tells us:

Messenger Companion
Share a webpage with your friends on Windows Live right from Internet Explorer. See pages your friends have shared and add comments to shared pages.

To be exact, Messenger Companion is a browser add-on for Internet Explorer which allows users to share websites they find interesting with their Messenger contacts (except to be integrated with the new social feeds). Here’s a screenshot:

Messenger Companion

(the above screenshot is taken from the older M2 build, and do expect considerable changes to the UI in later versions)

Messenger Companion will also allow you to view what your friends have shared about same website you’re on, as well as any comments posted for these shared links.

Personally, it seems to me that Messenger Companion is replacing the original “Share” functionality of Windows Live Toolbar (Windows Live Toolbar will be discontinued in Wave 4, and replaced by Bing Bar), pretty much the same way Windows Live Sync Wave 4 will replace the original “Favorites sync” functionality in  Toolbar. However, it does seems like Messenger Companion will have the potential to become the future bridge between Windows Live and Internet Explorer.

Stay tuned at LiveSide as we bring you more Wave 4 news! Wink

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Comments

  • Khristopher

    Unless this is made to work with Firefox and Facebook, it will be yet another useless feature that nobody except MS fanboys will use for a few months, until they realize no one else uses it.

    • Damaster – LiveSide.net

      What do you mean by “made to work with Facebook”?

    • ClosedSourceFanboy

      Firefox sucks balls compared to IE8 and Google Chrome. Nobody uses Firefox any more. People are either using IE8 or switching to Google Chrome. Firefox is dead as a dodo.

      • Rob

        Don’t be so sure mate. IE still isn’t sticking to industry standards making it stick harder to code for. Personally I use Firefox and Chrome as my main browsers, but I have to use different version of IE as well for testing perposes

      • George

        Even Microsoft acknowledges that IE has been disappointing in many areas, such as Javascript, standards, general speed, etc. Firefox at the moment beats out IE8 quite handily. That said, MS seems to be creating something great with IE9, so I am definitely looking forward to that.

        And by the way, if you want anyone to take you seriously, how about you cut out the vulgar language and completely false statements. “Nobody” uses firefox anymore? If I am not mistaken, more people use firefox 3.6 then any version of IE.

    • jkth

      Why will it be a useless feature if it doesn’t work with FireFox? Last time I looked FireFox doesn’t hold the majority share of browser usage. IE is going down, sure, but it’ll be a long long time until it doesn’t have the majority share.

      Quit with the tech bubble hate. Its pointless.

  • fmartin_ms

    and the credits to muywindows.com and my space live?¿ Where??

  • JohnCz

    Folks, Bing Bar works in a number of browsers so it is entirely possible, even likely, that you will be able to access the functionality of Live Companion from there. So far, I like what I am hearing.

  • JSYOUNG571

    I did not know that they were letting go of the Windows Live Toolbar. I really like being able to scroll over it and see my emails,profile,updates on what’s new, latest photos, and calendars. Is Bing Toolbar going to do the same thing and more? Internet Explorer 8 has turned out to be a bad web browser. I and a few other people are tired of having to hit Ctrl +Alt+Delete when the screen all of a sudden goes white and a message pops up saying Internet Explorer 8 has stopped working. Has anyone else experienced this?

    • JohnCz

      I’ve been browsing very happily with Internet Explorer 8 and Bing Bar. As far as Live Toolbar functions..I suspect and hope that the current Bing Bar features around Windows Live will be updated. Currently the Windows Live button in Bing Bar is more of a placeholder. There are also separate Hotmail and Messenger buttons in Bing Bar.

  • Jon

    I don’t see the point of installing a whole different add-on for this… why didn’t they just create an IE8 accelator for this?

    • Mario Albertico

      They better have an IE8 Accelerator, I am not installing any toolbar that’s as huge as the Bing Bar. And with IE8′s horrible add-on management system, which places a giant, grossly positioned ‘X’ on the left of any add-on, there’s no reason to install anything within IE if it’s not as hidden as an Accelerator. Plus, they should incorporate some detection in IE that hides the in-browser search bar if a toolbar with a search tool has one built in.

      • Custom

        Ditto here Mario!! It appears they will do anything to lose market share for Internet Explorer to the upcoming competitive browsersssss

  • http://twitter.com/GeorgeSab George S

    The leak is okay… But does not work with FB,Twitter etc

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