An early version of an interim build of the new wave 3 messenger is spreading across the web, having been posted by JCXP.net, WinXperts.com and others.  As Chris said in our review of this build on August 11, after screenshots were posted on Mess.be,

“as this is only a first milestone, there’ll be other internal updates before a version gets released to the public”

Quite funny, actually to read through all the comments and complaints on UI, etc as if this were a final release.  It’s not, although there are some hints at what’s to come.  The build includes support for Groups, which will be a new feature of Wave 3, some new photo sharing abilities, the removal of Sharing Folders (yay!), and more.  You can read Chris’ review for some more.

You could probably hunt down a version of this old incomplete build if you wanted (and haven’t already), but word is out that the Wave 3 betas will be starting soon, and given Microsoft’s recent penchant for public betas, it shouldn’t be hard to get your hands on a build that’s much further along soon.

Oh and btw if you’re confused by the build numbers, which seemed to have skipped from 9.x to 14.x, they’re real.  You need only to check the current build number of Foldershare (14.0.1383.0530).  An educated guess says that this is to get the Windows Live products in line, build number wise,  with Office 14.  Which is an interesting development, if it is indeed the case.