We use msn/live messenger at work internally and with a number of clients. It was the most reliable in 1999-2001 when we started using IM in the office, and while its not the best, its normally fine. We do use skype and Gtalk quite a bit too. I like using gtalk the most because of its extremely clean interface, and lack of crap unlike yahoo and msn.

I think today might the last straw as far as msn goes. I opened the main contacts window, started talking to someone and than all of a sudden I see an ad pop up on my screen. Scared the shit out of me. For a second I thought I had some sort of adware/malware on my machine which is causing pop ups on my desktop:

I’m trying to remember if I have ever seen another application display an ad like this, where they are moving out of the window used by that application and I think adware is the only time I have. I’m not the only one pissed off by this . Funnily enough neither of these people are from the US or UK, but from The Netherlands and Hong Kong which makes me wonder if this is a problem for MSN Windows Live worldwide or just in select countries. I have got to believe that if this happened to people in the US or UK, Id find a lot more railing against Microsoft.

And FYI that close button doesn’t work, so the damn ad is there on my desktop as bloody long as it wants to be.