Microsoft Pulls The Plug On MSN Messenger, Ending A Chat Era

Once upon a time, MSN Messenger was the rage of the internet. People would flock to their dial-up internet connections to fire up the messenger and start chatting their hours away, keeping a stash of scratch cards close by to feed in more hours to the connection. March 15 will mark the definitive end of that era as Microsoft will finally pull the plug on MSN Messenger.


MSN Messenger

Many of us who have grown up in the pre-smartphones and pre-Facebook age may well recognize what I stated above. It was a time when broadband connections were still a scarce luxury, dial-up connections didn’t seem too slow and there were barely any good enough social networks online. So MSN Messenger was among the best ways to connect with other people.

And it did help millions of people stay in touch with each other. Over time, of course, the web rapidly changed and more players entered the arena. There was MySpace and then came Facebook and Twitter and finally, Skype put the final nail into the coffin of nearly all other chat messengers.

Now that Microsoft owns both Skype and MSN Messenger, it seems only natural that the company wishes to merge the meagre user base of MSN Messenger with that of Skype. The company has now announced that it will finally be pulling the plug on MSN Messenger by March 15.

So the users have time to transfer their contacts to Skype, which is the flagship chat client of the modern digital era, packed with all the latest features. Even so, for those who have known MSN Messenger for years and spent their younger days reaching out to the whole world through it, its demise may precipitate a subtle sadness.

Courtesy: Computer Weekly

[ttjad keyword=”wp-7″]

Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

Leave a Reply