MSN Live Messenger Beta

Looks like there was some sort of a "glitch" which allowed the general public to start trying out the "invite-only" beta of MSN Messenger 8, a.k.a MSN Live Messenger. Ars Technica has an interesting look about some of its new features.

One of the first things that stood out for me was that MSN's finally added the "find as you type" search field above your contact list. Something with AIM Triton and Google talk have had for a while. The Ars review also mentions that its ads have gotten more annoying, but I don't think it could be worse than the "ford focus flash ad" I saw in AIM which pops out and takes up a huge amount of your desktop while you hunt for the "X" button floating somewhere around your desktop.