MSN Messenger wish list

Scoble’s an amazing networker and so it’s no wonder that he’s encountered a supposed 150 contact-limit within MSN Messenger. I can’t imagine managing that many contacts within Messenger, but I’m surprised that there’s a limit like this. I can see a limit a couple magnitudes bigger, but 150? I don’t get it.

MSN Messenger has become a key method of communicating for me. In fact, I rarely use email anymore for my friends and family. Likewise with coworkers I jump to Messenger if there’s something that needs immediate attention or can be resolved by a quick back-and-forth discussion. Essentially email is reserved for business communications and talking with those friends of mine who own a non-Windows PC or are rarely online (such as if they have a dial up account).

So as Messenger has become elevated in importance, I bump into little “features” that bug me. Some of them are:

* I need to be able to paste ink into MSN Messenger. This is my number one feature request.

* When someone requests a contact, I’d like to see more information about them in the contact request dialog. I’ve run across several people that have odd, spam-like email names that I don’t recognize. Unless I can comfirm them with someone else, I wind up blocking them.

* I’d like to be able to be logged onto multiple locations at one time. Here’s the problem: If I configure Messenger to automatically sign on multiple machines (such as a desktop and a Tablet PC), the account jumps from machine to machine as I start each one up.

* I’d like a small whiteboard area that I can ink in. A whiteboard area doesn’t have to be a full external app; it could be a small child window to Messenger that stretches out from the current window–kind of like how the video chat display works.

* Several people I know come up with these amazingly long “tag lines” that are then repeated everytime they send me a message. Many times if the message is short in relation to the tag-line it’s hard to see the message. I’d like an option that automatically truncates these tag strings.

* I like Messenger’s pop-up window that appears on new messages when the conversation window is closed. Unfortunately, it only display the first message someone sends. I’d like to have a minimized mode, that displays all messages in pop-up windows or in a sidebar or something similar. That way I don’t have to worry about ordering the converstation window when I’m doing more reading than typing with someone–so I continue working while holding a conversation with someone.

* Similarly, when a handwritten message arrives, I’d like to see the real message rather than the current text that simply says “So and so has sent you a handwritten message.” Just give me the ink.

* I’d like to be able to paste images (such as screenshots) into Messenger. Currently I have to save them to a file and send the link. Seems like Messenger could save the image for me transparently.

* I’d like to be able to have more than one Messenger account running on a machine. That way I could have an email/Messenger account for work and one for friends and family. I try to do this with two machines and two accounts, but unfortunately, I’ve been using only one computer a lot recently (a Toshiba M200 Tablet PC) and so I’m restricted to just one account. I miss running more than one.

* It would be nice if ink and text could live together in the input window. For instance, I want to be able to drag a link into the “Handwrite” window. If ink and text must be segregated, Messenger could at least jump to the “Type” input window, but it would be better to be able to mix text and ink.

I have more wish-list items, but these are the ones that come to mind.

Oh, one more: On the setup program, MSN team please don’t include defaulted selections for other MSN content or changing the IE home page to MSN. It’s annoying.