Tomorrow marks the tenth anniversary of Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger. Microsoft says it has become the most widely used free instant messaging service in the world, with 330 million users.
A spokesperson for Microsoft shared some interesting findings with murdok from a survey about Windows Live Messenger:
– 71 percent of Americans surveyed have accidentally IMed the wrong person in the past year.
– More than half (59 percent) of Americans surveyed say they’ve shared important news, such as an engagement or promotion, via IM in the past year.
– Nearly a quarter (21 percent) of Americans surveyed use Messenger during business meetings; of those people, roughly 83 percent say they IM “fairly often” during meetings to make after-work plans.
– Even though approximately half [49 percent] of Americans surveyed use the lingo ‘ROFL’ (Rolling on the Floor Laughing) while IMing, one-third of those surveyed would have no idea what ROFL meant if it was IMed to them.
– Now that’s a lot of talk!: In 2000, there were 1 million active Messenger conversations happening at any given time. Today, there are roughly 40 million simultaneous Messenger conversations.
“Microsoft is committed to continue investing in Messenger and meeting the demands of the large customer base,” the spokesperson said. “After listening to customer feedback, Windows Live Messenger added new features in the past year that help Messenger customers communicate and stay in touch with the people they care about most, including simple photo sharing, integration of third-party social networks like Facebook and Flickr, groups to organize your contacts, rich voice and video conversations, and more.”
To celebrate Windows Live Messenger’s 10th anniversary, Microsoft is giving users celebratory emoticons, display pics and “winks.” Starting at 4pm today, users can download the gift and preview key moments in Messenger’s history here.
