... but what have they lost?

1) They never really disclosed what the problem was, did they? They blame it on hardware but does anyone truly believe them?!

2) Since Passport and Hailstorm will rely on MSN Messenger, this outage sends a loud "message" that .NET is likely to have some severe problems.

3) Since AOL's and Yahoo's IM services have had nearly zero downtime it puts more exposure on Microsoft's buggy track record, security problems and their BSOD (blue screen of death) problem.

[P.S. One of my neighbors Windows 98 machines crashed the other day and she wanted to borrow my copy. I had to tell her no because Microsoft would likely break my door down and have me thrown in jail. Sorry! Anyway, I need that CD because a Windows 98 machine crashed a week earlier right after I had finished playing the 17th hole. No big deal, I was losing anyway. (:]

4) Micorosft's downtime is Yahoo's gain, apparently. If Microsoft is depending on MSN Messenger to gain a chokehold on the internet, they are pushing their customers the wrong way.

How much more can Microsoft push their customers around before some of them finally get ticked off? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[link|http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6537492.html?tag=tp_pr|
MSN woes open door for IM rivals]

By Joe Wilcox and Jim Hu
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
July 10, 2001, 1:05 p.m. PT

Even though Microsoft has claimed victory in restoring its MSN Messenger service, some problems linger--including the opportunity the outage provided for the company's competitors.

On Tuesday, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said the weeklong interruptions to the service had been put to an end. But regardless of the service's status, Microsoft could be cleaning up the mess made by the outage for months to come. And while the company battled its service problems, at least one instant-messaging rival said it has gained converts.

"The most serious ripple effect is that there isn't a ton of loyalty among IM users. This is particularly true for Yahoo and MSN, and a little less for AOL," said Jupiter Media Metrix analyst Nicole Lewis.

Yahoo, for example, reported a 25 percent increase in downloads of its instant-messaging software during Microsoft's outage, with people staying online up to 14 percent longer than normal. AOL, which offers two instant-messaging services--AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ--would not comment on whether it, too, saw increased downloads of its software.