MSN is one of the BIG three messenger clients, it has alot of features as you would expect and many prefer it to aim because it is easier to view a friend over a webcam, add your own smileys and a host of other nice things. It can be a bit flaky with the connection sometimes but is relatively stable for the majority of the time.

The biggest problem with MSN is your contact list, people can change how they appear and many opt for a witty comment as their display name, this is fine but if you have hundreds of contacts all changing their display name all the time it can be pretty hard to remember who anyone is. Apparently this is fixed in MSN 8+ but as far as I know it only works in XP at this time.

As AIM as AIM Express, a web based chat facility for those travelling or on different computers without their favourite messenger installed, so does MSN have it's own MSN Web Messenger, I haven't tried it personally but I see no reason why it is not as functional as its AOL rival.

Overall, MSN is slick and easy to use and has an intuitive interface, meaning it is easy to learn and get to grips with and already has a very popular following, you can get it at the MSN Website, what's more, like other messengers, it is totally free.

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