Sparse Conversations

I’ve been using MSN Messenger for years, because the folks I talk to all use it.

One problem I’ve had since day one is that you can only be connected from one place at a time.  As soon as I connect at work, my home client disconnects.

When it disconnects, it closes all the conversation windows.

This means if you send me a message while I’m on my way home from work, I’m not going to see it.  You’ll think I got the message, but I won’t.

For a communiations service, this is unacceptable.  I’ve requested that they change this, but instead they keep adding new cool features, leaving this one thing broken.

Google Talk doesn’t disconnect when you connect a new client; you just have two clients connected.  I’m not sure how it routes messages, I’m guessing to the client you’re active on (or the last client you were active on), but I’m not sure.  But either way, a conversation window stays open at work so when I get to work the next day I can at least see who was talking to me and what they were saying.

I’m still stuck with Messenger because that’s where the people I talk to are, and that’s probably not going to change.  But for anyone who does have both, I’d rather use Google Talk.