I'd Really Like Better Messenger Integration with IE

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I've officially declared Friday to be Browser Fiddling day.

Overnight, I tried out Slim Browser and Maxthon (MyIE2) - thanks to Brad C's comments, they both:

  • allow middle-click-open-in-new-window-in-background
  • have tabs that can be closed by double-clicking
  • have their “search from the address bar when a hostname is typed” option disabled
  • have a cool-looking default skin that isn't too cluttered

And I'm becoming progressively more impressed with Maxthon.

As the title of this blog mentions, one thing I'd really like to see is better integration with MSN Messenger from the browser.

The usage scenario is pretty straightforward: I'm looking at a page, and want to send the link to someone on MSN IM.

At the moment, I have to copy the url, switch to the Contacts window, double-click the contact to start the conversation, paste the link, then send the message.

What I'd like to be able to do is hit a droplist button “Send Link By IM”, and be able to pick the IM contact from the IM contact picker. Ideally, an MRU list would also be created as I send to a recipient (some recipients I'm not going to send links to, so I don't need the whole list all the time), so I can just Send Link By IM -> Barry rather than have to use the contact picker every time. If I can accomplish the whole thing without switching applications, I'm happy.

I have no idea how hard this would be to implement in a toolbar, but it'd save me clicks and an application context switch, which has to be a positive step forwards!