Personal Status Message (PSM): Since I began using Messenger, life has consisted of precisely six activities: signing in online, getting busy (not all bad), anything brief such that I could be right back, going away (but how far?), getting on the phone, going out to lunch (how I’ve missed breakfast and dinner!), or appearing offline – which isn’t really a separate activity.

But now, thanks to PSM, the possibilities are endless. I can go Snowboarding!, or be At a Michael Bolton Concert or be Writing my blog. Leave me alone. I can even use PSM to shape life anyway I please. For example, next week I plan to go on a date with Jonathan Safran Foer, finish writing the great American Novel and spend time cleaning my apartment. Of course I won’t do any of those things, but my contacts don’t need to know the truth.

Large Thumbnails*: You know what they say about the size of a contact’s thumbnail? The bigger it is the easier you can see his/her display picture and PSM, if you know what I’m saying . You won’t be able to see as many contacts at once, but try it for a week – you might learn to love it.

Note: I’ve heard grumblings about how we added display pictures in the main window – no need for grumbling: there’s an off switch!*. That feature is there for those that want it. We don’t like forcing anything on anyone - except ads, but then again, we’d rather bill the ads companies than bill you.

*(options – general- displaying my contacts)

Video Conversation: rather than ramble on about this myself – see what Vlada has to say about this feature. Ok, a little rambling: for all of you who IM on Messenger and then sign in to another program for free audio calls, there’s good news: we have free audio (and video) conversations too. Switching from Messenger to another program to ring someone up is like using one TV for watching 24 and another for watching The OC. We know our quality was lacking in the past, so we’ve been working hard and it’s much better with 7.0. Give us another shot. Jack Bauer would. 

Saved Conversation History**: Imagine you’re IMing with a particularly Attractive Someone (i know it's hard, but try):

You: So I have something I need to say…

Attractive Someone: Yes??

You: I think you’re really awesome.

You chew on your nails, tug your hair, lean on the edge of your chair. Your knee shakes and you stop it with your hand.  You get up and walk to your bedroom door…three times. You take six deep breaths and then tell yourself (out loud) that you’re being silly.  And finally, you realize it’s been too long – Attractive Someone hasn’t responded, and isn’t going to. S/He has left you hanging without so much as a “brb” You dejectedly hit the red X.

WHAT HORROR! In the very second you were clicking X, s/he was clicking Send. You heard the ‘Ding!’, you saw the blur of text, but you’d closed the window too fast to read it.

Life doesn’t have to be this way. With the correct box checked**, the next time you open an IM window with Attractive Someone, the most recent conversation you two had is there waiting for you to read what you missed.

I suppose you’ll be less impressed by this feature if Attractive Someone’s final message was “Ew. As if.” But it’s better to know – right?

**(options - messages - message history -Show my last…)

Those are my picks...what are YOUR favorites?