Shoutbox

I have to stick my 2 cents in (which, I think, based on the current exchange rate is about .013 Euro!)... why eliminate the "hide banner" option, even if it is just for Version 7 of MSN Messenger? If you look at the 3 major IM programs (MSN, AIM and Yahoo... I think ICQ has fallen out of widespead use here in the US), MSN and AIM (AOL) are the only 2 that have banners. On the AIM side, DeadAIM eliminates them. Yahoo has no banners, yet is probably the slickest chat client available (lots of nice features). I hope you're not saying that Microsoft needs the money from banner ads! To me, they're like popup ads. If they truly need the revenue (which I doubt), they should do with MSN Messenger what they did with Hotmail... offer a premium service for a fixed annual fee. For free, yes, have banners, limited features, etc. But until we HAVE the choice of paying to eliminate the banners, I would like someone like you to give us the choice. Please don't eliminate a feature just because you feel sorry for poor Microsoft (I wish *I* was so poor!). I guess, too, I have to ask, "Why just Version 7?" since earlier versions have banner ads as well.

Thank you for an outstanding free product.