Microsoft digging deep to revive Messenger
July 09, 2001 02:35 PM ET
by Ryan Tate
Microsoft (MSFT) said this morning it was still working to fully restore its instant-messaging service, noting it has had to resort to a "third level of backup" to bring back some customer data that was scrambled in a server malfunction.
Monday marked a full week of problems for MSN Messenger. Starting Tuesday, many users of the service were unable to log in or to pull up "buddy lists." Microsoft took the system down Thursday in an attempt to fix the problems, noting at the time that errors in a disk controller for the server housing its user database were also present in a backup controller.
Those problems with the first level of backups seem to have plagued the second level of backups as well. A Microsoft spokesperson said in an email message this morning that "we have had to go to our third level of backup to restore the service and retrieve customer data, [so] this process has taken longer than we had hoped."
"But we continue to make progress and expect all users to be able to access MSN Messenger soon," the spokesperson added. "We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers and appreciate their patience as we work around the clock to restore service as quickly as possible."
Most service restored by Saturday
Despite the database server problems, MSN Vice President Rich Bray said in a statement that service was restored to "nearly all of our customers" by Saturday and that no "buddy lists" have been lost.
The MSN Messenger outage comes amid robust growth for the instant-messaging service. Once a tiny also-ran, MSN Messenger surpassed AOL Time Warner's (AOL) AOL Instant Messenger in worldwide users this past March, according to Jupiter Media Metrix, making it the top instant messaging platform in the world. (See "MSN overtakes AOL worldwide.")
Microsoft is also keen to weave MSN Messenger into its Windows operating system, a strategy that helped complicate its relationship with AOL Time Warner's America Online and eventually kept Microsoft from bundling AOL software with Windows XP as it did with Windows 98 and Windows 95. (See "Microsoft and AOL locked in delicate dance.") The bundling strategy could goose adoption of MSN Messenger, but Microsoft will now have to convince users that the service is reliable.
Still, AOL Instant Messenger maintains a lead in the U.S., and AOL Time Warner is still far ahead of Microsoft when counting members of its separate and incompatible ICQ instant-messaging service.
AOL and the stock analysts who cover the company believe AOL can counter Microsoft's bundling strategy with direct mail distribution campaigns and by including AOL software with Time Warner magazines and cable bills. Indeed, it was just that sort of aggressive offline distribution that kindled AOL's growth.
Ryan Tate covers digital media for UpsideToday. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor regarding this story, email online@upside.com.
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