I managed to score myself an invite to the beta testing of Messenger 8 for Windows Live. So what do I think?

It seems functionally identical to MSN Messenger 7.0. It's not very exciting at all. Despite a new skin and a few functional difference, the interface is also very smiliar. This is bad, Microsoft. Check out the screenshot. I've never seen an interface so cluttered, bloated, and basicly shit. Surely you would think that your contact list is the most important feature of the contacts window, and yet it's the least prominent section. Why can't I hide all that other crap? And does Microsoft really need to shove advertising in our face to support this application? I'm stunned they didn't try a copy the simplicity of Google Talk.

Of course, if there isn't already, there will soon be hacks to remove all the crap we don't need and make Messenger a much better IM client.