YouTube banned: hyperlink blocking by Messenger reaches all-time low

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Xendance

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The web's biggest source for user-submitted videos is not just censored in Brazil, China, Turkey and a handful of other websites anymore. It is now effectively banned worldwide from instant messages on Microsoft's Messenger network.

Around 3:00 AM this morning the first reports started coming in about Messenger not delivering messages that include clickable links to YouTube. This indicates that YouTube is being blocked by the (dreadful) server-side SPIM filter. If the user includes http:// in the link, he will be notified of the failed delivery ("The following message could not be delivered to all recipients"). Without the http-prefix, the user will have no clue that the message didn't get across.
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God damn it.

I constantly use MSN to spread links to my favourite YouTube, now this is gonna suck.

http://www.mess.be/
 
Maybe this is a way of Microsoft to get back at Google (who owns YouTube).
 
Kind of a draconian way to disallow communication about a competitor to MSN Soapbox.
 
Hotfix is probably out already.
 
a google messenger compatible with msn contact lists on route?
 
If they really have blocked it, msn is going to lose a lot of people.
 
I discovered this yesterday.

Was forced to send video IDs instead.

****ing stupid.
 
nah i doubt it would stop anyone from using MSN , you could always tinyurl it .. unless they block that too , which btw would make a LOT more sense. any official statements from MS on this ?
 
one rickrolll too many pushed somebody over the edge
 
I can still send links and receive them :|
edit
Oh unblocked.
 
Dharmesh Mehta, Windows Live Messenger PM lead, has posted an official explanation and apology regarding the temporary YouTube-block:

"We sincerely apologize for any difficulties this caused our users [...] As you can imagine, we are very serious about our efforts to block virus, malware and other harmful URLs from being passed on to our users. And we're continually working to improve this process so that we can keep our users safe without having a negative impact on your Messenger service."

Interestingly, Dharmesh goes on describing the process of blocking unsafe URLs and what happened this weekend:

"- There are a number of factors that can be used to determine whether a URL is potentially harmful: number of times a URL is sent, the frequency of the URL being sent, the number of accounts the URL is sent from, manually checking the URL, comparing with other "block lists", etc.
- When a URL is deemed harmful, a block can be instated for a specific URL (i.e. www.domain.com/page) or an entire domain (i.e. *.domain.com)
- This entire process for Messenger is managed by a 3rd party that is a Microsoft partner
- On Friday, Microsoft did not request to block any of the URLs that were accidentally blocked
- The blocks were made by our partner as a result of their process to block harmful URLs
- We are still investigating the specific reason our partner made these incorrect blocks and we will work with them to improve their process for detecting harmful URLs while not blocking safe ones."

Considering Microsoft is passing the buck, we now have an anonymous third party to blame for the set-up of foolish filters, and less reason to allude commercial battles. Good for YouTube, but it remains baffling to me why they still haven't OK'd other, slightly less famous but perfectly safe domains like googlepages.com, ebuddy.com, mediafire.com.

Either way, if you are aware of other wrongfully blocked URLs, or domains that actually should be, let us know and we'll pass it on to the Messenger team.
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www.mess.be
 
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