Do you sometimes reminisce about the age before smartphones, tablets and smartwatches? When was the last time you went through that box of old stuff, finding a Walkman, Game Boy or Tamagotchi? In our Flashback Fridays, we want to pay tribute to the things that were once normal and are now completely odd. For the first official Testbirds’ Flashback Friday, we are rewinding back to the days of MSN Messenger. Nowadays, when constant virtual contact is imperative to our daily lives, it’s important to remember where it all began. MSN was one of the major instant messaging services which offered real-time text transmission over the Internet. For most of us, our noughties daily lives consisted of sleep, school and MSN. Our addictions meant that doing homework and maintaining friendships required hours and hours of chat time. However, through this addiction, we acquired a very particular set of skills that are now benefiting us in our adult lives.It can easily be argued that MSN developed the creative side of its pre-teen and adolescent users. We learnt to express ourselves via emoticons, the font colour editor, and carefully selected song lyrics for our personal message. But we learnt tangible skills too – MSN trained us to touch type. The ability to type at astronomical speeds can, in a lot of the younger generation’s case, be credited to MSN. 
We trained ourselves to be organised and selective by grouping friends into the best friends, school friends and family. And how about those personal statuses – back then it was just a small add on, but today writing a status has become a pillar of social media.MSN taught us commitment. Sending someone the latest song, was a long-term commitment for the evening, since it was guaranteed to take a good few hours for the download to complete. Not to mentioned patience for the recipient! It taught us our first lesson in creating an email account. mr_cooool77@hotmail.com would prove to be not such a wise choice when it came to writing our first resume!MSN was our favourite software installation, and in time it installed so much power in us. Oh, how hearts were broken and fixed by appearing offline or sending a nudge. Thanks to MSN, we’ve developed the necessary motor skills to succeed in our jobs. So Bill Gates, we owe you one. You’ve not only installed in us a unique set of skills but also brought people together and built relationships through a simple chat tool.
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Testbirds specialises in the testing of software such as apps, websites and Internet of Things applications by using innovative technologies and solutions. Under the slogan, “Testing Reality”, the company offers various testing methods to its clients looking to optimise the user-friendliness and functionality of their digital products. With over 250,000 registered testers located in 193 countries, Testbirds is one of the world’s leading crowdtesting providers. In addition, the IT service provider utilises cloud based technologies to support customers in the optimisation of their digital products. The combination of the two testing methods delivers a unique and extensive portfolio that takes the quality of software to the next level. Testbirds was founded in 2011 by Philipp Benkler, Georg Hansbauer and Markus Steinhauser. Today, the company has over 100 employees. Other than its headquarters in Munich, there are now offices in Amsterdam, London and Stockholm, franchises in Hungary and Russia and sales partners in Italy.
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