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What’s all the MUMring about?
FINALLY, a much awaited urdu version of instant messenger, “Mera Urdu Messenger” (or MUM) has hit the shelves of software market. Launched by a local software group — etaleem.com — the program, to one’s surprise, has failed to live up to users’ expectations. Besides a number of functional glitches, it has several bugs, which is indicative of company’s premature release of this software.
Instant Messaging (IM) has, over time, developed into an important tool of communication. Earlier IMs were regarded only as chatting clients for teens. However, with its increasing popularity, IMs are now being actively used by many corporations to stay connected and communicate in real time with their clients and contacts.
Today, software giants, such as Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Mirabilis, etc, are running the IM shows. But so far, none of programs has developed feature that could support Urdu language application. Yielding to this opportunity, etaleem has come out with the first instant messenger to have support for Urdu language.
With an emerging hype in the media and billboards springing all over the city (only Karachi), one could feel the ecstasy over what might be the first home user software product by a Pakistani company. Here, we explore if the product stands a chance to survive in the world of IM.
Installation
The installation CD of MUM contains a file of approximately 9MB. The installation of the program was carried out on a Windows XP operating system running on Pentium III machine with 128MB RAM. The installation of the software takes place without much hassle and ends at an online registration form where I am asked for Authentication key provided with the package. As the Messenger starts, a dialog box appears stating “I need to set my PC on small fonts to use MUM.” A list of instructions tells me how to change these fonts but the stated procedure does not work on my version of Windows or Graphic Card as there is no small font option available, just Normal Fonts. Nevertheless I decide to continue. As I click “OK”, the messenger window becomes active and greets me with a full length commercial of Dentonic — a locally produced dentrifice. I click on “Sign In” and type in my user name and password. Soon a window pops up saying that Messenger cannot connect, despite the fact that my internet, browsing and other messengers are working fine. I scroll to the options menu to look for Proxy Settings, only to find that the Messenger offers no such options. With no other solution available, I reboot the PC and the problem resolves. Some time later, as I try to reinstall the Messenger, the setup file crashes again and again. At last I resort ot rebooting the PC and that resolves the problem. MUM also crashes with a Runtime Error and each time similar procedures have to be undertaken.
Interface
Apparently, most of problems in MUM are due to its interface. Its appearance is more or less a replica of the already existing Messengers. Copying others, it seems, has always been our favourite option. The Windows shortcut keys to browse menus; minimize/maximize and close windows shortcuts, and the alt-tab combination of fast switching between programs does not work for MUM. In fact, the program does not even get listed in the quick swap menu (alt-tab combination).
MUM and its windows are of fixed dimensions and cannot be resized. The text in some of the windows is sometimes truncated due to the static sizing of the windows. Right-click options for contacts do not exist and the contacts cannot be temporarily blocked — you either keep them or delete them.
The chat room window does not allow you to choose a nick; you talk with your registered user name only. The conversation becomes most annoying if you open up both a chat room window and a private chat window. Whenever someone types a message in the chat room, your active window automatically changes from the private chat window to that of the chat room. This means that for every message that someone types in the chat room, you have to manually swap back to the private chat you were having. Imagine how talking would be like with many users in the chat room sending message every second, you would end up swapping active chat windows at the speed people type messages! Moreover, the chat windows do not support written messages larger than two lines and messages have to be sent in short spurts of two lines each making normal communication very annoying.
The problems do not end here. When I first tried typing a message in Urdu, a window popped up saying that the Urdu fonts were not installed properly and another list of instructions, which would be way beyond an average user, tells you how to manually fix the problem. On contacting, technical support team of etaleem, the developers of MUM, admit that this was a recurring problem and would be fixed in future releases or patches. It later turned out that the support team gave the same response to all other problems with the software. It appears that in the excitement of releasing the product, the developers did not bother to get it rigorously tested and checked for bugs.
Features
One should not expect MUM to be rich in features. Popular features like voice and video chat, file transfer, mobile paging do not exist. A dictionary and typing tutor have been included but they are a necessary supplement for the Urdu feature. One would expect the Typing Tutor to actually get you started at recognizing and typing text like most of the English Tutors do; instead you are presented with a blank screen to type at random and “discover” your keys all by yourself. I fail to understand the purpose of this utility, for this random method can be practised in any chat window.
The member search utility is another disappointment. The MUM website gives a list of registered members. I used a few names off the list and used them in the MUM search utility — there was not even a single result that the messenger turned up for any of the names. Another surprising element is that the search window tells you to click Advance Search to look for people in the member’s directory, whereas nowhere in MUM does such an option exist.
Emoticans in MUM are only available for chatting in English. They come with background sounds which are more like sound effects from a Punjabi movie — a simple “smiley” is depicted by laughter and Pakistan flag comes with the tune of the national anthem!
Time for some Urdu classes
The Urdu language detail and precision is quite commendable. The combination of words and composing is quite well done. The difficult part, though, is mastering the art of typing them out. The English-to-Urdu dictionary is not much help and some of the meanings are beyond the average Urdu speaker.
Another difficulty that a user, who is not familiar with an Urdu keyboard, faces is that to type the word “Urdu”, you have to key in “ardw”; “myra” for “mera”, “olka” for “halka”, “om” for “ham” and so on. Perhaps one who is accustomed to the standard Urdu keyboard would not face any such difficulty, but one having no prior experience would have to waste several hours learning which Urdu character hides behind which key. It would have been simpler to adopt MUM if a physical keyboard cover had been provided with Urdu keys marked on it.
You would also have to forgo abbreviations like BRB, LOL, ASAP as they have no meaning in an Urdu messenger. It is like adopting a new culture and giving up your own, hence regular Messenger users may not find MUM too easy to use with its several bugs, glitches and errors.
The developers of MUM need to realize that they are stepping into a very competitive and demanding market. Highly developed instant messengers are available for free download everywhere and have millions of users to support them. Anyone who uses these IMs is getting the software free and also getting free access to the community of millions that use the same messenger. An IM user, over time, develops a long list of contacts that cannot be accessed from any other IM — and this is an invaluable list that cannot be given up for any new messenger that steps in. On the contrary, Mera Urdu Messenger’s first ever version has been put up for a hundred rupees locally and ten dollars abroad. The software and its registration are locked with authentication keys. The irony is that for every CD purchased you can have just one ID. This implies that a family of six must buy six copies of MUM for a total value of six hundred rupees or sixty dollars, which is totally absurd!
The focus of new launches in the IM world is at integrating all the messengers into a single product that can display and communicate with contacts of all messengers. MUM, with its three to four thousand users and a bundle of problems, stands a slim chance in the market. The day Microsoft releases an Urdu language pack for Windows Messenger, MUM would be out cold! — Umer Asif
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