The MSN Messenger contact list icon in MSN Messenger 7 will Gleam when a person changes or updates his or her MSN Spaces site, notifying his or her contacts on MSN Messenger that it's time to pay a visit to the MSN Spaces blog.

In the screenshot below, you can see that Jonathan Kay has updated his MSN Space (insider note: with a blog about how one of his organs got stolen by the Yakuza). When you left-click the icon in front of a nickname, the contact's Contact Card will appear and try to connect to his or her MSN Space in order to show the first few words of the latest post.

Gleams have much improved in the final version of MSN Messenger 7. Before, gleaming was caused by even a minor change to one's Space so it didn't necessarily mean a new post had been blogged. The "false positives" are now extinguished. There's also a visual change, as you can see for yourself when comparing the old screenshot below to the more recent one above. And now they animate!