The Word Wheel is a cool new feature in MSN Messenger 8.0 that allows you to quickly search your contact list. The Messenger Word Wheel allows you to filter your contact list: You first enter some text into the Word Wheel, your Messenger contact list will refresh in a second and only the contact's whose Nicknames contain the text you entered will appear. Think of it as a nickname search for your Messenger contact list.

For example if you type in 'John' into the Word Wheel, in about a second your contact list will refresh itself and only the contacts who have 'John' in their MSN Nickname will be displayed. If you don't have any contacts with that text in their name, nothing will be displayed.

The Word Wheel appears right above your contact list (but below your display picture.

This is one of the cool new features in the new Messenger 8.0, and should be quite handy for people who are making the most of their Messenger contact list (which currently allows up to 600 buddies). Of course this won't help you out with those contacts who like to fill their MSN Names with quotes, lyrics, countdowns and subliminal messages... and this is exactly where the new Contact Renaming feature comes in handy (more about this shortly)!