digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About

Windows Live Spaces Launches!!

techcrunch.com — Tonight at 9 pm PST Microsoft will announce the launch of Windows Live Spaces, a blogging and social networking site on the Live.com platform.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 2, 2006

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

92 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • FuzzyBunny, on 10/12/2007, -3/+34All I ask is that it doesn't look as bad as Myspace.
  • alwaysmc2, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17Here's a video about it.
    http://digg.com/software/Windows_Live_Spaces_goes_Live
  • thedazman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12*Maybe Microsoft is going for a more ... mature community.*

    wouldn't be too hard to accomplish that, considering the heap of trash known as the myspace community
  • Odiwan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I just tried it out and I have to admit, this is well done compared to MySpace. Congratulations Microsoft.
  • josegutz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Is there a questionaire of some sort to weed out all the EMO kids, and Hip Pop queens?
    If yes... Then count me in.
  • MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -1/+10I don't really see this killing myspace, but I do see the people who are fed up with myspace retardedness and potential new users (an older, maybe even business networking demographic) using this.

    I have no use for these things, but I'll support anyone who goes up against myspace.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+18but always pwn the competition
  • alawson75, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12It's called competition. Microsoft wants to compete against the likes of Novell, Apple, Myspace, Mozilla, Google, etc. I say good for them because even though everything else may seem better than most anything Microsoft puts out, Microsoft's will to 'innovate' is actually causing everyone else to innovate more. It's better for us all, more choices. Sure it may seem that Redmond loves to steal everyone else's ideas and use them and call it original, but sometimes you simply must do what the other guy is doing just to survive.

    I've had an MSN Space since they debuted it and IMO it's far less trashy than just about anything I've seen on Myspace. Good luck to them with this Live Spaces venture.
  • Escamillo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9There's little doubt that Live Spaces has a more "mature" membershp thatn MySpace.

    But regarding size, according to http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-24SpacesLargestPR.mspx, MSN Spaces (now Live Spaces) is the largest blogging service worldwide, accoring to comScore Media Metrix rankings. According to those rankings, MSN Spaces unique visitors per month jumped from 41 million to 101 million in 12 months, not including some countries such as China, which has 20 million MSN Spaces users.
    Read the link for details.

    (The rankings appear to measure unique visitors rather than traffic; also MySpace might be larger in the US but not worldwide?)
  • weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Microsoft: Me Too since 1975™
  • womfalcs7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I myself love using the service as a legitimate blogging tool first, social networking place second. The UI is a lot smoother and better than that of MSN Spaces. Overall, I'm pleased.
  • PSPDS, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14that looks sweet!
  • cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -2/+7This has been around for quite some time now, late 2004 I believe. Windows Live Spaces is simply a refresh, or UI update for MSN spaces which have been very popular in some parts of the world. So to everyone who thinks Microsoft is "copying" MySpace - you are quite wrong. It integrates very nicely with Windows Live Messenger and is a dream to use compared to MySpace. I look forward to the new UI changes, even though I don't have a space myself. Good work Microsoft.
  • MikeCerm, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8@Patented

    Firefox stole tabbed-browsing from Opera. Apple stole Widgets from Konfabulator (and they didn't even change the name)! Chrysler stole the steering wheel from Ford!

    Everybody steals from everyone else. Call it... integration. When you integrate all of the good features of competing products, and add something else compelling, that's called progress!

  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11Just what we need... another myspace...[/sarcasm]
  • ski081, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Microsoft is great at what they do and have made great productivity software. My main complaint with them is that they do stuff like this. It's just their take on the social networking craze. No innovation, and a really bland UI. I could see of they were taking things a step further, but instead it's just the same recycled stuff.
  • Charlotte_Web, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It's a little clunky, and I don't like how Microsoft, like Yahoo, tries to tie your same account to every service they offer.

    The interface, while very clean looking, is a little quirky.
  • FuzzyBunny, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I'm actually glad Microsoft has decided to enter this space. The current social networking sites, with the exception of Facebook which lacks a lot of features, are all horribly designed. It's unlikely that Live Spaces will have much success with the HS and college crowd though since they'll view it as part of "the man", and in the end it will all come down to the users.
  • XStatic, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I just wish I didn't have to click to activate this control....

    Stupid lawsuits over patents issued for obvious functionality!
  • flake, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Hmm, tried signing up from within seamonky and got the message that I needed to be using IE. Too bad for them, don't think it will catch on unless it works in all browsers
  • bouche, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4at least live spaces isn't blocked at my office network.
  • whiteguysamurai, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Could be cool.
  • rhamej, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I make a true statement that I can edit MS Spaces in Fire Fox with no problem at all, and I get dugg down? Wtf is wrong with this community?
  • synaesthesia, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6I joined MSN Spaces hoping it'd be a great new alternative to Myspace, but I was sadly disapointed. However, with such a large MSN Spaces userbase already established and Microsoft hopefully learning from their mistakes with MSN Spaces, this might- just *might*- be the site that Myspace could be were it not designed by three stoned chimps with Down's Syndrome.
  • Trebormojo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Wow, think they could open more windows? I have been exploring spaces, and it seems everything opens in a new window. Only negative so far I have.
  • FuzzyBunny, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Actually if you consider things like MSN pages, Microsoft has been in the social networking/blogging scene for far longer than current players like Myspace, Xanga, and Facebook.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Digg isn't a better Slashdot for a few reasons. Sure, slashdot is old, but the general IQ level is much higher, and so is the general technical expertise and legal knowledge of people that frequent it. Digg is like Slashdot for Everyone. Digg's comment and threading system is so 1988 I feel like I'm posting to a BBS via dialup sometimes (yes I'm probably older than the average Digg user).

    On the other hand, Digg has actual user-submitted stories that, regardless of content or relevancy, get a chance to make the front page and the RSS feed. Slashdot quit taking decent submissions years ago it seems, and a CSS redesign has done nothing to freshen up the site. So, here's the score.

    Digg Slashdot
    Content +1 -1
    User Int. -2 +2
    Threading -1 +1
    Look/Feel +1 Equal
    Variety +1 -1
    Age -1 +1

    So they're pretty evenly balanced but I think /. still holds the prize. Digg is improving though, although 2.0 still didn't help with the nasty old threading style.
  • marnaq, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Dude, they are trying sooo hard.
  • rhamej, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Not true. I viewed the whole site in FF. Edited my settings, changed themes, added friends, the whole nine yards. Wish I had better control over the look of it, but still, it's easier on the eyes than mySpace.
  • antoniojvr, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9I like what Kevin Rose said (I'm paraphrasing here): Don't try to imitate something else!

    So MS is not the lead in blogs and social networking. So what? As far as I'm concerned, they did a good job at marketing windows and have done a great job in the gaming market. You don't have to be on top of all the pedestals.
  • weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Are we looking at the same, ugly-ass Friendster copy?
    Myspace = horribly designed but with useful features (band profiles, for one) and lots of people.
    Facebook = better designed with some better features (photo tagging) and lacking in others, relatively popular.
    Friendster = better designed but nothing compellingly better featurewise and completely a ghost town.
    Tagworld = tons of features, conspicuous feature holes (i.e. search for users by location?), better design, more customizable, not much market traction yet.
    Live Spaces = Looks like a leprechaun designed it for 10-year-olds, feature-poor, only popular in Asia, only will be.

    It's a crowded market, I don't see how MS is going to make any inroads with this. There are others I didn't even touch on. Becoming a popular social networking service is about more than adding horoscopes, people.
  • Vogateer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3People are already pretty entrenched in MySpace, aren't they? It's great that someone's trying to improve upon MySpace with a competing site, but how many people are going to leave the familiarity of MySpace only to have to setup their friends, blog and site all over again? It's a bit like getting people to switch from Windows, you have to have some compelling reasons to get people to change over, just doing it better and making it prettier probably won't be enough.

    For the record, I don't use MySpace myself, and I really don't care for it, this just seems like an area where Microsoft has their work cut out for them.
  • vdxc, on 09/29/2008, -1/+2is it me or has Windows Live Spaces been online for a while already? I remeber checking it out a few days ago to see if it was online and it was. http://spaces.live.com/
  • Arramol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Why is it wrong for them to enter an existing market? That's like accusing Burger King of ripping off McDonald's because they both sell burgers and fries.
  • BrainedChild, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Vista has widgets a la MacOS? Or maybe a la Konfabulator, which is where Apple got the idea.
    Who's stealing ideas now?
  • FuzzyBunny, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It used to be MSN Spaces, and before that it was known as MSN Pages. I'm not entirely sure how long it's been around in it's various forms, but I would estimate it to be at least 5 years.
  • csimpkins, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4"...this project will fail, because people won't abandon the status quo unless they're offered something better"

    You're assuming it's not better than the status quo.
  • weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3From Wikipedia:

    MSN Spaces was Microsoft's free Social Networking platform. The site was launched in early December 2004 with the aim of allowing its users to reach out to others by publishing their thoughts, photos and interests in an easy and compelling way. With this goal, MSN Spaces finds itself competing with similar services like MySpace and Yahoo!'s 360°.

    That's a year and a half after the launch of Myspace in July of 2003, which, despite Wiki not having any historical information for, was certainly launched after Friendster in 2002 or early 2003. Even Facebook was a few months before MSN Spaces. I don't know what you mean by MSN pages, but the point is in 2004 they made the choice to do everything up to and including copying Myspace's name. Maybe it could be better, different, but call a spade a spade, it's a bland copy.
  • iJump, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@CBTF

    Check your file systems, ya' moron. It's actualy the other way around.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista#Criticism
  • MikeCerm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Who cares if Spaces never gets as big as MySpace? Bad Religion, Dream Theater, Brian McKnight (insert name of your favorite band or artist) will never be as big as N*Sync...

    I don't care if it's Microsoft or Friendster that does it, but more mature sounds great to me. The Arctic Monkeys fans can stay with MySpace (or die) for all I care.
  • weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It's not wrong for them to enter existing markets. But when was the last time they created one instead of entered it? It's just predictable.
  • weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think the thing that's important to note here is that social networking is more about popularity than music. Because it's got that word social in there, its entire purpose is to facilitate contact, and the larger the network, the more of your social contacts will be likely to find you. The more likely you are to be able to reach people you need to reach. If you're Bad Religion and you need to tell your fans that your Columbus show got cancelled, or that Greg Graffin was doing a speaking tour, which network would you use? You'd use the one with the largest number of your fans.
  • MikeCerm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Digg imitates a lot of social sites that came before it, but it also added new features, and is generally a step forward. It's basically a better del.icio.us, or a better Slashdot. (That should get me modded down...)

    If Microsoft can make a better MySpace, they should.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I would bet that the "Zune" will plug into this.
  • tomharpel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0All requests for spaces.msn.com URL's will redirect automatically to the corresponding spaces.live.com URL. Great care was taken to prevent breaking permalinks.
  • ralphc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2What could help Live Spaces (or any of them, if they get it right) is integration of widgets.
    What the kids like, besides ranting about their teen angst, are surveys and quizzes. You'll go to a site and they just took "what Harry Potter character is most likely to kill you in a bar fight", and they want you to take it. Right now, you have to go to the quiz site, take the quiz, and copy and paste it into your own site. Imagine hitting a button that automatically copies the quiz widget into an entry on your own site, then you take the quiz in-place.
  • MikeCerm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Haven't used Spaces yet, but there's a Firefox extension called Tab Mix Plus that, in addition to other things, lets you choose to allow websites to open new windows, force those new windows into new tabs instead, or force the new window to open in the same window and tab.

    It's one of the extensions that I couldn't live without, not just for that reason.
  • wideawakewesley, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Widgets are integrated now, they're called gadgets though and anyone can develop one.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Looks Nice well done Microsoft
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 95 of 95 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.