Friday, 3 December 2004

Microsoft Debuts "Spaces", Messenger 7 Beta

After rigorous beta testing of its blogging service in Japan, since August, Microsoft's MSN division has announced a series of updates to its Internet services that it hopes will make e-mail, instant messaging and sharing easier and more personalized for customers. MSN Spaces, Microsoft's blogging service, has opened itself to the public for beta testing. The service, previously only available in Japanese, is now available in English. MSN Spaces, a new beta build of MSN Messenger 7.0 alerts users of changes to their contact's Spaces, through new icons called "gleams", and an updated Hotmail that integrates MSN Spaces and presence awareness. The services are designed to be discoverable across each other and are more deeply integrated.

Microsoft's goal with the project is to make getting (and running) a blog as simple as any other task. After a simple signup process (you pick a name and url) you're ready to tell the world your views. Spaces have most of the common features seen on blogs (RSS, track back, etc) and a few more. Microsoft offers a variety of themes, ranging from the default, to a variety of others. The 15 custom built themes were created by none other than The Skins Factory. The Skins Factory have been responsible for a number of high profile Windows Media Player skins too.