Microsoft launched Windows Live Spaces recently and I must say I am impressed. And I'm not one of those die hard Microsoft fans, in fact for the most part I dislike them. However I give credit where it's due and Microsoft has earned it.
Microsoft has chosen to enter the "social networking site" game and they picked a great time. MySpace has really been dropping the ball as of late - most recently with their much complained about site failure due to a power outage.
So tonight I browsed on over to the Windows Live Spaces page and decided to make my own page since I already have a Hotmail account. It took me all of about 5 minutes to get my page exactly how I wanted it.
The process was quick, painless and included some nice features. Unlike MySpace where you are required to enter code on your own to change how your page looks Windows Live Spaces uses a drag and drop feature, simple theme switcher, easy list maker and a "smart" book list and a lot of other features. No geek knowledge required boys and girls , big thumbs up to Microsoft.
What do I mean by "smart" book list ? Well it goes like this :
You enter the book name, author name, ISBN and the Amazon link then Windows Live Spaces goes and fetches a thumbnail of the book to place in your page.
The drag and drop profile editor is especially nice. I can easily drag around content boxes to get the look I want - this is very hard to do on MySpace.
On to the themes - there are 11 theme categories to chose from which contain well over 50 themes you can easily select from.
Windows Live Spaces also includes a neat little gadget called "Updated Space". The updated spaces box shows a world map with little dots indicating where users are who are updating their Windows Space page. A simple click on the icon and you're instantly transported over to their Windows Spaces page to view their profile - very nice indeed.
If there was ever a time for MySpace to get serious this is it - no more playing around. Microsoft is a big hitter, they have the money, network, affiliates and know how to get the job done right. And given that social networking is the new sliced bread I bet Microsoft is going to take their Windows Live Spaces project very seriously.
Wake up MySpace - play time is over !
Personally I'd love to see Google enter the social networking site game. I think they could give Microsoft and MySpace a good run for their money which in the end leaves us with better, faster, cooler social networking sites to waste our time on.
Keep in mind this new Windows Live Spaces service offers a lot more features than I've listed here, this is just the general overview per my experience tonight.
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