MSN Spaces is Live - The End of Blogging as we Know it?
MSN Spaces will make blogs communication tools
MSN's new blog service has launched whilst I was sleeping and although it seems you're kind of stuck with their templates I must say it looks pretty damn slick..
I set up a Test Blog for Threadwatch! - please go spam the comments, i want to test it out some more. Does anyone know if this integrates with Messenger in any way?
Forresters Charlene Li has all the details and some interesting commentary on what this will mean:
Notice a trend here? There’s heavy integration of Spaces into the whole MSN communication suite of email and instant messaging. I think this is very smart, especially as MSN hopes to attract a new audience group to blogging. The next wave of bloggers is going to look very different from today’s blogger – their motivation will be on sharing experiences rather than having a place for their ideas and opinions. The integration puts the blog in context of other communications, such as email and IM. If you’re about to email me, you’ll see my latest post/photo – instant context setting and traffic generation to my blog. If you mention the blog posts in an email/IM, I’ll have even more incentive to keep blogging. That integration distinguishes MSN Spaces from other services like Lycos’
Now blogging is going to seriously hit the mainstream and we will indeed see blogs used for an entirely different purpose - to me it's all good, but I can hear the beginnings of outrage out there in the jungle as blogging is opened to the MSN'ing hordes...
Great
Got my first name registered ;)
I was sleeping too Nick, but
I was sleeping too Nick, but beeing an early bird like me, I was able to snag my first name too ;)
It will be exciting to see what this move from MSN will mean to the blogging community.
Poor Markup
M$ ignoring standards again...
Sheesh! You'd think with a brand new service they might at least make some kind of token effort... spotted my moblitopia
shite
Apparently you're not allowed to say "shite" lol...
Scoble dont like it
Scoble says he doesn't like it for these reasons:
More shite
Yeah, right... I'd rather stick needles in my eyes, but thanks for the offer.
And auto-censorship, too, very classy. Nothing to shock your grandma - welcome to the Microsoft world of free speech. Can you mention stuff like viagra or casino in a post, or is it just the usual
"naughty words" which are banned? Are the comments censored too? (It would be terrible if we couldn't go and spam them, wouldn't it!)
I would sign up to test, but I'm particularly allergic to MSN...
Ballmer
..was talking it up apparently: Detroit free press
Im not sure on the other censhorship encyclo....
link via mp
Oops
I sounded a bit grumpy in that last post ;) Seriously, I was interested in how MSN Spaces are going to deal with blog comment spam. Let's face it, a lot of these "spaces" are going to become abandonned, so it could be easy pickings for comment spammers.
I suppose I'll just have to hold my nose and sign up for a throwaway .NET passport with a mailinator address...
To answer my own question
Don't tell you what language is prohibited, though. Also, new comments at the top... wierd.
Wow
That is one fugly site Nick. I got no love from their comments form in FF.
Slooowwww...
Signed up to test too.. Got up and working easily, but my god it's slow also not liking the lack of code customisation, especially when it's a big Yuk! to the themes.
Very M$, point and click will possibly be a hit for "joe public".. and although the trackbacks and syndication stuff assumes knowledge of blogging terms, help is there. I can see me telling non-techy friends to use for them for their family stuff seeing how they're IE users anyway ;)
That's what..
..i said to Ivana when we were out with the dogs Suzy, i told her it was pants for bloggers but my mum would prolly love it :-)
Running incredibly slow at th
Running incredibly slow at the mo, it was fine when most of america was in bed! Cmon M$ give us access to rip apart these themes cuz they are awful :)
Hmm
Ive been playing with this today abit. Its obviously aimed at normal msn users who can integrate this with their msn/hotmail profiles. It seemed to take me ages to even get a picture into the blog and the customisation leaves alot to be desired. This service isnt industry changing imho.
Ya To Slow For Me Also...
...I was going to sign up for some thing to do. But I don't like slow servers and esp slow IIS servers.
boingboing
..have a funny piece on what you can and cant say on a spaces blog...
awfully restrictive, like many things M$, they seem to have entirely missed the point, on purpose.
cnet have an interesting piec
cnet have an interesting piece, especially the bit about MSN Spaces forces new users to grant Microsoft permission to "use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat" their blog postings.