Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging. It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces.
See BBC News.
Microsoft is trailing behind competitors like Google and AOL, which already offer services which make it easy for people to set up web journals.
Blogs, short for web logs, have become a popular way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online.
MSN Spaces is free to anyone with a Hotmail or MSN Messenger account.
People will be able to choose a layout for the page, upload images and share photo albums and music playlists. The service will be supported by banner ads.
“This is a simple tool for people to express themselves,” said MSN’s Blake Irving.
This is Microsoft’s first foray into blogging, which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year.
Competitors like Google already offer free services through its Blogger site, while AOL provides its members with journals.
Accurate figures for the number of blogs in existence are hard to come by. According to blog analysis firm Technorati, the so-called blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. It now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million, although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained.
livejournal is still the best 🙂
Get yourself a copy of Salam Pax: The Baghdad Blog a modern day classic using Blogging 🙂
http://www.greatdeal.co.uk/Operation/ItemLookup/ItemId/1843542625/
Microsoft blogging? Will this reformat and re-word what you write like many of their other products?
And ads? This is badly thought out. Go Google!
Sadly, people will use it because no doubt it’ll be tied into MSN Messenger in the not too distant future, and of course the next version of Windows, too.
Anyway, I have my own site to blog on.
“Supported by banner ads”
Ha ha hahahahahaha!!!!!
Sorry.
Too little too late, Microsoft.
“Too little too late, Microsoft.”
As with most things Microsoft do (browsers, proper search databases).
On the subject of too little too late, we are fast approaching the time when a whole bunch of MPs will ‘discover’ blogging just in time to run a one-way campaign tool for the general election. And they are assured of a lukewarm welcome.
Boris
You can share this bit in the party room with the ludites (sic)
Forrester envisions a day when new Member of Parliament and employee on their first day will be handed a sheet of paper with their phone number, email address
Ouch … Must investigate why URLs to articles are censored by Boris (smile)
Microsoft’s new blogging tool, censors certain words you might try to include in a blog title or url. If you can’t speak freely on a blog, what’s the point of having one?
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/12/02/msn_spaces_seven_dir.html
Forrester envisions a day when new MPs on their first day will be handed a sheet of paper with their phone number, email address
Microsoft gets the blogging bug – is it me or is Microsoft always behind every body else by about five years? Nice to see though tha blogging is catching up with our MP’s go Tom Watson Go Boris.
20six is the only blogging way to go, community is fantastic. I think this is one area that microsoft will fail to dominate. (Until they buy outright all the other blogging sites of course…)
Luckley I don’t use stright blogging servers like Mirosoft or Blogger due to the fact that i wanted to hold on to control of my onw work. Therefore my site my blog is all my own work. Basic yes – but it does the job. I love it
I’ve just put Boris’ Blog on my website at…..
http://shirtbloke.com/news/arts-&-funstuff.htm
If anybody has a definitive list of MPs who publish blogs, let me know and I’ll put them all on a page for comparison and comment. Email me from the contact link on the site. The ShirtBloke