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MSN Spaces

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Duphus (talk | contribs) at 05:58, 13 December 2005 (move images a bit). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

MSN Spaces logo
MSN Spaces logo
MSN Spaces homepage

MSN Spaces is Microsoft's free blogging platform. The site was launched in December 2004. The aim is to make the process of blogging a simple and straightforward affair, while competing with similar services like Google's Blogger. After a simple signup process a blog is ready to be used. Microsoft offer a variety of themes to suit someone's style. The software is integrated with MSN Messenger 7 and above, with other people's "Spaces" appearing in their contacts.

New features

As of April 2005, MSN Spaces has now increased the storage from 10 MB to 30 MB. Other big changes have been made as well. These include dozens of new themes for a space and you can now e-mail entries to the blog instead of having to access the MSN Spaces web site. Also, MSN Spaces now works with My MSN and some of the tools used to edit a space have been modified. A new look has been applied to the main page of MSN Spaces as well. You can now also SMS entries to the blog from mobile phones, although the service is via UK phone number.

In June 2005, the formatting bar used to compose and edit blog entries was updated with new buttons including background color, font style, font size, edit using HTML and other options. [1]

Small adverts located at the top of each blog page are now visible. Previously only one or two adverts would show but now four show with text and image links.

Contact Cards

File:Contact Card.PNG
Contact Cards can be viewed in MSN Messenger and Hotmail

Contact Cards, which summarise recent additions to an MSN Space for a particular user, are integrated with MSN Messenger, MSN Web Messenger and Hotmail Contacts. Clicking on a users icon in your buddy list, pops up their Contact Card which shows thumbnails of their recent photos, a summary of their recent blog entries and a short list of recent songs from their playlist.

Controversy

MSN Spaces has attracted some controversy.

The Terms and Conditions that all users must agree to when signing up for an MSN Space, grant Microsoft permission to "(1) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat your Submission, each in connection with the MSN Web Sites, and (2) sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law." Finally noting that "Microsoft will not pay you for your Submission." [2]

It has also been pointed out that MSN Spaces censors the words that a user can choose when naming their Space, prohibiting for example the word whore or the seven dirty words. [3] In addition, Microsoft has received criticism for censoring the words "democracy" and "freedom" under its Chinese portal. [4]

File:LogoPNG.png
The Ubuntu Linux logo similar to the MSN Spaces logo

The MSN Spaces logo looks remarkably similar to the trademarked Ubuntu Linux logo. Both logos show 3 people of different races/colors holding hands; even the heads in the logo are at the same angle. Some claim MSN Spaces have stolen and modified the Ubuntu logo. [5]

Trivia

  • MSN Spaces is one of the fastest growing blogging communities in the world with 20.0 million (20,000,000) blogs.
  • There is now a common Rich Text Editor for both Internet Explorer and Firefox, which support direct HTML posting
  • In July 2005 a new competition site was launched called the MSN Space Race. Photos of UFOs and aliens had to be taken in order to win the prizes. There was also a hidden UFO somewhere to be located. If someone located this they would win a trip to the NASA Space Center
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