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Live Spaces loses 15 percent of its visitors in the past year
on Sat 15 Mar 2008 (14:15 GMT) (1985 views)
on Sat 15 Mar 2008 (14:15 GMT) (1985 views)
Thanks to LiveSide for this find, I believe they sum up the situation very well:
In my opinion Spaces was only popular because of its integration within Messenger. To put things bluntly, all its features have been mimicked by others services who have made them better and provided a key relationship between social networking with friends. For me, Windows Live Spaces is just not practical.
According to some new numbers included in an email from Nielsen Online today, Windows Live Spaces, never a big player in the US market for social networking tools, lost significant ground over the past year.
Nielsen Online provides February's top U.S. social networking sites and blogs for your reference. They are ranked by unique audience and rounded to the nearest thousand, so MySpace.com had 55.4 million unique visitors in February 2008, growing 4 percent over February 2007. Please note that these are custom lists compiled by the Nielsen Online PR team with the help of our media analysts. While these lists are not meant to be exhaustive, they provide a good idea of the significant players in each space.
In my opinion Spaces was only popular because of its integration within Messenger. To put things bluntly, all its features have been mimicked by others services who have made them better and provided a key relationship between social networking with friends. For me, Windows Live Spaces is just not practical.
Today I noticed that the interface for Windows Live Spaces had changed to be more alike to the wave 2 Windows Live products, so no more wispy waves, instead a glassy border. Check it out!
Also I'm not advertising any of my own projects :-O
Edit: After Nile's drunken post (hey, I love Nile's space as much as the next guy) I've found out more about this update. The Space Craft (the official Windows Live Spaces development blog) has a detailed post about the new release, as do LiveSide. The update includes improvements on the lists feature, enchantments to photo galleries, and the availability of Windows Live Spaces in Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. absorbation
Edit 2: I'd only had 1 Guinness that night, but a fair few coffees. Was not drunk! :P aNILEator
Windows Live Spaces
Nile's Live Space
Info on the update
Also I'm not advertising any of my own projects :-O
Edit: After Nile's drunken post (hey, I love Nile's space as much as the next guy) I've found out more about this update. The Space Craft (the official Windows Live Spaces development blog) has a detailed post about the new release, as do LiveSide. The update includes improvements on the lists feature, enchantments to photo galleries, and the availability of Windows Live Spaces in Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. absorbation
Edit 2: I'd only had 1 Guinness that night, but a fair few coffees. Was not drunk! :P aNILEator
Windows Live Spaces Nile's Live Space Info on the updateWell over its development we have reported changes with Windows Live Spaces, and now it has finally gone Live and is better than ever. The new design, new code and of course new features all speak for themselves and blogging has never been so easy.
Signing up is simple, either click the spaces icon in MSN or Windows Live Messenger, or visit this link. Then add your details and create your space. Windows Live Spaces looks and feels so much more professional than MySpace, now the most popular website in the US. So why not convert to a better blog system today!
Sign up for your Windows Live Space
View the Microsoft press release with the feature changes
Signing up is simple, either click the spaces icon in MSN or Windows Live Messenger, or visit this link. Then add your details and create your space. Windows Live Spaces looks and feels so much more professional than MySpace, now the most popular website in the US. So why not convert to a better blog system today!
Sign up for your Windows Live Space View the Microsoft press release with the feature changesA new site has been discovered demonstrating the new Windows Live Spaces interface.
New features include a completely new Windows Live based inteface and icons, a breadcrumb link trail at the top of the page, new positioning of the title and tagline, integration of Windows Live Messenger, a Windows Live Search bar and the Friends List feature.
Rumors are that Windows Live Spaces will be launched on July 15. The image below is thought to be what the Spaces homepage will look like, although if you're as observant as me you will notice that on the screenshot from the official site the logo has the Windows Live orb logo whilst the image below has it in the old rounded square.
Screenshot of the new UI
Source: Darren Straight's blog
New features include a completely new Windows Live based inteface and icons, a breadcrumb link trail at the top of the page, new positioning of the title and tagline, integration of Windows Live Messenger, a Windows Live Search bar and the Friends List feature.
Rumors are that Windows Live Spaces will be launched on July 15. The image below is thought to be what the Spaces homepage will look like, although if you're as observant as me you will notice that on the screenshot from the official site the logo has the Windows Live orb logo whilst the image below has it in the old rounded square.
Screenshot of the new UI Source: Darren Straight's blog
MSN Spaces are fairly new, and over their short life they really have took over the blogging world. One in six blogs on the internet are now owned by MSN Spaces and for good reasons to. It is heavily integrated into Windows Live and MSN Messenger. Today exciting news was announced, the arrival of Windows Live Spaces, the new kid on the block taking over MSN Spaces.
A new feature is Friends Explorer. Basically you can share your friends with other friends and visa versa so you can have a variety of new people to talk to and meet. This is a little like social networking, which Daryl told us about earlier this year.
Another major new feature is Windows Live Gadgets. This allows the user to "express yourself and customize your space", which means you can make your space have unique things for your friends to marvel at. There is also a database you can use to download pre-created ones by other people.
But probably the biggest feature coming is the new design. It is going live, very live. Better layout, better coding, and easier on the eyes will surly make your space a much better place to visit. With the change comes new URL's, but don't worry changing won't be too hard. There are a few screenshots as well, you can view them here, it really looks great don't you think? Today we have seen the change Windows Live Spaces will do and it is telling us MSN Spaces is now growing up into something big. More news coming on this when we get it.
Source: Blog entry at The Space Craft
View the new screenshots of Windows Live Spaces
A new feature is Friends Explorer. Basically you can share your friends with other friends and visa versa so you can have a variety of new people to talk to and meet. This is a little like social networking, which Daryl told us about earlier this year.
Another major new feature is Windows Live Gadgets. This allows the user to "express yourself and customize your space", which means you can make your space have unique things for your friends to marvel at. There is also a database you can use to download pre-created ones by other people.
But probably the biggest feature coming is the new design. It is going live, very live. Better layout, better coding, and easier on the eyes will surly make your space a much better place to visit. With the change comes new URL's, but don't worry changing won't be too hard. There are a few screenshots as well, you can view them here, it really looks great don't you think? Today we have seen the change Windows Live Spaces will do and it is telling us MSN Spaces is now growing up into something big. More news coming on this when we get it.
Source: Blog entry at The Space Craft View the new screenshots of Windows Live SpacesWell we all know it's coming, as confirmed by the new icon in the latest public build of Windows Live Messenger recently by Microsoft in a press release about MSN Spaces visitors:
But, although this new update hasn't been released yet, the new logo has been leaked.
I thought we had an exclusive on our hands here when I found a (bad quality) version of the logo:
... but unfortunately it seems our friends over at LiveSide got there first (as usual) and found this:
... in a screenshot of the new Windows Live Developer center, which is named dev.live.
dev.live will be a big site with resources and forums for developers to help you to work with the Windows Live services, providing the "platforms and services for web mashups". The site will feature the SDKs (software development kit) for Custom Domains, Gadgets (for live.com), Live ID, Local, Messenger, Search and Spaces and help you to create mashups (a web application hybrid, e.g. a website or web application that combines content from more than one source) between them.
It will also offer information about business opportunities with, and tools for writing apps using, the Windows Live services and also includes integration with the current Windows Live Developer Forums. It is expected to be released/revealed at next week's TechEd conference in Boston.
dev.live screenshot
LiveSide news article
URL where dev.live will appear
Windows Live Developer Forums
... the next version of MSN Spaces, called Windows Live Spaces, is expected to launch later this year with additional functionality including a social networking service and the ability for developers to create gadgets, new features developed by hobbyists and partners, that can be added to a Space by users.
But, although this new update hasn't been released yet, the new logo has been leaked.
I thought we had an exclusive on our hands here when I found a (bad quality) version of the logo:
... but unfortunately it seems our friends over at LiveSide got there first (as usual) and found this:
... in a screenshot of the new Windows Live Developer center, which is named dev.live.
dev.live will be a big site with resources and forums for developers to help you to work with the Windows Live services, providing the "platforms and services for web mashups". The site will feature the SDKs (software development kit) for Custom Domains, Gadgets (for live.com), Live ID, Local, Messenger, Search and Spaces and help you to create mashups (a web application hybrid, e.g. a website or web application that combines content from more than one source) between them.
It will also offer information about business opportunities with, and tools for writing apps using, the Windows Live services and also includes integration with the current Windows Live Developer Forums. It is expected to be released/revealed at next week's TechEd conference in Boston.
dev.live screenshot LiveSide news article URL where dev.live will appear Windows Live Developer ForumsPage: 1
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