Windows Live Spaces launches, succeeds MSN Spaces
Last night Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft's shiny new successor to MSN Spaces, was launched. All old MSN Spaces blogs now redirect to their new Windows Live Spaces URLs. Apart from a newer, slicker interface and home page, the biggest new features in Windows Live Spaces are the friends module and--you guessed it--gadgets, a.k.a. widgets. The friends module is Microsoft's stab at social networking, and has the distinct advantage of being integrated with MSN/Windows Live Messenge, allowing you to navigate your Live Spaces friends, and their friends, inside Live Messenger. Gadgets are integrated with Live.com, meaning you can have the same gadgets on your MSN Space as you do on your Live.com personalized home page. As with many of Microsoft's new Live tools, I'm pretty impressed with the features and polish of Windows Live Spaces. They have a lot of work before truly competing with MySpace, but it's a start.
