RSSMSN Spaces Update a Little Bumpy
By Ed Oswald | Published January 27, 2006, 12:15 PM
Microsoft's MSN division rolled out a new version of its Spaces blogging platform on Thursday afternoon, but it was not without hiccups that caused service to be spotty for over a day following its release.
Users reported issues with image loading, as well as some features not loading correctly or at all. Spaces also seemed much slower than normal for many. "The service may be a little slow for a little while it stabilizes," MSN Spaces product manager Mike Torres told users.
The issues, however, did not prevent Torres from listing almost two dozen new features on his Web log late Thursday. Some of the more significant additions include a new search feature, a new advertising partnership that allows users to earn revenue, integration with Windows Live Contacts, larger photo storage space, shorter URLs, and Xbox Live integration.
The new search feature will enables users of the service to search for Spaces based on a keyword, a user's profile, or by popular interest across all Spaces. MSN has added the search functionality to the mobile version of Spaces as well.
MSN will now be allowing American and Canadian Spaces users to place advertising on their blogs through a partnership with Kanoodle. Participation in the feature would be voluntary.
Spaces will also integrate with Windows Live Contacts, a feature from Microsoft where users would be able to receive contact updates. The feature will be added throughout the company's suite of "Live" services over the next few months. When a contact changes their information, the address books of those subscribed to the data would change automatically.
In addition, Spaces is now more tightly integrated with Microsoft's Xbox Live service. This will include Xbox themes for the Space, as well as two modules that can be displayed: the Gamer Card and Xbox Live Recent Games.
"This feature has been the single biggest reason my gamer score is now clocking in at 500 instead of 0," Torres joked.
Other features include the expansion of photo storage from 30MB to 500 photos per month with no megabyte limit, shorter URLs that take "/members/" out of the address, new themes, enhanced commenting and profiles, and book list integration with Amazon.com.
"One of the things not mentioned above that I'm most excited about is the work we've put into the Spaces platform itself which will enable us to innovate faster and smarter over the next few months and years," Torres said. "This is just the beginning of a wave of coolness."
...you should have at least told Bill to let the MSN chat peeps know what changes were taking place to theyre personnel info., but i suppose thats just another technicality.. im sure youll fix that later too {(oops] too late }
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|I think your review is lousy and incomplete.
You dont mention the fact that msn profiles were deleted and that is not possible anymore to select people by country, they offer a location that needs to be typed (previously countries showed from a ready-made table) so it wont return exact results because it depends on how you typed your country name, (which its different in each language). Also the Spaces is empty and no return searc exists up to today February 5th 2006.
So be a little more professional and report your articles more accurately Sir.
Luis kmentt
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|This stinks ... profile gone, replaced with a bunch of ugly, useless crap that crashes my IE ... no thanks.
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|we posted this on mike torres blog and we might add that as chatters we paid a subscription fee to chat. being forced to have an msn space wasnt part of the deal.
==
this change was totally misrepresented to msn's chatter's. the only thing that we were told was that adult rated profiles were to be deleted not that all profiles were going to be changed and that we would be forced to have an msn space to boot.
the profile pictures are too small. some chatters personal information mysteriously appeared on the new msn space profile without permission and some chatters received unwanted and unsolicited instant messages and emails as a consequence.
as far as we know msn never asked us chatters if we wanted these changes msn as usual just up and does whatever it wants with no advance notice or customer input.
while msn was in the right to delete and prohibit adult content on chat profiles chat being a seperate entity to the msn spaces and one in which we have to pay money to subscribe to, msn should have left the other chat profiles alone. if you think that we chatters are pleased with this change we suggest you go on the chatline and observe whats being said.
===
www.bloggingmsnchat.blogspot.com
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|Most dissapointed about the profile integration changes changes... Another thing that kills me though, what happened to filmstrip view for photos?? Takes forever to find specific pics. Definatly a downgrade in my books
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|One thing not mentioned is incompatibility with Firefox, at least for photo uploading. This is a serious downer for many people who use MSN's services (like Hotmail) but prefer Firefox. Luckily, Yahoo Photos not only offers a much better interface, that's not tied to any one browser, but it offers unlimited storage, compared to MSN Spaces' measly 500MB, which compresses photos to web-size but doesn't allow people to view the originals.
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|I have had no compatibility issues with FireFox, the one thing that seemd to work correctly in the whole mess was picture and file uploads/downloads. I uploaded at least three pictures in FireFox this past weekend and had no problems whatsoever.
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|I use Firefox and have had no issues with the new site... for what it's worth.
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|They've also changed MSN Messenger profiles and it's a total disaster. They've ruined everything that was good about MSN Directory and made it almost impossible to use it to find someone to chat with.
I wonder what idiot thought up this ill conceived project and how much they got paid for it? One thing is for sure, they never went out and got user feedback before doing so....
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|issues with image loading? the service may be slow? LMAO the whole chat system was down for over 5 hours yesterday afternoon.....talk about Microspud spin........and as of this date and time (27 Jan 1148 PT) the "my space" profiles still dont load properly.
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|What does the Chat service have to do with Spaces? Stick to the article, please.
In any case, I have only had minor issues with Spaces yesterday, but things seem to be fine today.
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|They've combined the chat service WITH Spaces. It's one of the "improvements" they've made. Profiles and spaces are now combined.
They've also published a load of peoples email addresses on their profile. Almost everyone I know who uses MSN messenger and has a profile/space is very angry about the update!
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|They moved all the chat profiles to My Spaces. And, when they tried to update the system it shut down the chats AND Spaces....that's what is has to do with the chats. As of 2154 PCT 29 Jan, Most people are still having problems updating their profiles in spaces. I stuck to the article because the change screwed up the whole system.
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|Sorry I noticed that a short while after posting that... my mistake.
I'm not exactly impressed by the new profile layouts either, although I do like the public/messenger/custom aspect of it.
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|I didn't experience the email issue, but then again, I've never published mine in the first place.
I also saw after the post that they had, in fact, linked the two, which is very annoying.
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|the chatters profiles were converted over to msn spaces - see our other post
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|Adults doing blogs = good
Kids doing blogs = bad
Kids put too much information about themselves and their family out there due to the parents not being involved.
Idiots.
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|ditto!
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|Indeed.
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|What they need is parental control features. If you peruse most of the kids' spaces they're breeding grounds for the lowest common denominator. I'm not preaching censorship. I'm suggesting parental responsibility and involvement.
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|Good suggestion.
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|I agree not enough is being done by any of the blog providers to deal with this. Parents wants to protect their children but sometimes it feels like they expect the government/authorities to do it for them instead. While I think blog providers should be working on a system to protect children I think parents should also be involved in everything their child does online and not expect Norton to babysit them because they are too lazy too.
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|God forbid that these days, parents are even actually allowed to be *gasp* parents!
You can't even spank your kids now without being likened to the scum that put their kids in a car and drive it into a lake, or drown em in a bathtub.
You want parents to take care of business, talk to your congressman and make it not illegal or socially unacceptable to discipline your kids!
There isn't a kid today that doesn't know that if Mom or Dad pops em one with a belt across the hiney that they can't pick up a phone and dial 911 or tell a guidance counselor/teacher in the school system that they're being "abused"... Too much liberal PC "feelings" BS has wimpified our rights as parents to set our kids on the right paths with a little "positive reinforcement" of our own... a nice positive force swing on that paddle against a backside just once will do wonders for a kid's outlook on life!
Maybe if it didn't become a holy Jihad against the rights of parents to not "spare the rod", then maybe we wouldn't have 8 year olds bringing loaded Desert Eagles to school in their backpacks, or god forbid, teen pregnancy, disrespect for elders, gang violence, drug use, or scenes like Columbine.
I got my butt wooped when I screwed up as a kid ("Grab that chair boy" *crack!*) and by god, I am not a drug user, I don't rob banks, convenience stores, beat up women, or kill people. It didn't turn me into a murderer or anything, it taught me there are consequences for doing wrong, and a swat on the butt isn't anywhere near what you'd get as an adult and screw up major.
Don't expect anyone to do your parenting for you but YOU. If you give a flip about your kids, then you're going to know what they do, and teach them what's right and wrong. Don't abdicate your rights to an entity thinking they will do it for you, because all they'll do is fill them with their ideals, and their agendas, and let your kids do what THEY think is right and wrong.
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|Indeed!
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|INDEED! and thank you for posting this, because you are absolutely right.
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|Your rant is not only off topic and extremist, but completely illogical as well. It is not, nor has it ever been "illegal or socially unacceptable to discipline your kids!" It is, however, "socially unacceptable" to allow a person to commit wanton battery on another person simply because they are related. Welcome to the 21st century, where civilized people try to change and correct the mistakes of their past.
If your statements are true, then everyone else in this world who has been "wooped" also do not do drugs, rob banks and convenience stores, beat up women or kill people -- and naturally, everyone who has not been "wooped", does. Wow, that's brilliant! With logic like that, you ought to run for president.
Back on topic, MSN Spaces is still problematic as of today (Jan 30); it crashes Firefox completely as the page tries to load.
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