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Microsoft Debuts MySpace for IT Pros

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

November 10, 2006, 6:11 PM

Microsoft on Friday launched what it bills as a social networking site for IT professionals, called Aggreg8. The company aims for the site to become a MySpace-like forum for developers to share scripts, tools, or best practices, or even to just connect with others within the profession.

"Aggreg8 is a site for IT Pros to mix-n-mingle," Kevin Remde, an IT Pro evangelist for Microsoft, wrote in a blog post announcing the service. "You can setup a profile, join groups, enter posts, add favorites, share content, mix, mingle, and learn."

The site will allow users to either collaborate with fellow developers through preset working groups, or allow them to create their own. Additionally, space would be provided in the groups to allow users to post messages and files, and share events, the company said.

Aggreg8 has no relation to the RSS reader project that carried the same name. Philip Roche, the creator of that program, was approached in July by Microsoft if he would sell the domain names. Both Aggreg8.com and Aggreg8.net were sold for $5,000, he said in a blog post.

Since then, the RSS reader was to move to Aggreg8.org and Aggreg8.co.uk, however, both sites still show a "coming soon" message.

Add a Comment (14 Comments)

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By rtmtech

edited Nov 12, 2006 - 2:23 PM

It looks like Aggreg8 is off to a good start. It has something for everybody in IT; hardware, networking, security and many other areas. Give it a try. Although not on a par with experts-exchange I think that it will be a very good resource as it gains momentum.

Score: 1

By lonechicken

posted Nov 13, 2006 - 10:09 AM

So now people can start stalking nerds?

Score: 0

By Rageweaver

posted Nov 13, 2006 - 9:11 AM

This is amazing... Counting that I hear Tom is a sell-out and is going to delete his myspace and make it again...Charging people on it 15-20 dollars a month... And think about it! Emo people have money...

Score: 0

By ds0934

posted Nov 12, 2006 - 9:58 PM

Normally I cheer on in the name of "more competition = better/cheaper products", but more forum/wiki/space sites per subject-matter only dilute the content and make it tougher for IT people to find answers to questions. There are already so many sites like this out there (including this one, sort of). IT Q&A sites are becoming strip malls of the internet.

Score: 0

By Boworr

posted Nov 12, 2006 - 4:50 PM

Looks pretty.... but also pretty useless at the moment.

Score: 0

By kerry_g

edited Nov 12, 2006 - 10:29 AM

Most of the features donr work, you cant edit or create posts if you are using IE7. This shouldn't have been released to the public yet.

Score: 0

By ds0934

posted Nov 12, 2006 - 9:55 PM

I just enrolled and posted several comments using IE7 on Vista RC2. Works fine. Maybe it's been tweaked since you tried it? Try adding it into your trusted sites list in IE7 to see if that helps?

Score: 0

By jshrk

posted Nov 12, 2006 - 6:43 AM

Sounds pretty similar to http://www.experts-exchange.com/

Score: 0

By adelossa

edited Nov 11, 2006 - 9:42 PM

And what's the difference from other forums (and "friend sites") out there?

What's next? Google will buy out Myspace or Google will come with a similar site?

EDIT: and I like the site's slogan: "127.0.0.1 for IT pros"

Score: 0

By alexweber15

posted Nov 13, 2006 - 10:48 AM

dude its a ripoff... its clever but a ripoff...

look at DriverHeaven's slogan (www.driverheaven.net)

"Every Enthusiast's 127.0.0.1"

it's been like that forever... :(