By now it's common knowledge that MSN
Spaces became widely available to the general public today. As someone who's currently working
on the next iteration of Spaces I've already had time to excercise the existing realease
and I've got to day I like it a lot. Below is the list of top 5 things I like about
Spaces
1. Integrated
Photo Album: If you visit Carnage4Life's
Space you don't just get to see my blog but also a slideshow of various RSS
Bandit screenshots I uploaded a few days ago.
2. Integrated
Music Lists: I get to share my taste in music via music
lists where each song is hyperlinked to search MSN
Music so one can hear a sample of the music I like. For lazy people like me you
can just upload a Windows Media player playlist to create a music list.
3. MSN
Messenger Integration: Words don't do it justice. Here's a
screenshot of me viewing Mike Torres' contact card. Here's a
screenshot of my contact card. Yes, the rumors were right. You can post to your
blog directly from MSN Messenger.
4. Access
Control: One can specify the level of access they want for their blog. You
can choose to make a blog public, private or only accessible by people on your MSN
MessengerAllow List. Your Allow List is a list of everyone who
you've allowed to see your online presence and IM you via MSN Messenger. This
should be everybody on your buddy list and everyone who's asked to put you on their
buddy list and you've accepted. This allows you to create a blog that is only accessible
by people in your immediate circle of friends and family which for most people are
the only ones you want reading your blog or viewing your photos .
It should be noted that in a number of markets the permissions on your Space default
to "Only allow people in my MSN Messenger Allow List view my Space". So it is best
to check http://spaces.msn.com/members/[yourblogname]/PermissionSettings.aspx and
ensure that you have specified the level of access control you are comfortable with.
5. The
Price: It's free. Completely and utterly free of charge.
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