What Happened to Live Spaces?

Microsoft recently declared that it will no longer offer Live Spaces (effectively a blog platform)

. The remaining customers will all be moved to the Wordpress platform. This was a surprising revelation by Microsoft. Recent years has seen Microsoft make big attempts to become part of the money rich, social networking sector. MSN messenger, which an extremely popular messaging piece of software, got renamed as Windows Live Messenger and continues to be developed. The last release incorporates many more functions than just IM messaging. Live Spaces was a sub-section of Microsoft's role in this market yet sadly user levels did not match up to the usage levels of Live Messenger and they decided to close it.

You have to question why such a big company would be motivated a decisions like this. Live Spaces, although cumbersome in design, was an easy method of blogging for many users, particularly people more familiar with Microsoft products. It was integrated well with Live Messenger. Additionally, it offered lucrative online marketing space (similar to how online advertising works on Livejournal and Blogspot). Yet, Microsoft has decided to simplydecided to close itshut it down and give its users a vastly different service. This is possibly a good thing for users that took blogs seriously (as Wordpress is a dedicated blogging platform), but for users that are not familiar with blog platforms, the integration of Windows Live Messenger was welcomed.

If you are to accept recent data, the user levels of Live Spaces was a lot lower than Microsoft previously stated. Yet, this signifies another thing that is very important. Particularly, what then are people using instead?

One idea is that blogging is on the decrease and micro-blogging and social networks have trumped a lot of the motivation to have a blog. Yet, this may be a common misconception. The blog is still going strong. Indeed, blogging sites still are some of the most frequently used sites on the web today. Thousands of blogs are created each and ever day. Perhaps then, Microsoft simply designed Windows Live Spaces wrong.

Live Spaces is a curious site: part community site, part blog, part messenger, part profile page, part online web space. Microsoft probably failed to realize what people wanted. Arguably, they may have preferred a more straightforward application, not necessarily connected to their instant messaging accounts. Perhaps Microsoft could have offered a streamlined, more focused application taking out the social network feature and replacing it with more helpful services. Microsoft is arguably the leading manufacturerdominant player in work based programs. Lots of people are used to working with Microsoft Office programs

at work, school or whilst at home. Thus, it would be a lot more intuitive to see Microsoft incorporate these features, along with a social book submitter or password program.

Digital technology is increasingly being driven by convergence: a single device or application that has lots of different functions and uses. Many sites are also becoming multi-functional, providing many different features. Microsoft should acknowledge its unique selling point as a utility compared withas opposed to something frivolous. Designing a more streamlined Live Spaces will mean Microsoft can compete with new web browsers (as IE user numbers continues to fall). By offering functions such as an online favorites manager or secure password manager, Microsoft can reposition themselves and create their own field in an otherwise over crowded online industry.

What Happened to Live Spaces?

By: Culon Cheng

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