Microsoft Dumps Windows Live Spaces For WordPress.com

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. is giving up on its own blog network and, in a new partnership, will start sending new Windows Live users to a competing platform instead.

Microsoft said Monday that people who sign up for a Windows Live account – necessary to use the free Hotmail e-mail system, the Xbox Live site and other services – can get a free blog from WordPress.com.

They'll no longer be given a "space" on Microsoft's own blogging system, Windows Live Spaces.

Current Windows Live Spaces bloggers can use the existing system until the end of the year. If they want to update their blog after that, they have until March 2011 to switch to WordPress. They can also download the content from their existing blog to their PCs.

Microsoft said it will make sure existing text, photos, videos, comments and links transfer over to the new blog.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft added MSN Spaces, later renamed Windows Live Spaces, to its array of free online services in 2004. For several years, the software maker seemed committed to the idea of building its own version of competitors' products, from online photo management and event invitation to blogging and social-networking software.

Microsoft has since shifted its strategy, providing tools and services that mesh better with competitors' programs. For example, people can use the Windows Live Photo Gallery program to publish pictures to Yahoo Inc.'s Flickr site, or connect feeds from social networks Facebook and LinkedIn with Messenger accounts and Windows Live profile pages.

In a blog post, Microsoft said giving its customers access to WordPress.com was a better move than continuing to invest in its own service. That may be because Windows Live Spaces gets a fraction of the traffic its competitors do, at least in the U.S.

Microsoft says Windows Live Spaces has 30 million "active" users, or people who logged in within the last month.

In the U.S., Windows Live Spaces was visited by about 2.3 million people in August, according to research group comScore Inc. Google Inc.'s Blogger drew 56.9 million people, WordPress.com attracted 26.1 million people and sites from Six Apart, which operates the Typepad and Moveable Type blog platforms, attracted 19.3 million unique visitors.

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Online:

Microsoft's blog post on the switch:

http://bit.ly/bhTA5D

Comments

[studmoose]

08:04 AM on 09/30/2010

You can already get free blogs from WP, just enhanced features requires a modest subscription.

I use if for about a half-dozen sites, from GoDaddy.

[iamvalid]

10:07 PM on 09/29/2010

The Ballmer virus strikes once again.

[kkrimmer]

01:03 PM on 09/29/2010

MS lacks innovation.

[Sendil Nathan]

11:19 PM on 09/27/2010

Spaces to Wordpress is a smart move. Althoug the whole mesh, skydive, sync is still a fragmented overlapping mess. All of the cloud services needs a unified architectural rendering and is currently more like a hodgepodge of World Expo buildings than an Urban Planned City.

[DharmaRecruit]

06:53 PM on 09/27/2010

I worked at Microsoft for almost four years, and even though I feel it's a phenomenal company to work for I'll say this — they really have a problem with branding. The whole MSN vs. "Live" branding scheme was a complete mess, confusing even Microsoft employees. Titles like "Windows Live Messenger" are neither catchy nor sensical. They should take a cue from other companies which go with simpler branding.

[drumz]

05:18 PM on 09/28/2010

Bob

[Culture Vulture]

06:33 PM on 09/28/2010

No I wouldn't compare Spaces to Bob. Spaces had a lot of potential when it first launched, but MS never really adapted or kept up with the changing market and never kept it relevant.