Upon Microsoft's initial release of MSN Spaces, I wrote the following article:

Jeremy C. Wright has a good article about Microsoft's newly introduced blogging service, MSN Spaces.

Frankly, I'm not too thrilled by it.

It just represents Microsoft's attitude toward electronics: go into every market that we're not already in and take it over however we can. Internet Explorer is a prime example. Nearly simultaneously, Microsoft is going for too more markets: search and blogging.

MSN Search faces a very, very uphill battle against Google (and Yahoo! to a lesser extent). Google has a huge grip on the market and it will be near-impossible to steal their share of the market, comprised mainly of diehard faithfuls and name recognition.

I'm afraid that MSN Spaces, on the other hand, will have an easier chance at taking over the blogging market. Right now, the largest blogging service is Google-owned Blogger. It's a fine service, but what will help MSN Spaces is the huge community integration; it's implemented with nearly every other MSN service, including Messenger and Hotmail. This way, MSN Spaces is just an extension of users' other services (and vice-versa, a nice bonus for Microsoft) and will attract many first-time bloggers. After all, it's Microsoft, it has to be reliable (how mistaken the newbies are).

The other thing about the blogging market is that it is so heavily packed that it is hard to get a strong footing in the market. Forgoing downloaded blogging programs, there are still hundreds of remotely hosted blog services: Blogger, Xanga, Livejournal, journalspace, Blogthing, just to name a few. With all this competition, MSN Spaces is at a distinct advantage as it will have the most exposure (it's Microsoft, but don't forget the huge integration) and thereby attract the most new users.

Wright said that it would happen in 24 hours. I'm not as certain as that, but it won't be very long. It's incredibly user-friendly (read newbie-friendly) and pretty attractive. A key feature is its great photo sharing abilities. People love communicating in as many possible ways, and pictures provide one that most blogging services don't have.

Other than the photos, it doesn't offer anything particularly special. It's got nearly everything you could want for a personal blog (admittedly more features than Blogger), but it doesn't go above and beyond what it has to on a per-blog basis.

Where it really extends above the competition, and what will ultimately set it apart from its competition, is the interconnectedness of all of the Spaces and the people behind them. That's Microsoft.