Microsoft Dives Into Blogging

The big news of the day is MSN Spaces, Microsoft’s answer to SixApart’s TypePad and Google’s Blogger. While I haven’t done an evaluation of Spaces, I think it’s great that Microsoft is getting on the blogging train. The millions of users they’ll draw from Hotmail and MSN Messenger users will only increase the diversity of the blogosphere. Combine this with AOL’s Hometown journals–everybody seems to be on board.

I also must applaud Microsoft for sticking with existing weblog and RSS standards. In another era, the folks from Redmond would have delivered their own protocols and standards and caused an enormous interoperability battle. I’m glad we can skip that bullocks.

This Feedster search provides a decent snapshot of the response in the blogosphere. Here are Roland’s thoughts (that’s his home page, as he’s got a several posts) and a demo video that Jeremy made. The most amusing thing I’ve read are Xeni Jardin’s hilarious test of rude MSN Spaces blog names. “”Butt Sex is Awesome” is in, but “Anal Health for People who Think Butt Sex is Awesome” is out.