Torres Talking: Windows Live

Windows Live Writer Technical Preview

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:01:20 GMT

Hello? Anyone out there? ;) I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything of substance. Certainly longer than I’ve gone with respect to blogging since late 2004. Again, I expect I’ll be posting just as sporadically in the future as I am now given my “life priorities” and how they’ve expanded since welcoming a baby girl into the world back in October.

I did want to spend a minute or two giving folks an FYI post on the latest release of Windows Live Writer (Tech Preview). If you’re a blogger and you’re NOT using Writer… well, you should be. The new features include new formatting for photos, inline videos, word count, auto linking, and more. It’s really a solid, solid product and one that makes the life of a blogger a lot easier.

Check out this pic of Stella using the new tilt + “reflection” features of Writer for photos:

Cool. Interested in doing this yourself? Get the Technical Preview of Windows Live Writer

Live Mesh

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:53:42 GMT

Not too long ago (Jan 07) I blogged about wanting an Exchange Server for the rest of my life. This week, something similar was announced called Live Mesh. Yes, I know I'm days late to the party - but participating in blog chatter isn't top of mind for me anymore ;)

If you haven't been following the buzz around Live Mesh, here are some links to catch-up:

In short: this is one of the most ambitious platforms I've seen come from Microsoft since Silverlight or the original .NET Framework. It has serious, serious potential to redefine computing. The concepts resonate with me in a way few things do, particularly because they aren't an either-or approach (cloud vs. client). Only time will tell.

How I use Windows Live

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:57:00 GMT

Update (11/23): I somehow left out Windows Live Photo Gallery which I use just about everyday. So I added it below.

This post started out as an idea for a screencast months ago in preparation for our release, and I'd still love to do that someday, but I'd probably need a lot more dedicated time to do that how I'd want to. I plan to take paternity leave sometime next year so I'm bunching up a few projects (some involving screencasting) to tackle during that time. Naturally, I'm going to spend the vast majority of that time with my daughter who is the most incredible human being ever.

Really, I wanted to document how I use Windows Live because, as you might expect, I do try and use it to its fullest. In fact, my PC at home could easily be the "reference machine" for the Microsoft lifestyle since I run mostly Microsoft software on it. I do still use my Mac quite a bit too, and while I still use non-Microsoft software on my PC, I do my absolute best to "eat the Microsoft dogfood" when I can. It gives me a good split between using the competition's products (Google, Firefox, Mac OS X, iPhoto, etc.) and using ours.

Aside from the Windows Live client suite, I'm also running Media Center (as part of Vista Ultimate), Zune, Office 2007, Visual Studio, Office Communicator, Expression Studio, and Money 2007. The only non-Microsoft software I'm running regularly: Mozy for online backup, SyncBack for local backup, Firefox for the occasional browsing outside of IE7, and Paint.NET - which is built on the .NET Framework, so that may be sort of cheating.

I love this PC; it's the Velocity Micro Cinemagix Grand Theater I blogged about back when I discovered the evils of CableCard. One of the things that's become incredibly apparent to me since setting up this machine is that when the OEM wants to, they can make one hell of a Vista machine. This box didn't come with a single byte of crapware code on it, so everything runs exactly how it should. Smooth, fast, and reliable. Vista auto-updates overnight and reports back any failures to Microsoft (so it can get smarter and smarter like the sentient machine it is) and Windows Live OneCare tunes up the disks and keeps the machine free of malware. I feel like a corporate shill saying all this, but the reality is that it's really impressive when you can have an experience like this - it just feels so "buttoned up".

Back to the point: Windows Live. I've been working on it since it was codenamed "Longhorn Live" years ago and I think all things considered, it's the best solution out there for me. Windows Live to me is truly what brings Windows to life; it helps me roam and access my files, stay in touch with friends and family, and keep my machine running smoothly. Windows without Live on it feels plain these days - sort of like how Xbox must feel without Xbox LIVE. So how exactly do I use it?

Hotmail for personal email with Windows Live Mail as my front door. I store all my personal email with Hotmail and Windows Live Mail provides an "Exchange like experience" on multiple PCs; it connects to my mailbox and keeps it in sync with the service. I keep all my Sent items and I archive everything I receive in a folder aptly named Archive. That's it, it's as simple as that. When I'm away from my desk, I use Windows Live for Windows Mobile to keep the inbox on my phone in sync with the service - and if I have a screen handy, I use the Hotmail web interface to check-in.

Messenger for personal IM (and work IM too). Messenger and I go way back; I remember installing the first version the day it came out (I think it was in 1999) - my contact list now numbers in the mid-hundreds. I've turned off all the annoying chimes and pop-ups, but old faithful is still my preferred way to keep in touch with friends and our family on the east coast and California. I also love using Sharing Folders to transfer full-res photos back and forth with family.

FolderShare to roam my Favorites, OneCare notebook, and files I'm currently working on across 4 PCs. One of the greatest inventions of all time; every time I notice that my files have synchronized automatically (usually because I'm in a panic and I need to find something) I love FolderShare even more. I've talked a lot about FolderShare over the last year; it's one of my all-time favorite pieces of technology.

Windows Live Photo Gallery to organize and edit my photos. Before upgrading to WLPG I was using Windows Vista's Photo Gallery, and I was using Picasa before that (long before Google gobbled it up). I'm still working through a tagging scheme that I like (it's a LOT of work to do it right) but the fact that WLPG lets me also organize by folder, which is how I primarily organize my photos anyway, is great. I also use WLPG to organize my videos - although I have to admit that 99.9% of my videos are still on miniDV tapes. One feature I don't use much yet is "publish to Spaces/Flickr" even though I think it's elegantly designed. I like sharing photos through Messenger Sharing Folders or email (using Windows Live Mail's photo e-mail) and I'm using SmugMug to power a photo site for my daughter (long story on this one - I hope to use Windows Live someday). I'm toying with the idea of using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for more advanced manipulations, but I haven't been able to justify the steep price tag.

OneCare for virus scanning, spyware scanning (with Defender), and tune-ups. I just installed 2.0 yesterday and so far, I'm impressed with how elegant it is. I always have this sense that OneCare is working for me while I'm sleeping - and I love that.

Writer for blogging efficiency. Another one of my favorite apps - this thing has kept me blogging over the years. It just works so well!

SkyDrive for sharing large files (like video) with people.

Spaces for projecting the online "me" - mostly through my blog... but with the latest release, I'm using Spaces more and more to catch up with friends who use it for blogging and photo sharing. Spaces Home gives me a quick summary of what's going on with my friends, and as silly as I think blogging is, I can't keep myself from writing long (pointless?) posts like this one. Having a soapbox as customizable as Spaces is something that was sorely missing for me pre-December 2004.

I haven't used Windows Live Events for a real event yet - that's what happens when you have a baby, I guess - but I absolutely plan to ditch Evite for this. I've set up hundreds of test events this year while we were building it, so I can't wait to have a "real" event!

And there you have it... Of course, all is available from http://get.live.com if you want to try it out for yourself.

Windows Live Events and Windows Live Spaces updates

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:32:33 GMT

Talk about a lot of updates! Last night we finished the deployment of a bunch of new features including Windows Live Events, a new service for "party planning". I've been working on this for most of the year, so it's only appropriate that it ships on my first born's due date (the 11th!) Still no sign of the baby though.

Check out the Space Craft entry for all the details. Below is just some of the event specific fun. Rob and Dare have been posting more about the specifics of the release and what to expect; if you're interested, you should check it out.

Easily create a great-looking website for your next event
To offer you more ways to connect and share memories with the people you care about most, the team that brought you Spaces would love to hear your feedback on Windows Live Events, our new, free social event planning service. With Events you can easily:

Plan that next baby shower, birthday party, or family reunion
Create a great-looking event invitation and website using one of over 100 fantastic templates
Invite anyone with an e-mail address and track who’s coming
Make your event unique with familiar customization features - choosing a friendly web address (like http://kates1stbirthday.events.live.com), using custom colors, fonts, and background images, or adding modules and Windows Live web gadgets
Let guests and organizers share photos and stories before and after the event

Click on Events from the new navigation and then click Create event to get started!

Share photos and stories after the party’s over
Ever notice that your guests take more and better pictures at your parties than you do because you’re focused on everyone having a good time? And, if you remember to even ask, there is a mad scramble afterwards to try to collect everyone’s photos over e-mail. Well, we want to make that A LOT easier with features like:

Photo album creation by the event organizer AND any of the guests
Stunning full-screen photo slideshows
Ordering prints through our partner, HP Snapfish
One-click download of a photo album into Windows Live Photo Gallery

After the event, return to the event website and click Add album in the Photos module to share those photos!
In addition to making it easy for everyone to share photos after the party, Windows Live Events allows guests to share memories in other ways, including a discussion board, guestbook, and sharing videos you upload to Soapbox on MSN Video or other popular video sharing sites.

Paul Thurrott's Windows Live Suite Preview

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:17:36 GMT

Paul has a good write-up on the Windows Live suite beta. I always enjoy reading what Paul has to say because he just gets Microsoft so well; I guess that's his "gift" for covering the company as long as he has. Some call him a Microsoft apologist but I don't see it that way. He calls it like it is; when he thinks we do something stupid, he's the first to say so. Good thing he likes the suite ;)

This year, however, Microsoft shifted gears and "software + services" went along for the ride. As I now understand it, Microsoft plans to provide customers with the solutions they need, regardless of how they're delivered. This plan spans the range from true services, such as Web services that expose functionality via published interfaces but have no GUI in the classic sense, to online services that integrate with UI bits, such as Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail, and the like, and then more traditional PC-based software that speaks back to the so-called cloud.
...
Applications like Windows Live Mail and Photo Gallery are better than their predecessors in Windows Vista, and work with a growing lineup of online services. Messenger is a first class IM application that's turning into an all-around communications tool. For bloggers of any stripe, Windows Live Writer is a surprisingly capable application, and well worth evaluating. And Windows Live Family Safety could be that key online security piece you were looking for. This is an interesting suite, and it's only going to get better. Highly recommended, even in beta form.

Microsoft opening up on the Web - CNET

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:20:12 GMT

This is from an article on CNET News.com:

"Over time you'd like to have the service so that all your photos were available from any device, not just the ones you put in your photo album, and that it was easy to have those things backed up, to have them with the resolution you want, and then to have very collaborative experiences with pictures," Jones said.
"So, that you can see with photos we've taken a big step in this release of Windows Live, but we've got more to do."
The same goes for file sharing, he said. "We have a cloud-based way to do file sharing called SkyDrive, and then we have a peer-to-peer based way to do it called FolderShare," Jones said. "Well, over time it might make sense for us to really start to make that experience be seamless so you could get to all your files from anywhere."
Those two are just the first pieces in what Microsoft hopes will be an entire Live infrastructure that developers can write on top of, much the way they write programs that run on top of Windows today. It's a notion that some have dubbed a "cloud OS."

This is an interesting and fair write-up of some of our online initiatives. If you read the whole thing, you'll get a feel for where Windows Live is headed. The direction is exciting, and it's the first time since November 2005 (the launch) that I think it's being clearly articulated.

I'm also happy to say that I see Windows Live working for Internet "enthusiasts" like me more and more, and that's a huge relief. There's nothing worse than saying "I don't use it, but I recommend that you do." I see myself slowly migrating to a bunch of our services - and for those I don't want to use, I know Windows Live will work well with many of them too.

Exciting stuff.

Microsoft opening up on the Web | CNET News.com

Updates to Windows Live Spaces

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:38:24 GMT

Yes, I know I'm way late on this one. I was out of the country when the rollout finished, so I wasn't able to jump online and post about it. For the past couple years I have been lucky... I was always around during release windows, but this time it just didn't work out.

As you can probably see if you're an active user, there have been a number of updates to Spaces including:

The What's New page has been redesigned (in preparation for some more goodness coming soon) and now includes birthday updates if you're subscribe to someone's contact information updates.
You can (finally) reorder your lists how you want to!
You can view photo albums full-screen.
We've introduced templates which let you switch from photo enthusiast to a professional blogger with one click - it will add the appropriate modules, apply a special layout, and even apply a theme for you. It's the easiest way to get started with your space.

You can read more about all of the updates on The Space Craft: Three months of new updates to Windows Live Spaces.

Windows Live Writer and FolderShare

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 05:46:14 GMT

I can imagine that when people talk about Windows Live, it probably means different things to different people. To some, it's Messenger and a way to talk to their friends around the world. To others, it's Spaces and it's all about blogging, photo sharing, and catching up with friends. But to power users, I think it's something else.

I think Windows Live today represents two truly standout applications to the digerati: FolderShare and Writer. These two applications are best in class and when judged by blog chatter alone, seem to have really captured the imaginations of people. It's not a surprise to anyone who has used them - they both pass the "it just works" test with flying colors, and they both make something that was previously a chore into something that's joyful. That's no small task.

And it shows when you do a quick search (using Technorati or... ahem... Google Blog Search). Check it out:

On Windows Live FolderShare:

One person is using FolderShare to keep files synchronized across a remote team. This was posted today.
Another believes that "FolderShare could be the backbone behind some really useful technology, if Microsoft would just pay a little attention to it." I started to reply but didn't end up hitting post. This was also posted today.
Jason Dunn found a cool use for FolderShare by pairing it with Windows Home Server.
Someone else is using FolderShare to synchronize Firefox preferences. jkontherun also posted about this last week, as did Rob Bushway who has some glowing praise for FolderShare. And lifehacker covered it last week as well (that's pretty cool).
Powershell and FolderShare play nicely together in this scenario.
OdetoCode.com talks about how FolderShare is lightweight and "just works". It's "smooth and simple". There are some questions about whether Microsoft is paying attention to it here as well.
Live Writer + FolderShare = keeping your drafts in sync across all of your PCs! I do this by posting a draft to the server from one machine and pulling it down from another (simple enough) but this works too.

On Windows Live Writer:

Dan York talks about a cool little feature (that I didn't know about) in Writer that enables linking directly to previous posts; no web browser required.
Someone decided not to use Writer because it takes up 15MB hard drive space. That seems like a silly reason - that's nothing - but to each his own. At least he tried it out!
From there, I saw Matt's post on WordPress.com about Windows Live Writer being the most popular desktop client for WordPress. That's awesome and no small feat.
Brent Nordquist says Writer "has the most logical, easy to understand setup of any of the blog editors I’ve tried" and he "can see myself spending more of my time in Live Writer than I do in Word." He was also contacted by someone on the Live Writer team (I love those guys) about a problem he experienced. He goes on to say that the image insertion tasks "would normally take me several minutes to do in standard Wordpress editor".
Dwight says you should use Writer if you blog. Bloggers rejoice!
Someone else calls it a "beauty".

In a conversation earlier today, I was explaining to someone what makes Writer so appealing to me over every other desktop or web-based blogging app. It's the little things that show the team cares about bloggers; one example is the "auto-fill" feature from your browsing history when you insert a hyperlink into a blog post. Clever. Another, of course, is the extensibility. Don't like something about Writer? Chances are you can install a plug-in to improve upon it. And let's not leave out the (cool) WYSIWYG editing that shows you exactly what your blog entry will look like before posting it. And the new glass effects in Vista!

Of course, like Windows Live Mail which supports POP and IMAP, Writer is also standards compliant and can post to the most popular blogging engines. If you don't like Spaces, shame on you - but you can swap that out too. Misinformed reviewers like Joe Wilcox - who I unsubscribed from long ago - recently gave Microsoft flack for not supporting other photo services in Windows Live Photo Gallery. What he failed to mention: Mail and Writer both support industry standards out of the box, and we'd love to hook Photo Gallery up to other photo hosts - unfortunately every single one supports their own proprietary API so it couldn't get done in the first rev.

Back to the point: What does this appreciation for Writer & FolderShare say to me? It says that we need to do a better job across the rest of Windows Live. We need to learn from FolderShare and Writer; why do people love these things so much? Why are people still using and talking about FolderShare after two years? What is it that appeals to folks? There's a lot to gain here and I expect you'll see more Live services all the time striving to be as essential, easy to use, and fun as these apps.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this if interested in commenting.

Windows Live betas - Writer, Messenger, Mail

Thu, 31 May 2007 01:25:43 GMT

Three applications I use on a daily basis just got updated today:

Windows Live Writer. The world's best client blogging tool (works with Spaces!)
Windows Live Messenger. The world's most popular instant messaging program (and integrated with Spaces!)
Windows Live Mail. The world's easiest to use email program (and you can even blog to Spaces!)

All three of them are rock-solid in terms of stability (of course, they're still betas!) and come highly recommended by yours truly. Writer and Mail weren't part of my daily workflow last year at this time but they're now two apps that I use all the time.

Get them here!

More on Hotmail...

Mon, 07 May 2007 22:54:42 GMT

There's a lot of discussion about the new Windows Live Hotmail on the web today. Everything ranging from "this thing is great!" to "Microsoft is still chasing taillights in Web 2.0". Some of the criticisms and critiques of Hotmail are actually misinformed though, so I figured I would take 10 minutes to point some of them out. If only to be that guy.

Hotmail is still trailing Gmail. While I can see how people could jump to this conclusion given that Gmail had both large storage and a responsive AJAX-based interface before Yahoo Mail and Hotmail did, you might want to check the ComScore usage numbers posted on News.com (graph posted below). Hotmail isn't trailing Gmail despite the fact that Gmail has solid adoption amongst tech influentials. Note that this is something I really hope Hotmail can do over time as there's no reason it can't be a great mail service for geeks and normal folk alike - but in the meantime, it's actually doing quite well out there.

Also interesting to note is that Windows Live Hotmail is the first large-scale web mail service to come out of beta and make this type of interactive experience available to ALL of its users. It isn't a limited beta anymore, it's available in 36 languages!

Hotmail doesn't work in Firefox. Sure it does! I use it in Firefox every single day. On my Mac no less. Don't believe the hype here, Firefox is treated as a Tier 1 browser across all of Windows Live (including Spaces). People around here take Firefox very seriously.

Hotmail should have been built with Silverlight. I hear you on this one but the reality of Silverlight is that it's in beta (the .NET enabled version is a week old alpha) and the new version of Hotmail has been in development for over two years. Redesigning Hotmail is a Herculean task - hundreds of people have worked on it. And when you have 280 million users, even the smallest changes can have massive impact.

So while no one is ruling out great Silverlight-based experiences in the future, it just wouldn't have been possible to turn around this much complex code on top of a (still alpha/beta) platform. If you're interested in a lightweight client version of Hotmail (it's not based on Silverlight, but that doesn't really matter) you should check out Windows Live Mail, the replacement for Windows Mail and Outlook Express. A final version of this is coming very soon, but the beta is still fun.

---

Is the new Hotmail perfect? Nope - there are still things that bug me about it. Omar knows what those things are... But it's a huge step forward and I strongly prefer it to both Yahoo Mail and Gmail, especially with the just announced free Outlook synchronization (note: this isn't just POP3 or IMAP access, this is FULL sync!) and improved spam, virus, and phishing protection.

Hotmail is HOT Again!

Mon, 07 May 2007 05:00:10 GMT

Here comes the new, improved, faster, slicker, better looking, and just much, much cooler version of Hotmail:

Windows Live Hotmail is officially launching worldwide! This means as early as Monday morning (we’re rolling this out gradually), you can sign up for a new Windows Live Hotmail account and get instant access to our new, world-class email service built from the ground up.

And for those Outlook fans, you'll definitely appreciate this:

In the coming weeks, anyone who is using Microsoft Outlook 2003 (or later) will have free access to their Windows Live Hotmail account via Outlook. This isn't just your average POP mail... you can synchronize your mail, folders, safe/unsafe sender lists, AND contacts on your computer and on the web! Stay tuned for instructions on how to download the Outlook Connector.

This experience is Hotmail on the Desktop. There will be more announcements around Hotmail on your desktop coming shortly, so stay tuned. And hey, there's also a fun "history of Hotmail" video available!

If you haven't tried Hotmail in a while, you might want to give it a whirl again.

Read more here: It's Here and the Fun Has Only Just Begun

RSS: Categories, sub-feeds, and the "minimal" feed (favorite #2)

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:29:40 GMT

RSS is one of my favorite technologies on the web, bar none. I spend at least an hour each day reading tons of RSS feeds, so feed granularity is definitely important to me. We've made a TON of updates to RSS feeds in this current release - most of which can't be detected by the human eye, but are important for power-users and developers. Here's the list of my favorites:

Blog category feeds are here, and they're easy to find

Want to subscribe to just my Windows Live category? You can do that now. Or just interested in my Personal life (psycho!)? You can just subscribe to my Personal category. It's super-easy too - just click through to the Blog page by clicking Blog and both IE and Firefox auto-discovery will show you all categories from my blog that you can subscribe to. This is what it looks like for me:

You can also find the feed at http://mike.spaces.live.com/category/Productivity/feed.rss (where the category you are interested in is Productivity - just swap it out for the others).

RSS auto-discovery works for all sub-feeds

This is an extension of the last item. No matter where you are in spaces, you can auto-discover any feed on the fly with IE or Firefox (and maybe Safari, haven't checked) and subscribe to individual sub-feeds like a single photo album or someone's book list. Sure this isn't a common scenario for people, but it's great fun.

Here's an example of this working for photo albums on Jay's space.

"All albums" and "All lists" feeds

Developers wanting to enumerate all the photo albums and all the lists on a space can now do this with "uber-feeds" of all albums and all lists! You can reference these from the main feed and you can auto-discover these in IE7 or Firefox from the all albums page and the lists page. Try it out with my lists: http://mike.spaces.live.com/lists/, the feed for all lists is located here: http://mike.spaces.live.com/lists/feed.rss.

Profile feed

You can even subscribe to someone's profile using RSS. Cool, huh? This is what my profile looks like in IE7 - I used auto-discovery on the Profile page. This is mostly for programmatic access to the profile - but cool nonetheless. You can find it where you would expect to find it: http://mike.spaces.live.com/profile/feed.rss.

Comment feeds

Something I've wanted FOREVER. You can subscribe to individual feeds of comments per blog entry. To do this, just go to the permalink page and the RSS icon in IE7 or Firefox will light up. One of the options will be comments and voila, you are subscribed to comment updates! Also a great thing for a developer to take advantage of.

Friends feed

You can now enumerate your friends list using RSS! Here's mine in IE7:

"Minimal" feed

Primarily for developers, this will give you a "north star" to finding all the sub-feeds of the space without all of the content. For example, you don't need to retrieve all the blog entries if you are just using this minimal feed in an application that uses photos. You would query the minimal feed, find the itemRSS for the photo album feed, and continue on down the tree!

For example, my minimal feed is: http://mike.spaces.live.com/minimal/feed.rss

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There's a lot more in this release for developers and enthusiasts that hasn't been talked about yet. Bruno alludes to some of the things on the Spaces Platform space. Things like simple URL-based APIs for adding friends, adding modules, sending private messages, and perhaps even changing your theme. Great stuff. He also talks about the exact URL formats for all of these feeds.

If you add all this stuff up - there are some serious applications you can create on top of all of this. I think you can see that we are using RSS as a simple way to access content on Spaces programmatically instead of building out a more complex set of interfaces.

Smuga on new features in mobile spaces

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:21:48 GMT

Mike Smuga covers all the cool new features in Mobile Spaces - one of the hidden gems of the entire Spaces experience. For those of you NOT using mobile spaces on your web-enabled phone, you totally need to be. It's truly great and in my opinion, second to none.

There's a "what's new" feed type experience which is broken out into Recent Updates (for things your network is up to) and Recent Comments on your space. And there's an entire friend management experience - so you can add friends, remove them, accept/decline requests, and view people's profiles.

Head on over to http://mobile.spaces.live.com on your phone.

Link to Mike's Lounge: New features in mobile spaces

Microsoft Photography Blog : Getting Spacey

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:16:30 GMT

Jordan Schwartz has a great overview of the changes to Photos on Spaces in our latest release to make the whole experience easier to use! Below are some of his before and after shots or the experience along with the "all albums" page - and make sure to go to the Photography blog (not on Spaces, ahem) to read all about the changes!

Source: Microsoft Photography Blog : Getting Spacey

What's New: full page view (favorite #1)

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 19:50:25 GMT

With the latest release of spaces, you can see updates from your Windows Live Messenger contacts on the Spaces Home page - which you can access by clicking "Home" in the upper-right corner of all spaces. In the What's New area, you can see a reverse chronological list of updates from your contacts with their profile photo.

But what's even cooler is that you can click the "More" link to get a massively huge page of all your Messenger contacts in order. And then you can use your mouse pointer to hover on their profile photo to see exactly what's changed on their space - whether they added photos, a blog entry, or updated their profile.

Since I have hundreds of Messenger contacts, this page is incredibly useful to me. I would show a screenshot but then I would be exposing my Messenger list to the world, which people may not appreciate. So you'll either have to take my word for it or go to this page directly by clicking "More" in the What's New section of Spaces Home, or by going directly to this URL:

http://[your_alias].home.services.spaces.live.com/whatsnew/?_c02_owner=1

(you have to replace [your_alias] with your space alias - mine is 'mike')

New features - The Space Craft

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:04:15 GMT

Check out the post from The Space Craft about all the cool new features on Spaces. I'm going to go deeper on some of my favorite little things (think: crazy new RSS support) but for now, check it out!

Quote

When you speak, we listen. New features launched today!

Thanks to everyone who has sent us feedback over the last few months. We’ve heard what you’ve been asking for with Spaces, and we’ve been working hard to create new features, which we hope you enjoy.
There are a lot of features here, so sit back, take a read, and then go try them out. Next week we’ll be posting more about each feature – one per day – so stay tuned for more. Sign up to get alerts when there’s a new Space Craft post.
Also, please keep the feedback coming— both in the comments on the Space Craft as well as through the Spaces Feedback form. We care about what you want, and we’re listening!
— Chris
Product Manager, Windows Live Spaces

New in Spaces:
Communication
There are brand new ways to communicate with your friends, as well as with new people that you’d like to meet.
Your new Spaces home page
Now when you log in, you’ll see a new page dedicated to keeping you up-to-date on changes to your space and what’s new with your Windows Live Messenger contacts. In one glance you’ll see who has updated their space and who has added comments to your space. Roll over their picture to see who’s updated their photos, who’s posted a blog entry, and who’s added new lists.

Messaging
Keep in touch with your Spaces friends and meet other people on Spaces by sending them messages. Just put your cursor over their profile picture and you’ll see a “Send a message” link.   You can also use the link in the Visitor tools module on a person’s space.


Guestbook
Add the guestbook module and people visiting your space can leave comments with rich formatting, including images and video. Add the guestbook to your space by clicking here.

Customization
There are many new customization options for Spaces, so you can better control how your space looks.
Custom background image
Now you can upload whatever picture you want from your computer and use it as the background of your space. Upload your image in the Customize menu under the Advanced tab.

Additional colors and themes
There are now more themes to choose from and an easy-to-use color picker. You can also change the fonts!

Gadgets and Modules
With the changes we’ve made to gadgets and modules, now you can customize them to create the layout and design you want for your space.
Size and style
Most gadgets and modules can span the full width of a column, and you can now remove their borders or change their titles to whatever you want by clicking on the arrow in the right hand corner of the gadget or module when you are in Edit mode.

Other cool stuff
You can have multiple modules at the top or bottom of your space that span all of the columns – perfect for your space title and tagline. You can also have more than one version of the same gadget on your space. And if you’re on someone else’s space and see a module you like, you can add it to your space by clicking the “+” sign in the upper-right corner of the module.
Check out and install some spaces gadgets today from the Windows Live Gallery.

Photos
With over 18 million photos uploaded by Spaces users every day, we know that improving the experience of managing photos is important to you, so we added a few new features.
Managing your photos
There’s a brand new page for viewing and editing albums on your space.

Viewing photos
There’s a new layout for the individual photo pages so it’s faster and easier to view your photos and see all of your comments at a glance.

Mobile
There’s been a dramatic increase in Spaces mobile usage over the past few months, and we wanted to provide great mobile interaction with Spaces. Here’s what’s new:

See at a glance the recent updates and comments on your space
Add, delete, view, and browse your friends
View profile information

Interested in learning more about mobile features for Spaces? Read this Space Craft blog entry

Lists
Lists are now easier to use – and they look even better.
Music lists
Now you can show specific music lists on your spaces home page as well as see multiple results when searching for music on Amazon to create your list.

Book lists
Same as with music! Search for the book and add the information and picture from Amazon.com to your list.
Looks better in narrow view
We’ve make some improvements to make your lists look better when in narrow columns on your space.

APIs and Feeds
We wanted to give you the ability to access your Spaces information from a variety of locations and services, so we added new RSS feeds and opened up our APIs to allow you more freedom. Go crazy with your Spaces data!   Visit: http://dev.live.com/spaces over the next few days for more information. Note: Only spaces with permissions set to “public” can use RSS feeds and APIs.

Profile Updates
There are some new, cool additions to profiles.
Enhanced contact updates preview
When you see a profile picture on Spaces, just put your cursor over the picture and you can see a lot more information about the person than ever before.

Have fun using the new features! We’re looking forward to seeing what you do with your space.   And if you got this far, leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

Technorati tags: Windows Live Spaces, Spaces, Microsoft, Social Networking, New Release

LiveSide notices something

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:41:09 GMT

Check it out. There's some stuff about a guestbook, private messages, background images, RSS feeds, and more.

Watch The Space Craft and this spot right here early in the morning for the deets. Or just navigate around like an Easter egg hunt.

Twitget - Live Spaces meets Twitter

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:41:01 GMT

As anyone following tech news has heard, Twitter has taken off like a rocket. I signed up when it was first released - but I'll be honest, I'm just not social enough to remember to use it. I use my personal status message in Messenger for basically the same purpose, and I didn't have to build a whole new social network to do it.

Update, 10 minutes later: Just learned about Twessenger which syncs up Messenger and Twitter status messages. Nice.

But if you use Twitter and you use Spaces, you probably want them to work together, right? Of course! My buddy Farookh hooked it up. (Farookh is the one guy on my interview loop who I'm sure "no-hired" me... with his poker face on!)

Check it out:

Link to Twitget on Windows Live Gallery

(remember that anytime you see a gadget you like on someone's space, you can click that little plus icon to grab it for your OWN space!)

Hotmail on the Desktop

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 01:38:19 GMT

I've been light on the blogging recently, I know. My "day job" has taken over as it tends to do every now and again - and unlike some people, when it comes right down to it, blogging just doesn't rank at the top of my "most important things to do" list. My family does and my job does but sadly for blogging, it just doesn't make the cut. If I had to spend all day trolling my comments, leaving comments on other people's blogs, and being witty and timely with blog entries in the hopes that I'd make Techmeme, I would probably be divorced, disowned, and then fired. And I'd hate myself to boot.

Plus, I don't like to post randomly just to post. Quality over quantity as they say. Anyway, onto the point of the post.

One of my favorite new applications is Windows Live Mail desktop (despite it's name). I've started to really get into the groove with this thing and it's hands down the closest thing to Exchange Server + Outlook 2007 I have for personal email. Over the last few years, I've seriously evaluated both Yahoo Mail and Gmail as potential personal mail options - and each time they come up short because they have a lame duck client story.

From what I can gather, neither Yahoo nor Gmail support "true sync" for clients like Windows, Mac OS X, or Smartphones/PDAs. You either have to use their web interfaces (which are great) or resort to POP3 access in tools like Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, or mobile phones. The problem with POP for those not aware is that it doesn't actually replicate changes - it just "pops" mail off of a server and gives you access to it locally. When you move that mail to an archive folder, it isn't reflected on the server. Coming from a corporate email world where Exchange is my oxygen, this kind of solution just feels very 1997 to me. So each time I evaluate Gmail or Yahoo Mail, I shy away because of this restriction - and the fact that with Yahoo Mail, you actually have to pay for that restriction.

In the last couple of weeks, applications like Mailplane for Gmail have started to appear - and there's been more of a focus on taking Gmail offline with tutorials teaching you how to do it. That's great news for Gmail users. For those using Hotmail however, there's a solution out there today that kicks ass - both on your Windows machine (or a Mac running Parallels) and on your smartphone.

Check out the Windows Live Mail desktop beta. It gives you an Exchange-like experience with Hotmail. Create folders and they show up on the server. Move or delete emails from your inbox and they replicate to all of your machines and devices. Plus you have true offline support, photo email, Windows Live Spaces integration (woo!), RSS and newsgroups, and you can even POP your Gmail off the server and manage your email accounts in one place. It's truly great.

And if you have a Windows Mobile smartphone or Pocket PC, there's an application included that has the same "true sync" capabilities called Pocket MSN (in WM5) or Windows Live Mobile (in WM6). Either one will let you sync your inbox, move messages around, reply, and all that. I live by this for personal email.

I'm not going to lie; the reason I'm posting this now (even though this app has been around for a while) is because I see a swell of buzz for taking Gmail offline and I want to MAKE SURE people know that you can do this with Hotmail today. There's nothing that bothers me more on a personal level than Google getting more credit than they deserve (sorry guys) so I feel compelled to preempt this with a little horn blowing of my own. As has been the case for a few years now, we have a lot of cool stuff that people don't always recognize.

Traffic has been done... and done...

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:39:17 GMT

I just saw the "news" on TechMeme that Google Maps added traffic data.

Link to Google Maps adds real-time traffic data

I clicked through and read every story or blog post just to see what the big deal was and was surprised that the majority failed to mention that Google is practically last to market with this feature. Of course, both Yahoo and Windows Live have had this functionality for quite some time now. Funny because when we're behind Google on something it makes CNN Breaking News - the other way around, not so much ;) Ah well. Not yet at least.

Check out Live Search Maps before you head off to work in the morning to see what I'm talking about: http://maps.live.com. And if you're really into traffic, cop the Live Search Mobile client by going to http://wls.live.com from your J2ME or Windows Mobile phone. Traffic shows up there too! And in the gadget which adds traffic maps to your Vista Sidebar or desktop.

OK, I'll stop now ;) Off to comment on the misinformed blogs.

Branding strategy

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 06:42:35 GMT

People keep asking me to comment on the Windows Live (or overall Microsoft) branding strategy. I'm not going to do that right now for a variety of reasons. You can probably guess what I would say; I just have too much respect for the company and the people to say it publicly. But trust me, people are aware of what the perception is.

Windows Live for TV

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:30:40 GMT

What is it LiveSide stumbled upon this time? Click on the image for details.

571 photos (1.15GB) sent using Sharing Folders

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:26:16 GMT

<I'm writing this on a plane heading back to Seattle and will post it on Wednesday - I love Live Writer>

It took me a while to really warm up to the feature, but Sharing Folders in Windows Live Messenger represents a true paradigm shift for me when it comes to sending digital photos to friends and family. No longer do I have to deal with the (very real) limitations of services like Ofoto, Snapfish, and yes, even Flickr for transferring the highest resolution photos from one machine to another across the country.

Instead of uploading photos to a central server (and more often than not, paying for the privilege on upload or on download) I just drop a folder of photos into a contact's Sharing Folder in Live Messenger and the entire contents of the folder - file metadata and all - immediately starts to transfer to the contact's machine. It's smart enough to only attempt the transfer when both parties are online together, and it does so in such a way that it's completely unobtrusive for both parties. In other words, neither the sender nor the recipient has to sit there in total lockdown watching a progress indicator while the bits are transferred. When the transfer is finished, the recipient is notified that the folder has been updated. It's like the old Napster peer-to-peer dream but this time it's for friends and family instead of strangers.

I may have blogged about this feature before, I didn't check. But my interest was immediately renewed when I was trying to figure out how to get 571 photos (1.15GB worth) to 3 different people scattered along the west coast. Sharing Folders was an obvious solution to this problem because it's fast, easy to use, and best of all, FREE. It does have some limitations right now, most notably the need to store a copy of the files for each recipient, but even with that limitation, it's still the easiest way to get a set of files from Point A to Point B without a middleman. It's like two people being on the same internal network using basic LAN folder sharing... but it works across the internet.

What surprises me is how few people out there even know about the benefits of Sharing Folders when compared to say Skype's VOIP support. It's been around for a while now but I rarely hear people, especially those "in the know", talking about it. It seems like something the digerati would be going absolutely nuts over the way people were flipping out about Skype a few years ago. To me, it's infinitely more useful than having yet another voicemail box to deal with and I don't know of any other mainstream product with this advanced level of peer-to-peer file sharing built right in.

As easy as it is to use, I'd love to see it get even more idiot-proof by dropping the folder visualization and moving towards a more task-based interface. This way when my mother (or mother-in-law) gets a set of photos from me, she immediately has the option of adding them to her Pictures/My Pictures folder automatically instead of having to deal with drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste. The files themselves are less interesting out of context, especially when they require some work to get them to their final destination.

Regardless, I'm excited to see the evolution of Sharing Folders over the years as I think the stage has been set for some great stuff.

Have you used it? What would you want to see happen in the next few versions?

Keeping FOCUS

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 21:15:12 GMT

Jeff Raikes and Don Dodge both touched on something I've spent a lot of time thinking about lately. The need to keep the focus on the customer at all times and not take your eye off the ball no matter what's going on with the competition. Jeff points out, and I'm paraphrasing here, that when you focus on the technology or the competition and not the customer, your outcome could end up being very different.

Of course this doesn't mean you don't pay attention to what the competition's doing or how new technology (think AJAX a couple years ago) could benefit your offerings... But if it ends up being the reason you're doing something, you could have a serious problem.

I've seen Microsoft make the mistake of chasing tail lights into dark tunnels with negative results many times. Just because product XYZ is "cool" and it's covered on TechCrunch or TechMeme doesn't mean it's what customers are asking for (either explicitly or implicitly). It doesn't mean it addresses an actual pain point or improves people's lives.

Jeff Raikes says "The reason is, people get very focused in on trying to undermine Microsoft and they don't get very focused in on the customer." In response to a question about Office and online versions of the same functionality Jeff said "the thing that will probably trip people up is they'll get focused on the idea that that's a replacement for the Office suite, when what's most interesting are the new and unique scenarios that you can get by having that capability. But then, it's our responsibility to make sure that our customers have access to those services as part of their use of Office tools. It's about software and services, as opposed to services versus software."

Source: Focus on the CUSTOMER not the competitor - Jeff Raikes

There are some very real examples out there, but at the risk of badmouthing internal teams or the competition, I won't go into details. I will say that I don't think we've been particularly good at doing this with Spaces, but that we're learning every single day. When we ask you guys what's most important to improve or add to Spaces, the majority of responses are about things like making your space load faster or being able to add a YouTube video to your space easily... and not about new, whiz-bang features.

Of course, that doesn't mean we aren't thinking about (and in some cases, working on) those new, whiz-bang things - if we didn't do our best to anticipate what's "next", we'd get stale pretty quickly. BUT we are doing our absolute best not to overlook all the things you've all been asking for (like being able to change your colors or adjust the look of your title/tagline). There's more to come!

I think you'll see Windows Live as a whole move more in that direction. Think of it as a renewed focus on you.

Windows Live Search for Mobile released!

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 19:19:08 GMT

...and it isn't limited to Smartphones or Pocket PCs - it works on the RAZR too!

I've been biting my tongue about this one for weeks now. This application has quickly become my favorite mobile application... ever. It's not only elegantly designed (great icons, colors, animations, usability) but it's one of the few mobile applications I find myself using just about every single day, right behind email and tasks.

The Windows Live Search Beta for mobile application gives you fast access to local search and maps, driving directions, and even local traffic information. When you get your search results, you can click to call the phone number of the place you found, or even look at a satellite photo (on some phones) to find the best parking nearby!

I just used this puppy to navigate my way around Lake Washington in a massive traffic jam the night I was on a mission to get that Xbox HD-DVD player. And on a recent trip to Portland, this was how we discovered all the Starbucks rest stops! Truly magnificent. It has even replaced 411 for me (which the carriers STILL charge for) - whenever I need a number I just fire up the app, type the name of the business, and click to call.

The things I really want are some of the things I used to use quite a bit on Vindigo: movie showtimes, ATM locations, and a real Starbucks locator. And of course, a kickass mobile web and image search service to go with the great local search. I'm still using mobile web-based search (both Live.com and Google at times) and while it works well, this would be faster and could do things you just can't do in Pocket IE.

Learn more on the product page or the team blog on Spaces.

Mobility Today also has a great video demo, check it out here: Video Podcast 017 @ Mobility Today

(FWIW, I have no idea why this is branded Windows Live while search itself is just Live Search...)

Live Local renamed?

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:44:16 GMT

I was just playing around with that amazing Virtual Earth 3D feature and noticed that Live Local is now referred to as "Maps" on www.Live.com and in the search scope bar. Maybe this is just for competitive reasons on Live.com... but I doubt it. It looks like it was actually renamed again. In the Help pop-up it's called Live Search Maps.

I could complain about the fact that it should have been referred to as Maps from day one. Or, if it was actually renamed, that we should have done it before announcing the feature of the year last week and not after. But it's more important that we finally got it right.

Maps just makes sense. Local never did. At least not to me.

News.com: Microsoft launches Google Earth killer

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 23:00:54 GMT

Below is a snippet from the News.com blog outlining some of the new features in Live Local:

In a word: Wow. Microsoft is doing with its Earth program what I've wanted from Google for a while: Making one integrated mapping and globe-exploring service, not two products with different interfaces. With Virtual Earth, you get all of Microsoft's Live Local features (traffic data, email integration, bookmarks) with the additional capability to zoom around the 3D planet and see your locations from any angle.
Microsoft, like Google, has 3D buildings in its virtual world, but Microsoft's are photo-realistic, not just gray boxes. There should be 15 cities with 3D buildings at launch, with 100 by summer. In the demo (of San Francisco), the buildings looked great.

Source: Microsoft launches Google Earth killer | CNET News.com

I've been using this version of Live Local for a few weeks now and I must say, it's amazing. When someone told me about it, my first reaction was "yeah, OK... that's not possible" but after playing with it a bit, I realized that not only is it possible, it's shipping imminently [note: it just shipped today]. To be able to effectively fly through Seattle at various heights and get a sense for the size and scale of the buildings is just crazy. And I love that it's integrated with things like traffic data and the rest of Live Local - you can literally see the traffic in between some of the buildings!

Check it out: http://local.live.com

Like Dare, I'm going on record and saying this: the Live Local team is doing the most innovative work in the Windows Live family of services.

It almost goes without saying that today is a crazy exciting day for software fans (or at least Microsoft software fans!) between the release to manufacturing of Office 2007 and the crazy coolness of Live Local. Enjoy!

Poster child for brand confusion

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 01:29:04 GMT

I was just taking a look around CNET News.com and came across this article about Windows Live Search.

Microsoft plans to place advertising on MSN's Windows Live Search for Mobile service that will let users click on an advertisement to place a call for more information.

Source: MSN mobile search tool to list clickable ads, CNET News.com

I wish I could say that it's amazing the press still doesn't get that MSN and Windows Live are actually separate things ("MSN's Windows Live Search"), but I completely understand the confusion and the challenges we face. It isn't simple to rebrand elements of 10-year old service with deep connections to people's lives and expect it to go over without a hitch. I do wish people "in the know" would try a little harder however.

Windows Live Writer 1.0 Beta Update (with Windows Live Gallery)

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 20:44:45 GMT

My favorite new application just got better. Windows Live Writer 1.0 Beta has been updated with a bunch of fixes, support for tagging and the new Blogger Beta, and automatic "blog this" buttons for both Internet Explorer and Firefox. I used the button embedded in IE7 to kick off this post.

Additionally, Windows Live Gallery has been updated with a plug-in section for Live Writer. There are some great ones in here like the Insert a Spaces Emoticon and Insert Flickr Image (I've talked about them before).

Go get it at Writer Zone.

Or download a bunch of plug-ins from the gallery.

It works wonderfully with Live Spaces - or with a blog hosted on Live Journal, TypePad, Blogger, Community Server, etc.