KEREM KOSANER

MSN Spaces was Microsoft's free Social Networking platform. The site was launched in early December 2004 with the aim of allowing its users to reach out to others by publishing their thoughts, photos and interests in an easy and compelling way. With this goal, MSN Spaces finds itself competing with similar services like MySpace and Yahoo!'s 360°.

As well as allowing users to share their thoughts, photos and interests, MSN Spaces users were given over 100 varied themes and several different page layouts to choose from when designing their MSN Space. Users also had the option to set access rights for visitors to their MSN Space based on the relationship between them (e.g. Friends, Family etc.). Visitors were also granted permissions to comment on various aspects of a user's MSN Space.

 
MSN Spaces logoMSN Spaces was integrated with MSN Messenger from version 7 onwards and all versions of Windows Live Messenger (Versions of Messenger from 8.0 onwards). This integration allowed MSN Messenger users to easily view their contacts' MSN Spaces and also alert users (via "Gleams") when their contacts' had updated their MSN Space. On the 1st of August 2006, MSN Spaces became part of the Windows Live services platform, where it is now rebranded as Windows Live Spaces.

Several "PowerToys" are available for Windows Live Spaces users that allows for greater customisation of an individual's Space. The "Windows Media Player" PowerToy gives users the ability to play and display music and videos on their Windows Live Space. The "Tweak UI" PowerToy, gives users the flexibility to alter the style, color and transparency of certain aspects of a Windows Live Space, while the "Custom HTML" PowerToy grants users the ability to call a small amount of hand-written HTML code (a feature that is often used for displaying banners and other graphics).