MSN Makes More Blogging, Aggregator Tweaks

[Tami]

MSN Makes More Blogging, Aggregator Tweaks
By Deborah Rothberg

MSN is fleshing out its Weblogging and aggregator products by adding new features on a regular basis.

MSN released its third refresh of the Start.com aggregator last month, adding tabbed search results, new style sheets and additional customization features.

Users of Microsoft's Start.com Web aggregator can now "roam" their Start.com settings by enlisting their Microsoft Passport accounts, according to MSN programmers.

While logging in with a Passport account allows users to access their Start.com page at any computer, users without a Passport account, or who purge their cookies regularly, still face limitations.

The Start.com team also has made changes to the sidebar, RSS modules and Favorites. The sidebar has been reorganized to include a section for "my content," top feeds, their widgets ("starlets"), categories and staff picks.

In addition, content from the sidebar can be dragged and dropped onto user's Start page. A Favorites starlet was added to manage user's choice sites.

On the MSN Spaces front, MSN has added more mobile capabilities to its MSN Spaces blogging service. The new features include the ability to create a Space from a mobile device, including Pocket PCs, Palms, and most mobile phones. Users also can view from a phone their contacts' recently updated Spaces; and fully manage their own Spaces sites, down to the level of adding entries, comments, and changing their settings from their mobile phones.

Nathan Weinberg, founder of BlogNewsChannel.com says that with these mobile additions, MSN Spaces is "possibly the most comprehensive free moblogging effort out there."

Also on the MSN Spaces front, MSN Lead Program Manager Mike Torres announced this week on his Web log that his team has released the Tweak UI [url=\"http://spaces.msn.com/members/mike/Blog/cns!1pG4qKNdtRA5Nl-UhvZI_1rQ!3173.entry\"][u]PowerToy[/u][/url]. Tweak UI allows users to control colors, module borders and transparency, background image's placement and presence.

Lastly, MSN Spaces announced earlier this week that it has added the ability to embed video and audio into Web log posts into user blogs. This feature does require users to have their own server space to house the files.

[url=\"http://www.microsoft-watch.com\"]source: Microsoft Watch[/url]

[Kobra]

Microsoft's Blogging service will never be as good as KillaBlogs <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... #>/cry.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':(\' />

<img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... /ff3aw.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'(fox)\' />

[Tami]

Agreed <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... >/good.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'(Y)\' />