Social networking websites have become increasingly popular over the years, creating a real sense of community in the otherwise impersonal realm of the Internet. With MySpace as its overall pioneer, social networking has swept the world up in a frenzy of sharing photos, posting personal news, making new friends, and getting in touch with old pals. It seems as if more and more websites are cluing into the fact that visitors are fascinating by these social networking features, and as a result, a wide variety of websites have started offering similar features for their members.
On Thursday, Jessica Mintz reported with the Associated Press that popular software manufacturer Microsoft has finally caught the social network buzz...
In the next few weeks, Microsoft will be rolling out some social networking website features and integrating them into its instant messaging application, Windows Live.
According to Mintz, “Microsoft claims hundreds of millions of Web e-mail and instant messenger users” but not all of them are enjoying the same social interaction sites like MySpace and Facebook boast.
The new Windows Live aims to deliver a sense of “oneness” to users by gathering their contact lists from Live Messenger, Hotmail as well as the company’s blog platform, Spaces, and house them all in one central location. From there, users will be able to create their own network with their contacts.
Here’s where the social goods come into play: from this central network, users can exchange a slew of updates with friends— as Mintz describes, everything from Twitter messages, to Flickr photos, from Yelp reviews to WordPress blog entries.
Mini activity updates will be featured on a section of the Live Messenger buddy list, so users can easily check out what their friends are up to.
Many social networking websites allow friends to “tag” or identify themselves in photos uploaded by another users. The new photos section on Windows Live will allow users to share, tag, and comment on photos.
Another focus of social networking websites is the variety of interest-based groups. Windows Live will have a new “groups” feature which will let members send invitations to friends so they can join up, share photos, comments, and upcoming events on a public calendar.
Brian Hall, Windows Live’s general manager, commented that these improvements revolve around the best and most popular elements of MySpace and Facebook, but acknowledged that even with these enhancements, “Facebook or MySpace users aren& 39;t likely switch to Windows Live.
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