The Hindu : National : Have cyber space, courtesy Microsoft

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 13, 2004

National

National

Have cyber space, courtesy Microsoft

By Anand Parthasarathy

BANGALORE, DEC. 12. Even lay users of the Internet, who may not have a special knowledge of website design, can create their own personal space in cyber world and make it their own `voice on the Web.' A free service launched by Microsoft recently in beta or trial form — MSN Spaces — offers users 10 megabytes of space, identified with their own personal web address, where they can post their thoughts as text or sound files, and create a personal photo album.

Such `blogs' — or web logs — are a recent phenomenon and Microsoft is not the first to offer this. But by making the whole process of blog creation easy and intuitive, it has opened up the `blogosphere' to thousands of ordinary Internet users who might have been intimidated by the idea of `running' their own websites.

The only condition is that one has to register as a user of MSN Messenger or the e-mailing service, Hotmail, if one is not a member. With the same password, one can go to http://spaces.msn.com and sign up for MSN Spaces. This correspondent tried out the service and could get a page and a user name allotted in less than two minutes.

One can customise the look, feel and colour of the page, and add music or digital photos. A drop-down text editor allows one to immediately record thoughts and upload them. Unlike most other blog services, MSN Spaces, allows you to add graphics or photos to the text; but this requires the download of a special free photo loader. You can allow access to all or restrict access to selected friends in the MSN messenger list of buddies. You also have a choice of `syndicating' the blog — allowing `web crawlers' sent out by search engines to index the contents of the blog. Comments by others are recorded and there is a counter to show how many times the blog has been visited.

Early users have discovered that like the recently-launched search feature in Internet Explorer, the MSN Spaces service has a built-in filter that will prevent bloggers from posting dirty words or inappropriate pictures on their sites. While champions of free speech might protest, features like these will appeal to wide sections of Microsoft's target audience — families with children.

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