After announcing it here, I though it would be interesting to browse through what M. Blogging @ microsoft.com (Scobleizer himself) thought about it:
In a nutshell: he doesn't like it:
1) I can't totally redesign my MSN Space (I don't have access to the HTML/CSS that makes up the templates).
2) I can't get my own domain (like www.scobleizer.com).
3) I can't put Google Adsense ads on my blog (and I can't move or remove MSN's ads from my blog and I can't figure out any way to get revenue sharing from MSN).
4) I can't get more than 10MB of space. (Only photos count against that limit, but I have 8,400 photos on my hard drive, so can probably fill up the limit pretty quickly).
5) There's no developer story (no API you can use to build stuff). I'd like to see developers, like Laszlo, build things like their BlogBlox for MSN Spaces, but that isn't possible.
6) There's no service integration story (no Feedster, Pubsub, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Memeorandum links, etc).
Too bad, coz Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer says "Blogging is huge". But I'm sure they'll pull it off correctly in a while.
I tried to create my own page this morning: rather easy, the system pulled out all the information out of my MSN account on line. However, what would make me switch ? Price? not really. I'm used to Typepad. Better features? Sure, a bit like why Y!IM is better than AIM (but hey I use Trillian...). The question is what:
I'd like a system that is fully WYSIWYG (typepad is getting close), that allows me to edit graphically all my page layout (typepad is half-way), that integrates very easily with other modules (like Konfabulator or Firefox do), ie not requiring me to mingle with HTML code (how do you add the Google Search bar nowadays? some HTML code. It should be an optional object in the design page). In addition I'd like a system that conveniently allows me to monetize my blog: links to Amazon, Netflix, Ebay, and the likes of e-commerce sites (check what cashstore.fr is doing). Also links to advertising revenue from Google, DoubleClick, Overture, etc. Finally easy links to blog enhancing tools such as Blogblox, feedburner, etc.
Scobleizer also reports that a user is using MSN Spaces to report how blogging can help customer service, in particular vulnerabilities in Microsoft's software.
In the meantime the Weblog Awards 2004 for best blogs out there are available here.
