Microsoft’s Windows Live Spaces has featured in a recent study of social networking websites.

The study was carried out by a team of Cambridge researchers and measured the time taken for photographs to be removed from the network after the user had marked them for deletion.

Spaces came top in the list, 16 websites were tested. Of these the photographs could still be found on seven.

You can read the full story at the BBC

Windows Live allows you to share your activity from across the web with your network of friends. If you add Web Activities from partner websites to your profile, when you make updates on those websites, they are shared across Windows Live automatically, including Hotmail and Messenger.

20 New Web Activities

Windows Live has now extended the list of partner websites to more than 30, meaning you have greater choice about the activities you decide to share. The new partners include Facebook, Digg, Last.fm, and SmugMug. Now when you update your status or share pictures on Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, or SmugMug, you can choose to have that update automatically added to your “What’s new” feed, reflected throughout Windows Live.

Try bringing your networks together

As well as inviting your friends on Linked In and Facebook to join your Windows Live network, we are now extending this to 3 other networks: MySpace, Hi5, and Tagged. Rather than starting from scratch and building up an entirely new contact list, now you can safely and securely invite your contacts directly to Windows Live from one of these five social networks, and vice versa. Start importing new contacts now at http://profile.live.com/connect/.

And here are a few other recent improvements that you may notice:

• RSS feeds are now easier to find for blogs and lists.
• You’ll start to notice improved results when searching for people on Windows Live from the Windows Live Home or People pages.
• On Windows Live Home, you can now update your personal message inline, without going to a separate message editing page.

For those developers among you, the folks behind Internet Explorer have thrown down the gauntlet and challenge you to create web slices, accelerators and visual search add-ons.

There are 4 Xbox Elites to be given away, one for each of:

• Best accelerator
• Best web slice
• Best visual search provider
• The accelerator, web slice or visual search provider that is just the funniest / coolest / quirkiest of the lot

And there’s more! Future Publishing will be selecting 5 accelerators, 5 web slices and 5 visual search providers from the IE Add-ons Gallery in early June so you have a great opportunity to be picked. Future will be asking their readers to vote for their favourites and will reveal the winners of each category in August (note that the Future Publishing activity is not directly linked to our Xbox competition)

To get the skinny on this competition head over to Mike Ormond’s blog post.

This is a message from the Messenger product team (Ed)

On 07 April 2009 Messenger customers may have received an instant message that looked like this:

We sincerely apologize, but this was accidentally sent out.  If you received this notification today, please ignore it.  You will be able to continue to use your current e-mail address, and there is no reason to make any changes. 

If you have already clicked the link, there is no harm to you.  You should have been told that your “Windows Live ID can’t be changed at this time” because there is no need for the change.

These service notifications are only used for urgent issues but unfortunately, somebody made a mistake that caused this message to be sent out.  We will definitely be reviewing our process to make sure we avoid such mistakes in the future.

Again, we’re very sorry for any confusion that may have been caused.

What is SPIM? SPIM refers to unsolicited messages sent over instant messaging networks, including Windows Live Messenger. Although SPIM messages appear to be sent from a friend, they are often sent by organisations that have violated a user’s account and usually contain links to dubious websites.

If this sounds familiar, and you were the one to receive the message, then your friend’s account is probably compromised. Likewise, if your friends have received messages like these, apparently from you, then your account is likely to have been breached. Read on to find out what to do next.

How to identify SPIM?

1. A SPIM message looks just like any other IM conversation and will be from someone on your buddy list.
2. The first message often contains a link. Only click this if you were expecting it or have verified with the sender that they intentionally meant to send it to you.
3. Look at the content of the message - common topics of SPIM are diet pills, photo sharing and pornography. Is your friend likely to be sending you a message about diet pills?
4. Be especially suspicious if the sender is shown as offline. SPIM can be sent even when a computer is turned off.

What to do if you receive SPIM

1. Close the message window without clicking the link.
2. Tell the sender that you received SPIM from them and suggest they follow the steps outlined in ‘What to do if people have received SPIM from you’ below.
3. It’s also good practise to:
   Change your Windows Live password, also be sure to run an anti-virus and malware scan to ensure your PC is free of viruses.

What to do if people have received SPIM from you

1. Change your windows live password immediately.
2. Run an anti-virus and malware scan to ensure your PC is free of viruses.
3. Warn friends that your account may have sent SPIM and they should not click on the links in these messages.

Tips to help protect against being a victim of SPIM

• Change your Windows Live password to a new strong password as well as your secret question and answer regularly.
• Always ensure that your anti-virus software is up to date. Learn more about protecting your PC.
• Don't share your password with anyone even if they claim that they are a person of authority. 
• Properly log out of your account after your session by clicking the "Sign Out" button.
• If you're using a public terminal, clear your temporary Internet files (cache) and close the browser that you're using when you're ready to end your Internet session.
• Be sure not to click "Remember my password" if you're using a public computer or if there are other people using your computer.
• Download Internet Explorer 8 for free, which includes a phishing filter that should help protect you from dubious websites.
• Download the latest version of Windows Live Messenger.
• Visit http://windowslivehelp.com for more Support around this issue.

Please let us know if your Messenger account received or sent SPIM.

To coincide with the launch of the latest series of Skins, skinsmessenger@e4.com is a Messenger Agent (bot) developed to give you access to background information about the program, both during and in-between broadcasts of the show on TV (E4).

What does the agent do?

• Synchronises to the live transmission of the show on E4.
• Sends relevant, timely information to those who have opted-in for notifications. E.g. if a new character enters the scene, the Agent will send background information about the actor; if there’s music playing, the Agent will tell you which artist and track.
• Encourages thousands of people to connect at the same time to interact, ask questions and give live feedback during transmission.

Read more about the skinsmessenger agent on e4.com or add it now as a Messenger contact and tune in for the next Skins episode: skinsmessenger@e4.com.

A new update for Windows Live Messenger and the other Windows Live Essentials programs is now available for free download.

Over the next four weeks, whether you’re still running Messenger 2008 (versions 8.1 or 8.5), or you just installed Messenger 2009 in the last few months, you’ll see a prompt encouraging you to upgrade to the latest version of Messenger.

Here’s what the prompt will look like.

After clicking the prompt, you’ll be asked
if you want to upgrade.

For those who have not yet tried Messenger 2009, this update brings you improved video and audio calls, a new way to see your favourite people at the top of the list, display pictures that can change with your mood, and a fast and easy new way to share photos, among other things. PC Magazine gave Messenger 2009 their Editor’s Choice Award!

If you already have versions of any of these programs (Windows Live Mail, Photo Gallery, Family Safety, Writer, Movie Maker (beta), or Toolbar), they’ll be automatically upgraded to their latest versions along with Messenger, so that all the Essentials can work together properly.

Upgrade today, and let us know what you think, either here in comments, or through our feedback site at http://feedback.live.com.

-  The Windows Live team

P.S. If you need help with Messenger sign-in or other errors, please visit http://messenger-support.spaces.live.com/. For help with webcam connectivity in Messenger, see this blog post: http://messenger-support.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8B3F39C76A8B853F!14323.entry

Virtual Earth has just been updated with a mammoth 37TB (tera-byte) imagery release. If you’re easily confused by numbers, lets just leave it at ‘big’.

All of the imagery is available across the Multimap and Live Maps platforms.

The following imagery collections and views are included in this release:

Obliques (Bird’s Eye, International): France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

High Resolution Orthos (International): Great Britain, Greece, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain.

Obliques (Bird’s Eye, United States): Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin.

High Resolution Orthos (United States): CA, FL, CO, MO, NJ, NV, TX.

For all the completist’s out there the full list of new imagery can be found on the LiveSide blog.

The following message was recently circulated by the Windows Live team. It will clear up any issues caused by installing the new version of Messenger.

“We’ve heard that a small number of you are experiencing audio and video problems with your webcam after installing the latest version of Windows Live Messenger. After looking into this, we found that for users who are seeing error code 0x8AC70013 or 0x8AC70202, this may be caused by an incompatibility with McAfee Site Advisor.

McAfee is working on a patch to fix this, but until it becomes available, if you’re having audio or video problems with the new version of Messenger and are running McAfee, McAfee has posted a workaround on its website at: http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100601.”

The world will change on January 20th when Barack Obama, the President-elect takes the oath of office and becomes the 44th President of the United States.

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

If you are going to be among the millions attending, you can be part of history by helping create the most immersive and detailed experience of a single moment ever created.

What is a Synth?

To discover more about Photosynth, read the Windows Live primer on everything synthy.

Capturing the Moment of Transition

Photosynth is partnering with CNN to gather thousands of your photographs to create an immersive experience of the moment when President Obama takes the Oath of Office. From the vast sweep of the crowd to a close-up on the President’s hand on the Bible, every part of this historic scene will be frozen in time and presented in 3-D as only Photosynth can.

Well placed CNN photographers will capture lots of detailed shots for this synth, and if you’re there you can help make this an even more amazing experience by adding your perspective with your digital camera or camera phone.

Check out CNN’s page dedicated to this collaboration: http://cnn.com/themoment.

Matt

Windows Live™ Calendar is an easy-to-use online calendar that helps you keep in sync with friends and all those notable dates in your diary.

Lets have a look at some of the features and functionality:

Birthday and holiday calendars: Keep track of important dates in one place. Windows Live Calendar automatically creates a holiday calendar for your country and a birthday calendar that automatically shows birthdays of the people in your friends list.

Calendar sharing and to-do lists: Coordinate easily with family and friends by setting up shared calendars and to-do lists.

Public calendar subscription: View automatic updates on your calendar when information from your public calendars changes. Subscribe to a concert, weather, sports, or other public calendars.

Microsoft Office Outlook sync: If available in your language, use Outlook Connector to sync your Windows Live Calendar with Outlook. View your calendars overlaid or side-by-side, right from within Outlook.

Today marks the release of a new feature for Live Search.

When it comes to filling in forms, are you familiar with ‘Auto suggest’? You may have seen it implemented in search boxes across various other sites, if not it is a surprisingly simple but effective feature.

All you have to do is simply begin typing in what you intend to search for and voila! a whole selection of possible searches appear as options. As you begin to type more characters into the search bar, the possibilities are refined accordingly in order to propose the exact search you were intending to make. While a more favoured use of mine is to get inspiration from the suggestions for further searches, and on occasion to clarify spelling. Genius sneaky idea right?

If for some reason you decide it isn’t for you, then it’s easy to turn off - simply check the ‘Turn off’ option. Read more on this new feature.

Give it a whirl now and tell us what you think!

This is a wicked little utility and something that’s been on my wish list for a while now.

http://on10.net/blogs/sarahintampa/Gladinet-Now-Offers-SkyDrive-25-GB-Support/

Gladinet has made an application that effectively mounts your 25GB Skydrive as a drive that can be viewed from your desktop.

Try it now

Steve Ballmer’s keynote speech at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES) highlighted a number of exciting advances in the Windows brand.

Read more about Windows 7 on MSN Tech & Gadgets

Users of Windows Live Messenger are already graced with the capability to read/post Facebook updates directly from their IM client. But in the coming months, Facebook users can choose to share content they post on Facebook, including photos, directly into Windows Live.

Naturally this is a major coup for Live, and I for one welcome this development with open arms.

Matt

“From your camera to the web” – this pretty much tells you all you need to know about Windows Live Photo Gallery. It is a one stop shop for importing your photos from your camera, touching them up, and sending them off to the world wide web. Try out the new beta for yourself, at download.live.com

Let me show you the capabilities of this product, for this example I’ll be using a picture taken at a gig, it’s a bad photo – dark and out of focus, but with a few touch ups from Windows Live photo gallery we can rescue it!

After importing the photo directly from my digital camera, here it is in its original form;

Then with a few tweaks to the colour settings, crop out whatever got in the way in the top right, and we are already on our way to a better photo;

Once I’m happy with it I can upload it to a site of my choice, e-mail it (which can automatically optimise the file for sending via e-mail) or even order prints! You could even include it in a movie (using Windows Live movie maker) or create a slideshow. Transform your photos today using Windows Live Photo Gallery!

Thanks to the handsome chaps that make up The Waxing Captors for allowing us to use their photo.

Tom R

Messenger Central is the new home for all Windows Live Messenger related content. Head over to www.messengercentral.co.uk and you will find;

Expression packs – Create your own wink with the wink workshop or get some ‘geek-chic’ with the new Techicons pack

Games - Fishticuffs! Amongst other things...

Agents – Find out all you need to know by chatting to one of our agents, from astrology to translation

Activities – Featuring Time for a Story, MSN Wallpapers and more!

Alerts – Keep up to date with all the MSN channel updates and XBOX news

Over the past year, many of you told us that you wanted a cleaner, faster Hotmail. We released the new Hotmail to meet those needs, and while many of our customers are happy with the changes, others – particularly folks with smaller screen resolutions – are having difficulty using the new Hotmail.

We’ve been listening to all the feedback, and we want to make Hotmail great for everybody. So, we’ve been working hard on more changes based on your feedback:

· We’re modifying the way that scrolling works for those of you who have the reading pane turned off. This will make it easier to see more of your messages and folders, especially if you have a smaller screen. It will work a lot more like Classic Hotmail for anyone who has the reading pane turned off.

· While we work on this change, we’re removing the promotional module in the lower left corner so you have more room to see your folders.

· We’re working on a number of smaller fixes that will reduce errors and the time it takes to load each page. This includes addressing concerns from those of you who use Firefox on Linux, and making it easier to close the contact picker when you’re composing a message.

These changes will roll out over the next month, so you should be seeing them shortly.

Hotmail has even more upcoming changes that will come out a bit later – moving the advertisement from the top of page to the side, adding more themes and other ways to customise,  increasing the number of messages on each page, and embedding instant messaging with Messenger right into Hotmail.

Thank you for your patience and feedback. Keep up the suggestions and we’ll keep working to make Hotmail even better.

- The Windows Live Hotmail Team

P.S. Some of you using Firefox, especially Firefox version 2.0.0.18, are reporting problems opening your mail. We are not yet sure why this is happening, but we are investigating. In the meantime, the problem usually goes away if you upgrade to Firefox 3.

To upgrade to Firefox 3, go to http://www.mozilla.com and click the link to download Firefox 3.

You can find answers to many other Hotmail questions in the FAQ in Hotmail’s Help area (click the (?) question mark in the upper-right corner of Hotmail).

Or, send details about your specific problem to our support team using this form, and they will get back to you.

A Swansea PC shop named Mike-O-Soft has been 'swooped on' and fined for using illegal Microsoft software.
Metro, 18/11/2008.

If it wasn’t for the pun, maybe they could have remained under the radar.

Ever had to end a conversation on Windows Live Messenger because you had to go out? You won’t have that problem any more, because you can now use Windows Live Messenger on your mobile, so you can chat to your friends wherever you are.

This is no cut down version of messenger either, you can send emoticons, transfer images and even group chat. To download messenger on to your mobile, just go to http://www.messengergonemobile.com

Even better than that, how about you give Live Messenger on your 3 Mobile and win an XBOX 360 or £200 worth of TopShop vouchers! All you need to do is download Messenger and send a single message, you’ll automatically be entered in to the draw. To download Messenger for 3 just visit http://www.three.co.uk/wlm

Good luck!

With Christmas less than ten weeks away, many savvy shoppers are starting to buy presents right now in order to spread the cost. They’re also turning to the internet to find bargains online and save.

The Live Search team in the UK are helping deal-seekers take the edge off their Xmas gift budget by giving them a chance to win while they search for presents online!

Check out: www.BigSnapSearch.com

By teaming up with John Lewis we’re giving users the chance to win vouchers worth up to £1000 - twenty-four hours a day.

It’s really simple!

Just go to www.BigSnapSearch.com and search for that crucial Christmas gift.

At the top of the page two cards will randomly appear – if they match that’s a Big Snap and you are a winner!

If you don’t win first time, try again!

There’ll be 24 prizes given away every day. There are 100’s of vouchers being given away between now and 5^th January!

You’ll have the chance to win the £500 voucher once a day and the big one - a £1000 voucher - once a week!

So get Big Snap searching now!

Mel Carson – Microsoft adCenter Community Manager