I just whiled away part of the evening as the voyeur, looking in on the blogs over at MSN Spaces. By default, each Space includes a sidebar module containing recently “Updated Spaces”. I navigated from blog to blog, seeing what I would find. I’m a studier of people, so the look inside people’s lives is fascinating.
I observed a few things.
At least half the Spaces I visited—about 40 or so—only featured photos. Maybe five had no photos. People love to post pics, and Microsoft makes it easy for Windows users. But that makes the down-sampling of quality all the more disappointing. One reason Spaces is no longer my full-time blog is the reduction of photo quality during the upload process. I’m sure Microsoft does this to save space. But who wants to setup in a crowded space. Shouldn’t space be a reason for Spaces?
Many people had done some sophisticated manipulation of their Spaces, within the limited constraints on customization. These people clearly downloaded the Spaces Power Toys, which give more control over HTML design and Windows Media Player placement, for example. Almost a third of the blogs I traversed had WMP music or video clips.
Well more than half the Spaces weren’t in English, and the bloggers originated in another country. Not the United States.
More than two-thirds of the blogs belonged to people under 35 (to be honest, under 25).
Photo Credit: Evan Haight-Boyd