Windows Live Expo set to expire next month
Bye-bye, Expo. We, um, didn't use you.
(Credit: Windows Live Expo)This post was updated at 11:56 AM with comment from Microsoft.
Chalk one point up to Craigslist: Microsoft has decided to shut down Windows Live Expo, the classifieds service that it originally launched in February 2006.
Expo will disappear on July 31, a notice on the site explains. Until then, no new listings can be posted or extended, and no new accounts can be created. Microsoft representatives responded on Friday with a statement from the company: "We have learned a tremendous amount from our experience with Windows Live Expo and believe this decision, while a hard one, will serve to more effectively focus our resources towards other priority online service investments for our customers."
The most recent post on the Expo blog is from last September.
Online classifieds continue to be dominated by Craigslist, a scrappy start-up with a hippie attitude and a user interface worthy of 1997. The company is currently ensnared in a legal tiff with major investor eBay over the auction giant's in-house classifieds site, Kijiji.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
If they had to sell prophylactics they would be dumb enough to attach their precious brand name to it.
I understand the marketing angle to it, but it reeks more or arrogance and presumption, mainly because the public increasingly distrusts the company and anything they produce.
If they had to sell prophylactics they would be dumb enough to attach their precious brand name to it.
I understand the marketing angle to it, but it reeks more or arrogance and presumption, mainly because the public increasingly distrusts the company and anything they produce.
Classifieds is a great space to be in right now - traffic is growing and competition is heating up. Competition will bring about innovation and even better ways to buy, sell, and find things locally. I created Lookcube because as good as Craigslist is, I think there is a lot of room to improve. I also built Lookcube to help out small businesses and online sellers - over the new few months Lookcube will be rolling out features to make it easy to promote your small business or store as well as manage the contacts you make through our site.
It's an exciting time to be a classifieds website - too bad Microsoft is going to miss it!
Check Lookcube out at http://www.lookcube.com
- by classifieds December 28, 2008 4:15 PM PST
- Free ads at http://adlandpro.ws
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