Windows Live gets its social makeover

(Credit: The new Windows Live Home page bears more than a passing resemblance to social sites like Facebook.)

Microsoft has started to roll out a series of changes, outlined in November, that give Windows Live a more social networking-like feel.

Windows Live staples such as Spaces, Events, and the home page get a new look, while Microsoft is also putting special emphasis on group, profile, and photo pages.

"Essentially we're launching 'the new face of Windows Live' on the web today," Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog posting.

The changes, which are being rolled out over the next 24 hours, also include a bump in the limit for Microsoft's SkyDrive online storage, which now offers 25GB of storage and improved photo slide shows on the Web.

Also new is the ability to import contacts directly from Facebook to Windows Live.

Take a look and let me know what you think of the makeover. Does it make Windows Live look young and hip, or like an actress that's had one too many face-lifts?

[MichaelJohnNielsen]

I havent tried the new layout and features yet, but it looks an improvement. I also wouldn't say "or like an actress that's had one too many face-lifts?" Microsoft is simply moving towards features that are in demand right now. Getin their head in the game.

[inachu]

If you install the new version for some reason it did not uninstall the old messenger for some reason. just slows down my booting. minor but irritating.

[Mam00th]

It's good, but they really should integrate SkyDrive in live Mesh ASAP

[apw76006]

I have been toying around with the redesign and so far I am not a huge fan. It seems as if there is a lot of mouse clicks that need to be made in order to accomplish simple tasks. The redesign also seems awfully busy and spread out over too many pages. I am going to give it a few weeks of course.

[wmyinzer]

This looks like the Zune software interface crossed with Facebook.

[afratta]

For those of you spending a lot of time on social networks, you should make your time work for you and try HopOnThis.com, eZanga.com?s social network. eZanga.com is a search engine that specializes in pay per click advertising, and they recently updated their site adding, HopOnThis.com. Once you are an active member, HopOnThis rewards you with points (for posting comments, inviting friends, blogging, etc) you can trade in for cash and prizes. They also offer features such as page personalization, drag-and-drop features, unlimited space for photos, and much more.

[prince10bee]

Love it! :) MSN Groups used to be real popular... I'm glad there expanding their social networking w/ Spaces etc.

[ddelor]

It's definitely got some cool features especially if you're like me and use almost all the Live apps regularly. I used to want Mesh and Skydrive together, but now with the redesign I see why they should be separate. I keep more secure items like documents synced with mesh and all the stuff for sharing like photos on skydrive. I'd like to see better integration with outside social features like Pandora, Flixster, LinkedIn, and even Facebook. You've gotta start pulling people from these places and giving them a reason to move to Live. I've always thought Live should allow me to make changes to all these services from one page and maybe even allow me to talk to contacts on other messengers (like AIM). All in all, this may become one of my favorite social networking sites if they keep the improvements coming.

[ksacherman]

I just want to say that I have had hotmail for many years now, and its slow transition to a website is really starting to get to me. I really loved hotmail when it was just my mail, and now when I go to check my e-mail, I have to fight through all the other junk. It isn't that time consuming, but I just don't think it is necessary.

[DigitalAngelic]

Well... you can choose to use only Hotmail if you want. If you just go to hotmail.com or mail.live.com, you don't even have to look at the other stuff. It's really no different than it was before in that regard.

Keep in mind that this stuff isn't part of hotmail. It's the other way around.