Windows Live Spaces Out

I’m watching the On10 video for the Windows Live Spaces launch, and there’s so much wrong with what they’re doing. Two things summarize this well. The first was Ze Frank’s recent vlog about “bad” design and being for ugly MySpace pages. It’s empowering. In a way, it’s the original zine’s equivalent on the web, where you get to revel in how much you get the public to whine about how much it upsets them. Experimentation and expression reign supreme.

The second was a quote by “Machine” about Digg’s relaunch that I really appreciated:

Web 2.0 is so sterile… I’m not saying make it look like Windows XP… but I feel like I’m in a very expensive post-modernist Manhattan loft where you can’t sit on the furniture.

This Microsoft rep is pointing out how users can “really express themselves” and yet the designs are as tight and boring and corporate as can be. Creating content in that isn’t expression. A MySpace page that looks like a Mooninite threw up on it — now that’s expression.

And that’s why MySpace still rules. The next MySpace will be even less of a portal — it will be GeoCities v10.0 where the tools build any page you want and the kit contains lots of AJAX eye candy and social networking features.

Give people the freedom to completely play and make mistakes while making communication between users and friends even more advanced and you’ll have the first system that truly challenges MySpace.