Redmond, Washington — Microsoft on Monday announced that it is scrapping its aging Windows Live Spaces blogging technology and has instead forged alliance with WordPress to move the millions of blogs hosted its blog publishing platform, which will be closed, the companies announced.
As of today, users who try to create a blog on Windows Live Spaces will be directed to WordPress.com. The move raises doubts about Redmond’s ability to provide homegrown solutions for the Web 2.0 market.
Microsoft said it plans to terminate Windows Live Spaces publishers, and move users of the blogging platform to the open source WordPress medium under a deal announced with WordPress parent organization Automattic on Monday.
There are around 30 million bloggers, who will be able to move their blogs and associated photos, posts and comments to Automattic’s WordPress service using an import tool. Spaces URLs will be redirected automatically as well. Moreover, publishers will be able to connect the blogs they move to WordPress to Microsoft’s Messenger instant messaging service and automatically ping their Messenger contacts whenever the blog is updated.
“There are 30 million people who are actively using Windows Live Spaces and have been earnestly awaiting the next set of new blogging features,” Microsoft’s Dharmesh Mehta said in a blog post. “For these customers, Windows Live and WordPress.com have worked together to devise a simple way to move your blog posts, comments, and integrated photos right over to WordPress.com and start taking advantage of all their new features.”
The alliance was revealed at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.
“Earlier today, I had the opportunity to get on the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, and with Toni Schneider, CEO of Automattic, announce an exciting association between our two companies,” said Mehta, in a statement.
“As we looked at customers’ blogging needs and what different companies were providing, we were particularly interested in what WordPress.com is doing,” wrote Mehta. “They have a host of impressive features–from a scalable platform and leading spam protection, to great personalization and customization,” said Mehta.
Mehta noted that: “WordPress powers over 8.5 percent of the web, is used on over 26 million sites, and WordPress.com is seen by over 250 million people every month,” Microsoft wrote in a blog. “So instead of having Windows Live invest in a competing blogging service, we decided the best thing we could do for our customers was to give them a great blogging solution through WordPress.”
Windows Live Spaces publishers will have a six-month window to move their blogs over to WordPress. “If you are not prepared to migrate today, you can also choose to download your blog content, migrate later, or delete your Space,” said Mehta. Under the collaboration, Microsoft is also providing direct integration between WordPress and Windows Live Messenger. Additionally, WordPress becomes the default blogging platform for Windows Live Essentials 2011, which ships later this year.
Indeed, Mehta’s statement suggests that, when it comes to Web 2.0 technologies, Microsoft may be moving away from homegrown solutions. “We look forward to partnering with even more impressive services from around the Web,” said Mehta.
“We are very happy that Microsoft chose WordPress.com as their preferred new blogging service for Windows Live users,” WordPress said in a separate blog post. “It is a sign of how strong WordPress.com has become, and credit for that goes to every one of you who has been creating here.”
But, as Microsoft pulls out of the blog publishing and hosting market, WordPress.com continues to face severe competition from several rivals, including Google’s Blogger and from the various products and services developed by Six Apart, which was acquired last week by VideoEgg.