Windows Live Wire

Have you seen WindowsLive.com lately? You might see someone you know, because a new blogger community called the Clubhouse is writing about its experiences with Windows Live. You can get tips, tricks, and creative ideas from people like you. Get to know the bloggers or go straight to their blog posts. Check it out! And if you're interested in contributing, you can ask to join the Clubhouse.

-Kirsten

P.S. On a separate (but related) note, I'm really digging the new design of WindowsLive.com—especially the little hand-drawn touches, like this guy:

(What is he, a snail? It doesn't really matter because he's so darn adorable.)

And the cool "action lines" around the buttons:

So fun!

Some of you may have noticed a strange new blog just started by “Parker Whittle,” a guy so into Microsoft’s i’m initiative that he’s decided to try to stay up for 30 days straight and send as many IMs and e-mail messages as he can using Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail, to help raise money for the causes he supports.

As you might have guessed, Parker is a fictional character—real people need more sleep than that :-) — but his story is a lighthearted way to help raise awareness of the causes you can contribute to by joining the i’m initiative. Parker’s character is based on the passionate people, like many of you, that we’ve already seen embrace this program as a way to help make a difference without even having to open their wallets. And while Parker may not be real, the i’m initiative and the causes it supports are very real, and the money raised by Parker’s talkathon will absolutely count towards the ongoing i’m initiative effort. The i’m initiative has already raised nearly $1.6 million for the social causes that Windows Live customers have chosen to support.

We hope you have fun following the ups and downs of Parker’s story on his blog. This is definitely an unusual campaign, so please do check out the site and let us know what you think.

Oh, and if you haven't joined the i'm initiative yet, just go to http://im.live.com to get started helping out the causes you care about.

Hey, developers and other technically-inclined people!

Windows Live Writer has a technical preview out now, mainly focused on updates to the SDK. It's your chance to try it out and send along your feedback. The cool thing here is you can create plug-ins with hooks that trigger before and after a post is published. Need a cheat sheet? Samples for Twitter and Digg are included.

There are also some new features in Writer, including video publishing, photo editing, .gif and Lightbox support, word count, and some nifty updates to the interface that make Writer easier to use.

You can read more about this release, and download it from Writer Zone, the Windows Live Writer blog.

Windows Live SkyDrive announced several updates to SkyDrive today.

Now you can:

• Add captions to your files and photos to describe each item.
• Add comments to any file. Leave a note telling people what's new in a file, or comment on a friend's photo. Check out the recent comments others have made about your files.
• Get larger photo previews so you can see which ones to open.
• Flip through the contents of a folder without opening the files.

Also, SkyDrive is now available in 24 more countries or regions:

Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, Serbia, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

You can read more about this and other updates on the SkyDrive team blog.

The Windows Live Writer team just published five new videos that take you step-by-step through setting up a blog and using Windows Live Writer to publish great-looking blog entries with pictures, maps, videos, and other rich content.

Check out the Writer Zone blog for more info, and download Windows Live Writer for free! The videos are also available on MSN Soapbox and on YouTube.

When you first install the Windows Live Toolbar, some of its best features might not be obvious at first glance. The Toolbar team wanted to allow users to decide for themselves how to personalize their toolbars, so before you can use many features you need to turn them on or install them from Options:

One of my favorite hidden features of the toolbar comes pre-installed, but it still isn’t obvious because it doesn’t appear on the toolbar itself: Smart Menus.

Smart Menus help you quickly get more information about specific kinds of text that you come across while browsing the web in Internet Explorer. When you select the text, the Smart Menu button appears:

Try out these Smart Menu tricks.

• Select an address on a website.
  
  • To map the address or get driving directions, click the Map button:
    
  • To get the current weather conditions and a three-day forecast for that location, click the Weather button:
    
• Select a stock symbol.
  
  • To get a stock quote, click the Stock button:
    
• Select any word or phrase.
  
  • To get more information about that word or phrase, such as its definition, click the Info button:
    

If you haven't yet, install the toolbar, try it out, and let us know what you think about Smart Menus!

- Kaarin Shumate
Windows Live Team

As we mentioned a couple weeks ago, the i’m Initiative has really taken off with people, and Messenger customers have now helped raise over $1.4 million as of today for social causes. But that’s not today’s only big news…

Today we announced that we’re expanding the program to include Hotmail too! Now you can use both Hotmail and Messenger to help contribute to the social cause of your choice.  

The Hotmail team just posted more information about it all on their blog. We’re really excited about this news and, judging from the amazing participation we’ve already seen from many of you, we hope you’re excited too.

Curious to know what online enthusiasts have voted the top 100 cool Web 2.0 tools of 2008?  Look no further than the 2008 Webware 100, an annual list from CNET’s Webware, representing the best Web 2.0 sites, services and applications, as nominated and voted on by their readers. Webware is a tech news site that highlights useful Web tools and the latest online trends.

Each year, readers nominate outstanding companies whose services best fit into ten categories. After collecting all the nominations (over 5,000 this year!), Webware editors narrow the list to 300 and invite readers to vote for the best companies.

After receiving 1.9 million votes this year, Webware announced the ten companies that won in each category. Windows Live services and Live Search were recognized in three categories:

• Communication: Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger
• Browsing: Windows Live Home
• Search and Reference: Live Search

This year’s award recognition helps to showcase how Windows Live innovations on the web continue to shape and change the way people communicate, share data, and find information online. Webware reviewer Rafe Needleman spearheads the Webware 100 awards competition. You can see all the winners in one place, here.

This year continues a positive trend, as Microsoft also received similar Webware 100 awards in 2007.

Wow. The Windows Live Messenger team just posted on their blog about the progress of the i’m initiative in its first year in the US and, I’ve got to say, the widespread support for this program has been really amazing. In case you aren’t already familiar with it, the i’m initiative uses Messenger to help you support some great social causes. Once you sign up for the i'm initiative, every time you participate in an "i’m" conversation using Messenger, Microsoft shares a portion of the program’s advertising revenue with one of ten social cause organizations of your choice.

Actually, I probably don’t need to tell a lot of you that… so many of you have already joined the program and are i'm-ing away. Thanks to your overwhelming participation, Microsoft has already been able to donate a total of $1.3 million to ten of the world’s most effective organizations dedicated to social causes – and that’s just the beginning. 

Some of you responded to our post last week about the INSPI(RED) team that you’re also interested in social causes that can have an impact within the US.  Regardless of whether your interests are local or global, you should really check out the i’m initiative, as there is a wide array of causes involved. 

You can read more about it on the Messenger Says blog, including links to all the organizations involved. I've been taking part in the i’m initiative for awhile now already, and clearly you have too. Together, we're really helping make a difference for these organizations, just by talking to each other. Let’s keep it going.

Thanks, as always, for your comments.  We love hearing from you.

-Antonia

What do Windows Live, MSN, and Mt. Everest have to do with fighting AIDS?

Thanks to Jeff Dossett, Executive Producer and General Manager at MSN, a lot. Jeff has created Everest Team INSPI(RED), a group of three elite mountaineers who will attempt to reach the summit of Mt. Everest and in the process inspire change.

Jeff and his fellow Team INSPI(RED) members will face the greatest climbing challenge in the world in hopes of building awareness about PRODUCT(RED)—a business model designed to raise money for The Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa—and inspiring individuals to pursue big, bold goals with passion.

Check out the official Team INSPI(RED) space on Windows Live to follow the journey, download the (PRODUCT)RED theme pack (which includes Hotmail signatures and Messenger emoticons and winks), and find out more about the (RED) effort. 

We hope you‘re as inspired by this cause as we are.