Live.com
Encyclopedia
Windows Live Personalized Experience (also known as My.Live.com, previously Live.com) was a customizable portal launched by Microsoft in early November 2005. It was one of the first Windows Live
services to launch.
feeds in order to view news at a glance. Building off Microsoft's Start.com experimental page, Live.com could be customized with Gadgets
, mini-applications that could serve almost any purpose (e.g. mail readers, weather reports, slide shows, search, games, etc.). Some gadgets integrated with other Windows Live services, including Hotmail, Live Search, and Favorites
.
Users could create multiple site tabs and customize each with different feeds, gadgets, layouts, and color schemes, thus making it a competitor to iGoogle
and Pageflakes
among others.
On December 14, 2004, Start.com, the predecessor to Live.com, began internal testing. On February 5, 2005, the first version, http://www.start.com/1, went live. On March 10, http://www.start.com/2 went live, and on June 3, http://www.start.com/3 went live. On September 1, they released to http://www.start.com/. On September 13, developer sites went live.
The Live.com domain was previously owned by Live Networks Inc., a producer of streaming network software. Microsoft's Live.com launched on November 1, 2005 with the Windows Live brand and various improvements. . By November 8 they had added Firefox support. On November 23 themes were added. On December 15, support for Opera 9, new gadgets, and other improvements went live. On December 20, the search engine was improved. January 27, 2006 saw support for images in RSS feeds. On February 28, the search box was updated. On March 7, Live.com was updated with a new look, more gadgets, and an improved interface. It also featured, for the first time, the new Windows Live Search (now Bing). Features included intelligent scrolling, dynamic image search, and saved searches. On March 30, other improvements were made, especially regarding the first run experience and persistence of search-only mode.
On September 12, 2006, Live.com officially came out of beta, and a beta version of Live.com Mobile was also released for mobile devices. In the following few days, MSN Search began redirecting to the new Windows Live Search, and the rollout was complete.
On August 3, 2007, Microsoft Japan revealed details for Windows Live 2.0 in its annual Business Strategic Meeting 2008, including a new version of Windows Live homepage. A new Windows Live portal, branded Windows Live Home
, was expected to be released in Fall 2007, featuring a new interface design together with Windows Live ID
improvements. Microsoft later confirmed that Windows Live Home is not a replacement for Live.com. On November 21, 2007, the Live.com team announced on their blog a new version of Live.com is in the works.
Because all online Windows Live
services are located in subdomains
of Live.com, the site was once the recognized home of Microsoft's "Live" movement. However, on April 17, 2008, Live.com was officially relocated to my.live.com with its name now referred to as Windows Live Personalized Experience. Live.com became the home to Live Search as part of Microsoft's movement to push their online search and advertising services. Windows Live Home became the official home portal for all Windows Live services instead. Windows Live Personalized Experience was updated on August 8, 2008 featuring the new Windows Live 2.0 theme.
When Bing launched in June 2009, Live.com started to redirect to Bing.com; Windows Live Personalized Experience was still accessible at the my.live.com address. It was announced in mid-January 2010 that Windows Live Personalized Experience would be discontinued as of March 30, 2010, while users are encouraged to use My MSN as a replacement service. In April 2010, my.live.com started redirecting to My MSN, and Live.com started redirecting to Windows Live Home
.
Windows Live
Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...
services to launch.
Features
Live.com lets users add RSSRSS (file format)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
feeds in order to view news at a glance. Building off Microsoft's Start.com experimental page, Live.com could be customized with Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets are lightweight single-purpose applications, or software widgets, that can sit on a Microsoft Windows user's computer desktop, or are hosted on a web page...
, mini-applications that could serve almost any purpose (e.g. mail readers, weather reports, slide shows, search, games, etc.). Some gadgets integrated with other Windows Live services, including Hotmail, Live Search, and Favorites
Windows Live Favorites
Windows Live Favorites was a part of Microsoft's Windows Live range of services. It allowed users to access and edit their favorites from any computer...
.
Users could create multiple site tabs and customize each with different feeds, gadgets, layouts, and color schemes, thus making it a competitor to iGoogle
IGoogle
iGoogle , a service of Google, is a customizable Ajax-based startpage or personal web portal . Google originally launched the service in May 2005...
and Pageflakes
Pageflakes
Pageflakes is an Ajax-based startpage or personal web portal similar to Netvibes, My Yahoo!, iGoogle, Wikpage and Microsoft Live. The site is organized into tabs, each tab containing user-selected modules called Flakes...
among others.
History
The Live.com domain was previously owned by Live Networks Inc., a producer of streaming network software. Microsoft's Live.com launched on November 1, 2005 with the Windows Live brand and various improvements. . By November 8 they had added Firefox support. On November 23 themes were added. On December 15, support for Opera 9, new gadgets, and other improvements went live. On December 20, the search engine was improved. January 27, 2006 saw support for images in RSS feeds. On February 28, the search box was updated. On March 7, Live.com was updated with a new look, more gadgets, and an improved interface. It also featured, for the first time, the new Windows Live Search (now Bing). Features included intelligent scrolling, dynamic image search, and saved searches. On March 30, other improvements were made, especially regarding the first run experience and persistence of search-only mode.
On September 12, 2006, Live.com officially came out of beta, and a beta version of Live.com Mobile was also released for mobile devices. In the following few days, MSN Search began redirecting to the new Windows Live Search, and the rollout was complete.
Windows Live Home
Windows Live Home is a web portal launched by Microsoft as part of its Windows Live services. It aims to bring many of the Windows Live services together in one place...
, was expected to be released in Fall 2007, featuring a new interface design together with Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID is a single sign-on web service developed and provided by Microsoft that allows users to log in to many websites using one account...
improvements. Microsoft later confirmed that Windows Live Home is not a replacement for Live.com. On November 21, 2007, the Live.com team announced on their blog a new version of Live.com is in the works.
Because all online Windows Live
Windows Live
Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...
services are located in subdomains
Subdomain
In the Domain Name System hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain.- Overview :The Domain Name System has a tree structure or hierarchy, with each node on the tree being a domain name. A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain, the only domain that is not...
of Live.com, the site was once the recognized home of Microsoft's "Live" movement. However, on April 17, 2008, Live.com was officially relocated to my.live.com with its name now referred to as Windows Live Personalized Experience. Live.com became the home to Live Search as part of Microsoft's movement to push their online search and advertising services. Windows Live Home became the official home portal for all Windows Live services instead. Windows Live Personalized Experience was updated on August 8, 2008 featuring the new Windows Live 2.0 theme.
When Bing launched in June 2009, Live.com started to redirect to Bing.com; Windows Live Personalized Experience was still accessible at the my.live.com address. It was announced in mid-January 2010 that Windows Live Personalized Experience would be discontinued as of March 30, 2010, while users are encouraged to use My MSN as a replacement service. In April 2010, my.live.com started redirecting to My MSN, and Live.com started redirecting to Windows Live Home
Windows Live Home
Windows Live Home is a web portal launched by Microsoft as part of its Windows Live services. It aims to bring many of the Windows Live services together in one place...
.