Microsoft kills Windows Live Spaces and calls on WordPress

Microsoft has decided that in order to continue providing great blogging experience, it has to kill off Windows Live Spaces and move its 30 million customers to Wordpress. Microsoft says that Automattic, WordPress' parent company, offers a scalable platform, leading spam protection, as well as great personalization and customization. WordPress powers over 8.5 percent of the web: it is used on over 26 million sites and by over 250 million people every month.

Rather than having Windows Live compete with Wordpress, Microsoft has partnered with the blogging service instead. Microsoft is providing existing Windows Live Spaces customers with an easy upgrade of their content (blog posts, comments, and integrated photos) to WordPress, letting anyone connect their WordPress.com blog to Messenger so their Messenger friends are updated when they publish a new post on WordPress, and allowing Windows Live customers to easily create new blogs on WordPress. Furthermore, Microsoft will redirect all your old Spaces URLs to your new Wordpress blog, and is also offering three alternative options: download your blog content, migrate later, or delete your Space.

Starting today, though, new Windows Live customers wanting a blog are prompted to create one on WordPress.com. Meanwhile, when Windows Live Essentials 2011 arrives later this fall, Windows Live Writer will use WordPress as its default blogging solution.