Rolling straight on from Windows Live Folders and Photo Gallery it looks like the Windows Live teams have yet another new service up their sleeves. Windows Live Events looks set to fill a gap in the current Windows Live portfolio, adding functionality to the rather basic social networking features that currently exist as part of Windows Live Spaces.
"Windows Live Events will enable users to share and plan different types of Events happening around them in compelling ways while collaborating with other services like calendar [and] spaces."
Mike Arrington recently posted about the new social networking products being made by Yahoo and Google, with Jeremy Zawodny from Yahoo saying "everyone is scrambling to catch up with facebook..." - how right he is. Its generally acknowledged that Microsoft often plays catchup, ironically the same is now true of Google.
While Facebook has popularised the social events scene, the power of Windows Live exists in the offering of connected services. Add in Spaces, Calendar and Alerts integration to an events service and you instantly have a very powerful product. With the number of users Windows Live Spaces wields, it will surely be a popular one too. That said, it'll be interesting to see if Microsoft choses to leverage the new Facebook Developer Platform and tie in Windows Live Events with Facebook Events. The possibilities for a "connected" set of services such as these is exciting, and something Microsoft desparately needs to do if it wants to win back the Facebook generation.