MSN Soapbox, which we wrote about on Sept. 7, the user uploaded feature now in internal beta as "Warhol" is set to be released into beta tomorrow (Tuesday), according to MS employee and Warhol tester Kurt Shintaku.
Testing has not been announced, but by signing in at http://soapbox.msn.com, you'll apparantly be put on a waiting list. Soapbox allows for user uploaded videos of up to 100mb, in AVI, ASF, WMV, MOV, MPEG 1/2/4, 3GPP, DV file formats. While it is not a Windows Live product, you will be able to use your Windows Live Spaces profile with MSN Soapbox.
According to Shintaku:
"It's really bandwidth efficient, you can "copy" the content locally to your own machine if you have the right tools (instead of using some proprietary wrapper around it like you do with Google), it's optimized to your network speed, and doesn't require any plug ins or anything."
Signup for the Soapbox beta on Windows Live Ideas
Update: The Microsoft press release for Soapbox is up: MSN Launches Beta of Soapbox on MSN Video
Quoting the release:
Soapbox on MSN Video utilizes powerful Web 2.0 technologies to provide a dynamic, fun and entertaining experience and offers these benefits:
| • | Easy uploading and sharing of video creations. By providing single-step uploading, background server-side video processing and acceptance of all major digital video formats, Soapbox makes uploading videos a snap. |
| • | Finding and discovering the most entertaining videos. Viewers can search, browse through 15 categories, find related videos, subscribe to RSS feeds, and share their favorites with their friends — all without interrupting whatever video they are watching. |
| • | Participation in the Soapbox community. Soapbox users can rate, comment on and tag the videos they view, share links with their friends via e-mail, and include the embeddable Soapbox player directly on their Web site or blog. |
Availability
The beta of Soapbox on MSN Video is available on an invitation-only basis in the U.S. Those interested in participating in the beta can sign up for the waiting list now at http://soapbox.msn.com. Access to the beta will expand over time by enabling existing beta testers to invite a limited number of friends. The beta of Soapbox on MSN Video is available to users of Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 6 or later running on Windows® XP and Firefox 1.0.5 or later running on Windows XP or Macintosh OS X.