Yesterday, I took some time to really look over Windows Live Spaces, also comparing it to Vox, Six Apart's new blogging service that is beta testing. I chose Vox because the approach is similar to Windows Live Spaces, of extending blogging outward from a close circle of people.

The results speak for themselves: My Vox site; my Windows Live Space. I found Vox's themes and layouts to be much more appealing and a whole lot easier to use. But, at this stage in testing, Vox layouts are nowhere near as customizable as Windows Live Spaces layouts and Microsoft's service offers many more themes to choose from.

Features are highly comparable. Both services are free, ad supported and provide mechanisms for blogging, sharing photos, music or videos and connecting to a widening circle of friends and family. Both services also let bloggers restrict some posts, rather than make them available to anyone.

As Microsoft expands Windows Live services, there is much it can learn from Six Apart and other Web 2.0 companies. But I question whether the lessons will go far, because the Web 2.0 approach is so fundamentally different from Microsoft's Windows Live direction. Make no mistake, Windows Live is very much about Microsoft, about Windows. There is limited partner opportunity. By extending to other Web services, sites or products, Vox offers great utility. By contrast, Microsoft largely builds its own stuff, leveraging features across many products. Windows Live Spaces approach foreshadows where all Windows Live services are going. Microsoft partners and competitors need to understand the foreshadowing and what it means to them.