Windows Live Events
By: Nathan Weinberg
Microsoft launced Windows Live Events, a new service underneath Windows Live Spaces that lets you schedule events, invite your contacts and handle who’s coming.
When you click to create an event, you have to choose the type of event, which in turn give you a Live Spaces-like page template, completely ready with everything you’d normally want for an even of that type.
In other words, you get a fully detailed page, customized to your type of event, with a single click.
Template types are:
Featured templates
* Default
Anniversary
* Anniversary
Baby
* Baby
* Baby shower
* Baby shower - blue
* Baby shower - pink
* Baby shower - pink blanket
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
* Bachelor party
* Bachelor party lounge
* Bachelorette party
Birthday
* Birthday for her - 2
* Birthday for her - flowers
* Birthday for her - pastel gifts
* Birthday for him
* Birthday for him - blue
* Kid birthday - cake friends
* Kid birthday - candy
* Kid’s birthday
* Surprise party
Club/Group
* Book club - blue
* Book club - green
* Book club - library
* En plein air
* Knit and chat
Cocktail/Dinner Party
* Cocktail party - black
* Cocktail party - color
* Dinner party - forks and spoons
* Dinner party - table
Family
* Family reunion
* Father’s Day
* Kid’s performance
* Mother’s Day
Farewell
* Bon voyage
* Retirement
* Serene
General
* Art opening - green and blue
* Art opening - yellow and green
* Business open house - blue
* Business open house - gray
* Business open house - tan
* Dandelion
* Fish
* Luminous
* Open house - blue
* Open house - green
* Party
* Party - 2
* Party - balloons
* Street fair
* Treetop birds
* Weekend Brunch
Holiday
* Chinese New Year
* Christmas - 1
* Christmas - snowflakes
* Cinco de Mayo
* Easter - eggs
* Easter - flowers
* Easter - grass
* Father’s Day
* Fourth of July
* Halloween party - 1
* Halloween party - 2
* Halloween party - 3
* Halloween party - ghosts
* Hanukkah
* Hanukkah - menorah
* Mother’s Day
* New Year’s Eve - black
* New Year’s Eve - dots
* St. Patrick’s Day
* Thanksgiving
* Valentine’s Day singles - dark blue
* Valentine’s Day singles - pink
* Winter snow
* Yom Kippur breakfast
House Party
* BBQ
* Costume party
* New home
* Oscar party
* Party - neighborhood
Night Out
* At the movies
* Girls’ night out - shoes and bags
* Happy hour - green
* Happy hour - purple
* Happy hour - red
* Karoake
* Mystery party
* Poker night
* Wine tasting
Religious
* Bar Mitzvah
* Diwali
* Diwali - lights
* School
* Class reunion
* Formal dance - 1
* Formal dance - 2
* Graduation party - blue caps
* School open house
Sports
* Football
* Soccer
* Super Bowl
* Super Bowl - green
* Super Bowl - purple
Wedding/Engagement
* Engagement party - 1
* Engagement party - cheers
* Engagement party - gay
* Engagement party - lesbian
* Rehearsal dinner
* Wedding - bells
* Wedding - flowers
* Wedding - gay
* Wedding - lesbian (green)
* Wedding - lesbian (silver)
* Wedding shower BBQ
Those are a lot of templates, and hopefully they’ll keep adding new ones, like a few missing religious events, and maybe someone will remind them that any wedding I get invited to online is a wedding I might not want to go to. Seriously, have you ever gotten an eVite to a wedding?
Anyway, besides choosing a template, you choose the date, time and place. Not only do you list the place, but you can add a Windows Live Map showing the exact location of the event. You enter the address and the map is automatically created, but if you don’t like where it places the pushpin and you want something more accurate, you can move it on the map to the exact right spot (like for a barbecue in the park).
You also get to choose a personalized web address of the style eventname.events.live.com. Talk about making it easy to remember and share the website!
Once your event is created, you can start inviting people, including sending it to your entire Hotmail contact list and anyone else. You can start customizing the page, including showing local weather. Events have a link to add it to Microsoft Outlook, Apple’s iCal, Yahoo Calendar or Google Calendar, as well as blog it to Windows Live Spaces. There’s a discussion board and space to upload photo albums.
If your page template doesn’t have a module you want, you can click to add it while customizing the page. You can add music and video, a blog, custom lists, custom HTML and an RSS feed. If you really want to get into it, you can do some serious editing and customization of everything on the page, or you can create a pretty advanced page with about twenty seconds of work.
If you’d like to see my fake barbecue event (there’s actually a real BBQ I’m holding at that time and place, but I don’t think you’d be interested), go here and see what a typical event listing is like. Feel free to invite yourself to see how it works.
Looks like a very powerful, yet very easy to use service. Considering the popularity of Windows Live Spaces, and the ease with which you can create a powerful page, I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a big success. Check it out, and you’ll probably find its more worth using than eVite, and a lot of the features make it worth considering over Facebook.