Social Networking news and information

SoapBox is live for connected beta users (invite only) and the first impressions are that it is very similar to YouTube. 

My question is Can you download (yes you can) and Will there be RSS?  Both of these will determine whether or not I create an account.  I am currently very happy at YouTube. 

more... Without a file and an RSS feed people can't pull your feed into their vlog reader.  Although, considering the videos you upload will play in Windows Media (flash for Firefox and Mac users), a download would not get pulled into iTunes anyway.  MeFeedia and FireAnt are other choices for vlog readers and they don't require Quicktime files. 

Also of note:

1.  Kurt Shintaku might have gotten into a little trouble in exposing so much so soon:

Well, uh, I had no idea anyone ever even read my blog outside of my customers.  (snip)  I've been told recently by [GULP] the General Manager of MSN Video (snip).

2.  He's created a great deal of very good publicity for this tool:

Windows Media streams are "thinner" meaning that buffering (that initial "please wait while your video is loading") is minimized.  Also thinner streams means less bandwidth congestion on Microsoft's side, and while you might not care about Microsoft's concerns, you might care that you get a good, snappy response time from the Soapbox site, and that's predicated on there being lots of bandwidth available.  Thinner streams equals a snappier, more responsive web site.

And in any case, even though Warhol is effectively doubling the amount of space required on the backend, disk is cheap.  Bandwidth is expensive... and the Warhol/Soapbox folks have chosen to save bandwidth over disc.  Smart move.

And then there's the little thing called Windows Media 9 codec.  Windows Media 9 was such a good format for encoding media that it's in both Blu-Ray & HD-DVD specifications for high definition video.

It appears that the quality of those videos are going to be great.  If that's the case AND they give us RSS this service just might give YouTube a run for it's money. 

3.  Why Release It Under MSN?

With Windows Live getting love all over the place, why take MSN, whose brand is clearly Web 1.0, and put this cool video site under it's umbrella.  I actually thought they were only putting uncool, business-type stuff in that arena (like search advertising).  MSN just doesn't feel cool enough to handle a video social networking site. 

But then, that's where their unconnected-to-any-video-site MSN homepage users are, aren't they?