Microsoft announced today that it will soon close down its 13 year old forum site MSN Groups and it's encouraging its users to export their conversations over to its new official partner, Multiply. It's a big win for one of the most solid social networks online.

Multiply has a rabidly loyal following, something that might change with an infusion of MSN Groups members, and its feature set is impressive. It's best known for its very granular privacy controls on published content.

Additionally, when Multiply rolled up a number of their super-frequent feature updates into one relaunch last year, we said it compared favorably with Facebook in the following ways:

• Facebook has a newsfeed displaying updates from your friends. Multiply lets you slide your newsfeed to include in your display just your own updates, your contacts' updates, and/or your close or distant networks' updates.


• Facebook has a smooth in-house video app, but the new Multiply app lets you leave audio or video comments anywhere and see any user's other media from inside the player.


• Facebook made big improvements to its email messaging (sending you the actual message in your email instead of just a link) but Multiply now has 8 email alert controls and more.

How many people are now being told to shift from MSN Groups to Multiply? We started asking around but quickly realized that we'd do better to try to squeeze beer out of a rock than user numbers out of Microsoft. According to coverage at Liveside, a new Live.com Groups will launch in mid November. We hear that Live Groups is actually pretty hot looking, so why people are being sent to Multiply we don't really now.

Will users of the old-fashioned MSN Groups make the transition well and enjoy Multiply? We're not sure, but we wouldn't be surprised. We like Multiply and we think it's pretty cool that MSN users are headed there.

Multiply goes on to list 5 ways in which Facebook has copied them in recent times...

"Multiply launched its proprietary newsfeed in August of 2004, when the site launched. Two years later, Facebook introduced a similar, yet more basic, news feed for its users. Blogging, one of Multiply's core features since launch, was introduced to Facebook more than 20 months later, and video sharing, a Multiply feature since June 2005, was introduced on Facebook nearly 16 months later. In September 2004, Multiply introduced photo printing services for its users, something that Facebook implemented two years later. In its most recent enhancement, "New Facebook" features several changes - both aesthetically and functionally - that make Facebook look and feel even more like Multiply."

Multiply also noted that Facebook has filed suit against German social networking site StudiVZ for infringement on Facebook's "look, feel, features, and services", so it feels it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black:

Image from Multiply

Is this PR offensive just sour grapes because Facebook has enjoyed much more success than Multiply? It could be, because in terms of features it's well known that Multiply is one of the smartest and most fully featured social networks around. Back in December we compared Multiply to Facebook and listed a number of ways in which it is better. We called Multiply a "good solid, state of the art but still easy to use social networking site".

It seems that the frustration of seeing Facebook get much of the social networking buzz, and market share, has gotten to Multiply. While we understand that frustration, we're not sure that attacking Facebook publicly is the way to attract new users. Or maybe the publicity will actually help! What do you think? Are there many RWW readers using Multiply?

• For users 16 and 17 years of age, the default profile setting will now be private -- previously this was a default only for 14 and 15 year old users (14 years old is the minimum age for site membership).
• MySpace will look into the creation of a "children's email registry that will empower parents to prevent their children from having access to MySpace or any other social networking site."
• The creation of an "Online Safety Task Force" that would develop and review online safety tools (such as those used for age verification).
• The launch of an "online safety public service campaign" to teach parents how to keep their children safe on the Internet.
• No user can browse for users under 16.
• Users under 18 are restricted from age-inappropriate areas such as Romance and Relationship, or Mature chat, forums and groups, nor can those users browse based on categories such as relationship status, smoker, drinker, or income
• Users over 18 can only search the school section for high school students graduating in the current or upcoming year.

According to the Associatd Press, Facebook faces similar safety issues with young users. "Last year, New York investigators said they set up Facebook profiles as 12- to 14-year olds and were quickly contacted by other users looking for sex," writes the AP's Michael Gormley. Because the "Principles" were drafted as industry standards, it is possible that the attorneys general will request (demand?) that other social networking sites sign on.

One of the main issues in the coming year on the web is going to be privacy. We're already starting to see the major social networks attempt to offer tools to users that will let users define who sees information about them (though it should be noted that the social network itself will always have access to that information). MySpace has announced plans to allow people to have mutliple profiles for different audiences, while Facebook reportedly has plans to introduce privacy controls to friend lists. Multiply was one of the first social networks to offer such granular control over information dissemination.