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Msn Chat Rooms: Microsoft Canada
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The software company recently announced plans to close down chat rooms in most of the 34 markets in Europe, Latin America, and Asia where its MSN Internet service is available to consumers. (article 8) Microsoft is getting out of the business of providing high-speed Internet access lines for customers and instead concentrating on improving its MSN Internet browsing software and services. (article 2) Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet service is in talks with SBC Communications Inc. to drop its broadband service for customers on SBC's lines, the two companies said Friday. (article 3) Microsoft Corp. is shutting down Internet chat services in most of its markets around the world and limiting the service in the United States to help reduce criminal solicitations of children through online discussions. (article 4) By eliminating or curtailing the services, Microsoft hopes to strike a blow against pornographic spam and sexual predators, such as pedophiles, spokeswoman Lisa Gurry said yesterday. (article 4) The changes ... should help Microsoft shed some nonpaying users who have dragged on profits, said an analyst who follows the software giant..
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MSN chat rooms are shutting down in 28 countries to reduce growing amounts of online child pornography. Come Oct. 14 the doors to Microsoft's unsupervised chat rooms will be closed. Microsoft Canada has joined forces with the Toronto Police to create software designed to catch internet pedophiles. While Microsoft and police departments tackle chat room dangers, others are taking a different approach. John McAuley and Mark Dowds run Net Accountability. After discovering friends addicted to internet pornography, John and Mark were motivated to co-found an accountability web site to help individuals police themselves.
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MSN Chat has a Code of Conduct similar to those in other chat rooms. Users are instructed not to use Microsoft services to create spam, to be respectful of others, and not to advocate violence, racism or bigotry. A more detailed list is available on the website.
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Microsoft doesn't disclose whether or not its free chat rooms bring in enough users to make money from advertising, but overall MSN lost some $48 million in the last quarter, so it's no secret that the firm is cutting costs. "Microsoft is moving steadily from ad-supported services to subscriber-supported services," says Rob Helm, director of research at Washington-based independent analysts Directions on Microsoft. "It saves a lot of money when it can get rid of entire infrastructures, so the savings made by getting rid of the whole thing may outweigh the marginal gain. It's a business move with social benefits."
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On Sept. 11 Microsoft msft (nasdaq: msft) added streaming audio to its MSN chat rooms. It kicked off the service with a live audio chat by Sylvester Stallone, who's promoting a new movie. Today the company will announce that it is buying MongoMusic and incorporating the company's music search features into MSN.
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Jim Hu on ZDnet takes a little bit different stance on the reason why Microsoft is shutting down the chat rooms. In Jim Hu's story he thinks that Microsoft is shutting down the chat rooms in order to encourage the users to switch to MSN messenger. That way Microsoft will get more users to that service. At this time the service is free but Jim estimates that in the not to distant future Microsoft will start charging for the service. At that time the extra user base from the chat rooms will pay off.
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