July 2006 Overview Windows Live Expo is available to all U.S. customers and expands on the concept of what a traditional online classified Internet site is by including social networking and community features that you can share within your trusted community through a convenient and free online service. Windows Live Expo values customer safety and provides its customers with a Windows Live Expo-only inbox. All messages and inquiries regarding a customer’s listings are sent directly to and from the customer’s anonymous Windows Live Expo message inbox. This Windows Live Expo feature helps prevent others from seeing a customer’s personal e-mail address, which in turn reduces the opportunity for spam or phishing attacks to reach a user’s personal e-mail inbox. Furthermore, to make finding products easier, all listings in Windows Live Expo are geographically identified, or geo-tagged, by ZIP code as opposed to overall city, which specifically defines the area in which the product is located. The geo-tagged products are then integrated with Windows Live Local. Windows Live Expo also helps bring a level of trust to the online trading experience by allowing customers to decide what group they would like to do business with — just those on their Windows Live Messenger Contact List, or in the e-mail groups they belong to, or the entire Windows Live Expo community. In addition, the newest version of Windows Live Expo has a considerable number of updated features from the last version. The user interface has been upgraded significantly and now supports multiple-screen resolutions and will stretch to fit a variety of screens. Visitors can now also add comments to listings that will eventually lead to discussion. And APIs have been added to Windows Live Expo so customers can now develop “mashups,” Web applications that seamlessly combine content from more than one source, to tailor Windows Live Expo to their direct needs. Windows Live Expo Features at a Glance Windows Live Expo includes the following marketplace features: | • | Integration with familiar Microsoft services. Windows Live Expo is integrated with Windows Live/MSN® Messenger and Windows Live Local, making it easy for customers to access, search for and locate the listings and services they are looking for. | | • | Trusted connections. Windows Live Expo customers can choose to post items for sale or purchase among only their Windows Live/MSN Messenger contact list and/or e-mail domain groups, adding a level of trust and familiarity not provided by most other services. | | • | Integrated, advanced mapping. Products listed in Windows Live Expo are geo-tagged and fully integrated with Windows Live Local, which can help users map and obtain driving directions. For example, users can check the location of a prospective new home to see if it really is a “waterfront property” as listed. | | • | More control. Windows Live Expo offers advanced search methods, rather than a cookie-cutter approach to searches. When searching for an item, such as a home, customers can provide more than one keyword, homing in on other qualifying characteristics such as square footage, price range and location — regionally or across the U.S. |
Free and easy setup. Customers can create a free, basic listing in fewer than four steps by employing an efficient user interface. System Requirements The following are required to use Windows Live Expo: | • | Microsoft® Windows® 98 Second Edition, Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating system | | • | Internet Explorer® 5.0 or later browser with support for 128-bit encryption | | • | Internet connection |
Availability Windows Live Expo is available in the U.S. at http://expo.live.com. It is currently available as a beta version in the U.K. Microsoft, Windows Live, MSN, Windows and Internet Explorer are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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