One of the things I have learned about shipping software is that no matter how much work you put in beforehand, you're going to have to make some changes (fix bugs, tweak code, etc) after your software is actually in the hands of end users. Last week's update to MSN Spaces was no different.
Mike Torres talks about some of these changes in his post Some updates (and a new feature!) where he writes
We updated some things today; every one of those things was based on direct feedback from you guys. I want to comment on just a few things quickly... We have a new feature: the Windows Live Favorites Beta module. OK, OK. I know what you're thinking... "Didn't you guys just release a bunch of new features last week?" Yes... Yes, we did. But we wanted to use this opportunity to introduce yet another cool new and exciting feature. Don't know what Live Favorites is all about? Check it out here - and then add the module to your space to share your bookmarks with your friends... or the world! Bill has a complete overview on his space. Links in the RSS feeds didn't point to the actual entry, it pointed to the blog page and now it points to the entry like it should have. Hence everything is probably unread again in your RSS reader :( But, it's FIXED for good! So if you were wondering what's up, that's what was up. Overall performance and stability improvements. And the kicker... Comment ordering is back to the way it was before. Thanks for all the feedback; I really didn't like it either. When you're used to something, sometimes it's just better not to touch the thing. Of course, there will be people who don't like it the "old" way either! But that's a risk we're willing to take at this point to make sure the other 99% of you are happy again. Thanks Eileen, Tony, Becky, and others who made this happen :) There were also about a dozen or more fixes here and there... What about Photos? We're also working on some simply outstanding stuff here... but this work will take some more time. Rest assured, we hear you loud and clear about Photos. So we think you'll really like what's coming up!
And the kicker...
There were also about a dozen or more fixes here and there...
One of the reasons I like Web-based software is that we can ship bug fixes to our users quickly without having them deal with installing patches, updates or downloading new installers as is the case with desktop software. I love the Web!!!
PS: Mike is right that there are some cool improvements to photos being planned for the MSN Spaces service.