Threedegrees
Encyclopedia
threedegrees or 3° was a communication and P2P
application produced by Microsoft
. It allowed the user to sign in using a .NET Passport
and integrated into MSN Messenger. It sorted buddies into groups, and allowed initiating group chats in MSN Messenger, and sharing of pictures, listening to a shared playlist and sending animated winks.
threedegrees is now discontinued and the certain features provided by the software have been partially integrated into MSN Messenger 7. threedegrees used to only run under Windows XP
Service Packs 1 and 2, with a custom IPv6
stack installed.
threedegrees had a concept of being able to stream your music to other threedegrees users like a miniature radio station. However, despite the other new features being included in MSN Messenger 7, this feature did not make it due to large copyright issues that would be faced by Microsoft.
MSN Messenger does, however, now enable other users to see what their buddy is listening to and is linked to a website providing this music if needed, a concept spurred by this idea.
The threedegrees product was conceived and produced by an internal startup at Microsoft called the Netgen team. The team was unique in that it was an internal startup inside of Microsoft, set away from the software giant's Redmond campus in separate offices in downtown Seattle and staffed mostly with college graduates tasked to create a product "for themselves". The team was chronicled in Newsweek on February 24, 2003 by writer Steven Levy
in his article "Microsoft Gets A Clue From Its Kiddie Corps". While the threedegrees product never reached mass adoption, it represented one of Microsoft's early attempts to revitalize its MSN division through the creation of an incubator team outside of the company's main R&D structure.
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
application produced by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. It allowed the user to sign in using a .NET Passport
Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID is a single sign-on web service developed and provided by Microsoft that allows users to log in to many websites using one account...
and integrated into MSN Messenger. It sorted buddies into groups, and allowed initiating group chats in MSN Messenger, and sharing of pictures, listening to a shared playlist and sending animated winks.
threedegrees is now discontinued and the certain features provided by the software have been partially integrated into MSN Messenger 7. threedegrees used to only run under Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
Service Packs 1 and 2, with a custom IPv6
IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...
stack installed.
threedegrees had a concept of being able to stream your music to other threedegrees users like a miniature radio station. However, despite the other new features being included in MSN Messenger 7, this feature did not make it due to large copyright issues that would be faced by Microsoft.
MSN Messenger does, however, now enable other users to see what their buddy is listening to and is linked to a website providing this music if needed, a concept spurred by this idea.
The threedegrees product was conceived and produced by an internal startup at Microsoft called the Netgen team. The team was unique in that it was an internal startup inside of Microsoft, set away from the software giant's Redmond campus in separate offices in downtown Seattle and staffed mostly with college graduates tasked to create a product "for themselves". The team was chronicled in Newsweek on February 24, 2003 by writer Steven Levy
Steven Levy
Steven Levy is an American journalist who has written several books on computers, technology, cryptography, the Internet, cybersecurity, and privacy.-Career:...
in his article "Microsoft Gets A Clue From Its Kiddie Corps". While the threedegrees product never reached mass adoption, it represented one of Microsoft's early attempts to revitalize its MSN division through the creation of an incubator team outside of the company's main R&D structure.
External links
- 3° site (via the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
; accessed September 25, 2005)