Microsoft serves the 'Net generation'

The new software, threedegrees, creates a peer-to-peer social group where young people can chat, share photos, listen to music and meet friends. Concurrent with the beta, Microsoft also plans to release the Windows Peer-to-Peer Update for Windows XP.

To use threedegrees, prospective testers must be running Windows XP with Service Pack 1, the new peer-to-peer update and MSN Messenger 5 installed on their computer. The software allows users to create groups, where up to 10 people can participate in the same instant messages. Group members also can share animations and photos or listen to music.

The new software comes out of the Microsoft's 18-month-old NetGen division, which operates on a separate campus in downtown Seattle. Microsoft's main operations are location in Redmond, Wash. A team of 12 recent college graduates, led by group manager Tammy Savage, has been trying to develop products aimed at the "Net generation," or young people currently between the ages of about 13 and 24.

"I think that's the thing people in this age group really gravitate to is the communications tool, really socializing through the instant messenger," Savage said Monday.

In developing the product, Microsoft started first by looking at the computing habits of the age group, which Savage said is radically different from people who did not grow up with the Internet. Only when Microsoft understood their habits, did the company attempt to create a product to suit them.

"We really wanted to have a different set of skills that would allow them to meet new people online in a way I, for instance, cannot," she said. "They have a way of vouching for each other as friends, figuring out who to trust and not trust."

For NetGenners, Microsoft learned that using the Internet for socializing is a way of life. So the company focused on technologies that would help "get groups formed and have activities they can do," Savage said. "We wanted things that paralleled our customers' priorities, which was hanging out with your friends and having fun."

Core to threedegrees is the group instant messaging, for which there is no restriction on the number of groups. While each group is limited to 10 members, one person could participate in a dozen different groups or more, instant messaging or participating in activities in any or all of them.

Another feature, known as Winks, lets one user send animations to everyone in the group. "Winks is an activity where they can basically wink at someone across the room, but (you) do it virtually. Flirt with them," Savage said.

Group members also can share photos and, more importantly, listen to music available in a common play list. Savage sees this as one of threedegrees' most important features. "Music a lot of times is the background for the fun that you have."

Microsoft used the dinner party as the model for developing the size of the social group and the way music is shared within it.

"It's not uncommon for someone to bring a new CD of a new band they've heard," she said. "That's a very common way for people to learn about new music is through their friends. In fact, word of mouth for music adoption is the most popular way for music to be adopted. So someone brings their CD, and when they leave the party they take their CD home with them."

Group members can create play lists of 60 songs, or about the equivalent of six CDs. The songs are played from the participant's hard drive, rather than being illegally swapped. Songs can be in Windows Media Audio, MP3 or WAV formats.

People interested in threedegrees can visit the product Web site, which right now is merely collecting e-mail addresses for people looking for notification of the beta's availability.

As for the name, it is a takeoff on six degrees of separation, the theory that every individual on the planet can be linked to any other individual by six other people. "You're closer than you think," with three degrees, Savage said. "Our team is really small and really scrappy. We didn't go out and spend $1 million on branding. We basically sat around one day and said, 'Why is this meaningful to us?'...It's the team answer, and so that's what we're going out with."

How successful that approach may be will be seen in response to the beta, particularly among NetGenners Microsoft believes sees the Internet and technology more as social tools than bland products for getting work done.

But success could have further implications, as the NetGen group's research about the Net Generation could impact many other products.

"One of our (key) priorities as a group is to take the learning about the (13- to 24-year-old) customer and infuse it across Microsoft," Savage said. "We do a lot of work with other product groups. So our impact is broader than the specific beta that people are going to see."