MSN Readies New Blogging Service

MSN Readies New Blogging Service: "Microsoft is looking to take on Google's Blogger and other blog-creation and hosting services.

Microsoft's MSN division is expected to take the wraps off its MSN Spaces blogging service this week, according to sources close to the company.
MSN is expected to tout MSN Spaces as a direct competitor to blog-creation and hosting tools, such as Blogger, Blog*Spot, LiveJournal and TypePad. Microsoft also will position MSN Spaces as a way to allow users to more easily share photo albums and music lists, too, insiders said."

This is a timely move. I'll consider switching from Blogger if the new MSN blogging service is
1. Free
2. More reliable
3. At least as easy to use (compared to Blogger's one-click BlogThis! tool)
4. Completely respectful of non-MS clients

Bonus if it will eventually integrate with other MS tools better than Blogger does.