Windows Live Expo sounds like an event by the title and it’s actually more of a Craigslist-type site.

Expo is like the classified ads of your local newspaper. It uses geotargeting from you IP to figure out approximately where you (your host/ISP) is located and by default provide you with listings in a 50 mile radius. For example, pictured above, you’ll see it selects a 50 mile radius from Seattle for me.

If you are looking to buy or sell, find a roomate, hold an event like a garage sale, Expo could be of interest. Sign in with your .NET Passport and then edit your profile to include a profile and picture and link to your website. I would recommend getting in early to these things, even if you aren’t sure how much you’ll actually use it, just so you can claim your name. I was happy to see my name wasn’t taken (yes, sometimes it is).

Posting rules
It is free to post a listing as of this writing. Here are the rules (full code of contact here):

* Do not post or e-mail content that incites, advocates, or expresses pornography, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, hatred, bigotry, racism, or gratuitous violence.
* Do not misrepresent the source of anything you post, including impersonation of another individual or entity.
* Do not post hateful or harassing content.
* Unsolicited commercial advertising, phishing, and affiliate marketing is prohibited.
* Do not post content or e-mail content that is intended to harm or exploit minors in any way.

Posting categories include: autos, events, housing, jobs, merchandise, people, pets and services. If you select ’services’ then subcategories will be available for: child care, commercial services, household services and commercial services. I chose commercial services and then the following sub categories were available: available, wanted, swap, free, recommended.

This got me thinking: what would be considered ‘commercial advertising’? If it was a commercial service offering a free service say like an insurance agency that offered free comparison quotes, would this be considered unsolicited commercial advertising or would this fit under the commercial free service? I realize this is stretching things, but where are the lines in the sand here?

Searching through the commercial services cateogory under “free” “available” results in listing like this one for AJAX training: http://expo.live.com/ViewListing.aspx?lId=4829

Notice how it’s not really ‘free’, but actually $599 USD per person for a 21 day course on how to learn AJAX. So is this a “cool listing” or should this be marked thumbs down as: “Help us keep the site suitable for everyone and report abuse by clicking here.”

I haven’t spent much time on these type sites but there seems to be a gray area with netiquette about how business related activities should be handled on posting to sites like these. I realize the whole “is it spam or not” thing is kind of vague sometimes. Would appreciate any feedback on my questions above from folks experienced with classified ad sites in general or of course anybody on the Expo team.

Naming gripe
If only they could drop the whole pretentious Windows Live part and just run with the title: Expo they’d be better off marketing-wise. I’m not the first to mention this, I’ve heard this in several other places. I think people are tired of Microsoft running branding amok: .NET. Windows, Live, yadda, yadda. The logo would be good enough. Also, what does Windows really have to do with Expo when I can access Expo from my Mac? (Rhetorical)

Good, good, gooooooood, good vibe-rations
Is it just me or is Microsoft coming out with more betas recently? AdCenter (and soon a rumored contextual ads for webmasters called ContentAds), Live.com, Office Live, Street view. Despite none of these being final products, it might be time to revise my thinking that they aren’t ’shipping’ as much as they should/could. Certainly a positive trend to see. Keep this up, Microsoft.

• Microsoft goes Live with search, gets sexier, drops extraneous Windows
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• Microsoft launches SE-unfriendly Windows Live Wire
• Search Champs v4: Gadgets on XP is coming