MS will also try to compete with YouTube

Microsoft has opened public access to the beta version of its video hosting - MSN Soapbox .

Service has been tested in closed mode since September last year . Even then, it was not entirely clear why the MSN brand was used for its name, not Live. On the opening day, you can make sure that the name is still the same, although the Windows Live ID is used for authorization.

In general, MSN Soapbox is no different from its main competitor: it allows you to download video files up to 100 MB in size and view them through a flash player. RSS feeds are available, categorization by tags, embedding in other sites, etc.