MSN has decided to officially launch its blogging service, MSN Spaces, and also a new version of the instant messaging client; MSN Messenger.

MSN Spaces, whose beta version has been launched since December 2004, gives users the possibility to create blogs which can be made public or can be viewed only by persons assigned by the author.

MSN stated that the MSN Spaces service already has 4.5 million users, the majority being attracted by the image sharing feature.

Regarding MSN Messenger, the service also proposes other features, among which: full screen video conference capability, skins and a series if new animations, called Winks, similar to Yahoo' Audibles.

Compare to the beta version, MSN Messenger has a new button, called My Space, which connects you to MSN Spaces.

MSN mixes the new services with a lot of advertising, especially branding campaigns. The first sponsors MSN has convinced to use the new online marketing tools are: Volvo, Coca-Cola and Adidas.

It remains to be seen how will MSN Spaces deal with Yahoo's competition who launched a few days ago a test version of the Yahoo 360 and with Google's Blogger.