Microsoft to Kill Windows Clubhouse in Spring 2011

Microsoft will shut down a community hub it built around Windows in the coming months.

It now appears that the Windows Clubhouse, a project unveiled over two years ago, is heading for an early grave, with the software giant planning to kill it off completely in the immediate future.

Although the Redmond company confirmed officially the imminent death of Windows Clubhouse, a specific date at which time the project will be discontinued wasn´t provided to users.

However, judging by the lack of interest or activity associated with Windows Clubhouse, I’m doubtful that many care about the fate of the site.

“Microsoft has made a decision to retire the Windows Clubhouse in spring 2011. As Clubhouse was a launch effort around Windows 7, the Windows management team feels that this platform has been a great success and huge factor around Windows evangelism,” revealed Matt Bernardy, Social Media Marketing Manager of Windows (via LiveSide).

“That was very much due to all of the MVP participation. But as our users move from Windows 7 newbies to more seasoned users, we are creating a new platform around Windows enthusiasts that we feel better suits the community’s needs.

“We have some ideas around how this platform should work but will be sharing more details in due course.”

Windows Clubhouse was introduced in August 2008 concomitantly with a redesign of the Windows Live website.

Referred to as the Windows Live Clubhouse at the time, the new project was set up to allow users to enjoy a special Windows Live Space that could centralize Windows and Windows Live content.

Users needed to leverage Windows Live Writer and make use of special Windows Live Clubhouse tags, in order to get the content they had written and published on their Windows Live Space to aggregate to WindowsLive.com.