We told you it was coming, and here it is. This evening marks the launch of MSN Spaces 10.5, the first major Spaces upgrade since its original launch in December of 2004. Here's what's new:

Live Contacts
Aa great way to make sure your family, friends, and business colleagues always have your current contact information. With active contacts, you chose what information you wish to share and who to share it with.

Spaces Search
Find Spaces based on keywords and interests

Create your own advertising
As mentioned in an earlier entry, Spaces 10.5 will allow you to place ads, powered by Kanoodle, on your Space to make money. Amazon integration is also tied in with your Book Lists. This also allows you to make money through Amazon Associates.

Xbox Integration
Spaces 10.5 allows you to add a Xbox Live GamerCard and Recently Played Games module to your space.

No more /members/
The days of typing that long url out are over. The new blog url's look like this: http://spaces.msn.com/harrison. You can still use your old one and it will work, so no need to redo all of your links.

Expanded HTML Powertoy
You've been pleading for it, and it's finally here. The Spaces team has doubled the number of characters allowed in the HTML Powertoy.
These features are just the start. There are tons of new features, improvements, and bug fixes included in this release. Check out Mike Torres' blog and the official Spaces blog, The Space Craft for complete information on the release. Also, I will be interviewing Mike about the release tomorrow and the interview should be up on LiveSide shortly thereafter.[via]