Editing Threedegrees (section)

{{For|the soul and disco group|The Three Degrees}} 
{{lowercase|threedegrees}}
{{refimprove|date=July 2015}}

'''threedegrees''' or '''3°''' (frequently referred to as '''Three Degrees''') was a communication and [[Peer-to-peer|P2P]] application produced by [[Microsoft]]. It allowed the user to sign in using a [[Windows Live ID|.NET Passport]] and integrated into [[MSN Messenger]]. It sorted buddies into groups, and allowed initiating [[group chat]]s in [[MSN Messenger]], and sharing of pictures, listening to a shared playlist and sending animated [[wink (animated file)|winks]].

threedegrees is now discontinued and certain features provided by the software have been partially integrated into [[MSN Messenger|MSN Messenger 7]]. threedegrees used to only run under [[Windows XP]] [[Windows_XP#Service_packs|Service Packs 1 and 2]], with a custom [[IPv6]] [[protocol stack|stack]] installed.

threedegrees had a concept of being able to [[Streaming media|stream]] music between multiple users like a miniature [[radio station]]. However, despite other new features being included in MSN Messenger 7, this feature was never released due to large copyright issues that would be faced by Microsoft.{{Citation needed|date=July 2015}} MSN Messenger does, however, now enable other users to see what their buddy is listening to and is linked to a website providing this music if needed, a concept spurred by this idea.

The threedegrees product was conceived and produced by an [[Startup company#Internal startups|internal startup]] at Microsoft called the Netgen team.  The team was unique in that it was an internal startup inside of Microsoft, set away from the software giant's [[Redmond, Washington|Redmond]] campus in separate offices in downtown [[Seattle]] and staffed mostly with college graduates tasked to create a product "for themselves". The team was chronicled in ''[[Newsweek]]'' on February 24, 2003 by writer [[Steven Levy]] in his article ''"Microsoft Gets A Clue From Its Kiddie Corps"''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/63212/page/1 |title=Microsoft Gets A Clue From Its Kiddie Corps |author=Levy, Steven |date=24 February 2003 |periodical=Newsweek |accessdate=27 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203151501/http://www.newsweek.com/id/63212/page/1 |archivedate=December 3, 2008 }}</ref>  While the threedegrees product never reached mass adoption,  it represented one of Microsoft's early attempts to revitalize its MSN division through the creation of an [[business incubator|incubator]] team outside of the company's main [[R&D]] structure.