The news was so big it was on page B6 of today's Wall Street Journal. Microsoft had a Zune announcement today (read press release). One aspect of the news is the availability for purchase of some 800 television programs at the Zune marketplace.

The far more interesting (to me, at least) part of the news release had to do with Zune's new social functions. The new features involve online social and sharing functions, a leap forward from the first round of inter-device social functions. What looks to be the best function is the syncing of friends' Zune Cards to your device. (A Zune Card is a sort of widget that displays recently played tracks and favorite songs. It can be placed on social networking sites and integrated into Windows Live Messenger.) Zune Pass subscribers can sync the music from their friends' Zune cards.

Whether or not it's enough to start a migration toward the Zune and away from other devices, Microsoft's strategy is an improvement. The obvious problem with the Zune-to-Zune social features is that they required another Zune device to be within spitting distance. Spotting a Zune in the wild has been like stumbling across an endangered species or accidentally creating a new element. Cool inter-device sharing functions don't matter when you're all alone.

By expanding the online sharing functions, Zune users can at least take comfort in the knowledge their devices are not as endangered as they once seemed. It's a good way to get Zune users to share and the best way to keep the ball rolling.