It Shouldn't be Called Windows Live

look at me
Originally uploaded by benbarren.

It's like calling the Ipod "Apple..", before the iMac became an Ipod. I'm still digesting live.com, and realised if I keep reading memeorandum today, I may as well become a Microsoft analyst and calculate EPS due to its non or real potential mid-long impact on the sale of MS monopoly profit generators, or become a 2.0 cheerleader/naysayer - None of which interest me. Microsoft Monitor's comments were a good summary of parts Im interested in :

"Microsoft rightly launched the Office and Windows Live services with stuff that is available, at least as betas, today. I should say that availability applies to Windows Live. The Office Live services won't enter beta until 2006. It seems pretty clear that the work around Windows services is far more advanced than for Office. Anyone doing MSN product testing will recognize most of the new crop of Windows Live betas: Live.com (bears similarly to Start.com); Windows Live Mail (think "Kahuna"); Windows OneCare Live; Windows Live Safety Center (think online derivative of Windows OneCare Live): Windows Live Messenger (think MSN Messenger 8); Windows Live Favorites (think recent beta invite for MSN Favorites); and Windows Live Search Mobile."

I think Paul Kedrosky's comments as always are very true that (when you have tens of thousands of engineers and the richest - and fittest some said - person in world as boss) you shouldnt launch a portal if it ain't ready, the word "Windows" isnt owned by Microsoft, its public domain, a 6 week to 3 month API is an insult even to Linux/Unix/Apple MS haters on the term "Windows". (who can hate live.com - its just another $50K ajax home page) No one wants a skeleton opponent : Now I'm not talking overall here, Im talking about using the name "Windows Live" almost as a meaningless ad agency 'positioning statement' - Like when a new marketing director commences employment, recruited by the CEO from a FMCG and he/she is given 60 days to launch a product/brand. Windows Live should not be launched until it is the True Web Operating System that has otherwise sane people talking about how applications need not ever be non-web based again. "Windows Live" - the more i think about it, the worse it sounds, is it just me, that thinks the live.com site should not be referencing the windows history, functionality or branding - ok enuff there, thoughts welcome. So Paul Kedrosky had these problems when he used Windows Live on the Internet through Live.com ("hey mom, windows is now live on the internet") -

* Added Hotmail account, got service unavailable error until I refreshed the page
* Went to Hotmail, deleted all the “Buy Timex” crap from my usually unused Hotmail account, but none of the deleted messages disappeared from “Live”
* Refreshed the “Live” page, now get Hotmail service unavailable error
* Added my Infectious Greed site to page as subscription, but the subscription didn’t show up
* Refreshed page, still no sign of my subscription
* Added Infectious Greed again, and then realized that the Add Content section of Live just adds content to some wacky sidebar on left side

Greg Linden, always a voice of implicit 'personalisation' and findory selling concurs without annoying potential partners : "After using Windows Live for a little bit, I'm pretty surprised that this is their attempt to compete with My Yahoo, My Google, and My AOL. The initial experience is poor; the site has little or no value until it is customized." Mr Arrington is being blogged ("He was most excited by the gadgets. That’s what gets me too!") by The Big MS Blog Boy Patrick Snr, as the TechnoCruncher's Insights focused on the positive products/features and on a gorilla comparison to the many 2.0 feature companies out there. Who else has that many engineers, established customers etc - From the quick bit I read.. Mike thinks early stage Calendar start-ups and VOIP IM' clients incl Gtalk are in trouble, which just acclerates a decrease in potential VC funding outside the top 2 in each segment : "This was the coolest thing I saw demo’d today. Windows Live will soon have a new instant messenger client embedded on the site. The IM feature will include the ability to make outbound POTS calls, like Skype. They’ve leapfrogged Google’s Gtalk in this regard." I do agree with the Grandfather of Web 2.0 though Mr'OReilly about GEMAYA attacking the integrated hardware/software/web platform for verticals "opportunities" as I have discussed, but I wonder what it means outside of XBox 360 : Maybe MS are going to build a Crackberry / Razr crossover while (still trying ??) to license Win Mobile O/S for Treo 650/700w..or compete against Apple in portable Video (maybe they are talking about competing against PS3-PSP integration....) O'Reilly said :

"Another key takeaway for me from this presentation was that Microsoft realizes the power of being able to build an integrated experience across a hardware device, a software application, and an internet service. Ray Ozzie cited iTunes as an example (as have I), and pointed out the similarities to the Xbox360. Microsoft has more than a decade of experience with hardware devices, and has been involved in everything from game consoles to phones, PDAs, automobiles, and more. This may turn out to be a trump card that gives Microsoft an advantage against players like Google and Yahoo!" ( Microsoft wants, in the worst way, to be cool. Apple and Sony and Google kind of cool. - Mary Jo)

The big worry is impotence : Microsoft spend half a decade trying to launch Vista, Scobes' arks up, 2.0 valuations north, "emulate + extend" kicks in and suddenly like when Apple got podcasting.. employees are told to "get something up in 60 days" : Ray Ozzie's quotes I've read about the Hosted MS Applications reminds me of when Microsoft for $250M in Nov 1998 bought LinkExchange (whose founders i met and was impressed because they had one of the first vaios - that werent on sale here) It was all about small businesses and tools, and long tail monetisation. Only difference this time, they want to build more internally than buy, which I think is a bad mistake. They need a few outside purchases for 2.0 scale here, not just build "gadgets" as the scobester not so subtly blurted for the last fortnight. If live.com for example is now the planned start page for IE7, (while 3 people on average for the preceeding 12 months have worked on the start.com project which is the basis for live.com fyi FTEs for this BU - im talking Q1-Q2 CY 05 avg) then that shows how important MS thought it was pre-Ray, and yes they think its more important now, but just buy something already and show you're serious as Scobe's old boss, Meg + Ebay did. Anyway, CameronReilly, whose another ex Microsoftee's PodcastNetwork is doing some great FatherBob monologues, with Corleone on the blog tip, if you want the meaning of bob.life.. click.

"We're going to continue to integrate LinkExchange with Microsoft products and services such as Hotmail, Internet Explorer, FrontPage and MSN to create better services for Web site owners," the company said. "This acquisition adds a number of services we haven't had before," said Marty Taucher, director of network communications for MSN. "It gives us much stronger offerings for small- and medium-sized businesses. It also gives us access to hundreds of thousands of sites in the LinkExchange network."

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Hannah Green: Grady, you know how in class you're always telling us that writers make choices?
Grady Tripp: Yeah.
Hannah Green: And even though you're book is really beautiful, I mean, amazingly beautiful, it's... it's at times... it's... very detailed. You know, with the genealogies of everyone's horses, and the dental records, and so on. And... I could be wrong, but it sort of reads in places like you didn't make any choices. At all. And I was just wondering if it might not be different if... if when you wrote you weren't always... under the influence.
Grady Tripp: Well... thank you for the thought, but shocking as it may sound, I am not the first writer to sip a little weed. Furthermore, it might surprise you to know that one book I wrote, as you say, "under the influence," just happened to win a little something called the Pen Award. Which, by the way, I accepted under the influence.