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March 14, 2006 4:00 AM PST
Windows Live offers Microsoft a quicker turnaround
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Microsoft has even talked about using advertising as a way to pay for traditional desktop software, particularly consumer titles. However, the company said that while it has kicked around the idea during internal brainstorming sessions, no decisions have been made to offer online versions of existing desktop products.
Meanwhile, the list of Windows Live services continues to expand, reaching beyond MSN's traditional domain.
"They've got e-mail in there, they have Messenger in there," said Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li. "They will have classifieds. They will have local mapping. It's all the basic portal services."
In many cases, the Windows Live tools are also neatly aligned against competitive products from rivals like Google and Yahoo.
However, as she noted at the initial Windows Live launch, some of the Windows Live tools remain oriented more toward computer enthusiasts than to the masses. Windows Live relies heavily on the latest Web technologies, such as RSS feeds.
"I still think it's very geeky," Li said.
She pointed to the Live.com page, which lets users bring together Web feeds and Internet gadgets, provided they can figure out how. "It's only a small number of people who know what to do with it," Li said.
But, Li said Microsoft could give Windows Live a boost by allowing users to easily share their creations with like-minded folks. For example, if she puts together a page for "working moms" others could just adapt her creation.
The groundwork for such an approach, she said, can be seen in the new Windows Live Search, in which queries are seen as things that can be saved and shared, rather than just entered once and forgotten.
"It's the social nature of Live.com that I find so fascinating, or the potential of that," Li said.
Li said it is a recognition that for many people, borrowing other's work is a better option than creating something for themselves.
"You can personalize lots of things but most people don't want to," Li said. "You lower the barriers to that by sharing."
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David Cole,
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minutes, even the greatest MS fan would have to admit that
nothing was actually happening. Can't hardly tell whether or not an
MS product is any good if you can't get to the product.
So far, this one is an absolute loser. At least, now anything in
Windows Live's future would be an improvement.
FireFox. But now that I get to see Windows Live, it seems rather
obvious that Windows Live is essentially the same as Google,
Netscape, or other opening pages. Nothing seems novel, but then
I'm not too sure that by now, the Windows Live approach itself is in
any way novel. Just one more hog at the trough, And there are
bigger and better hogs already there.
More than a dozen "new" products? I don't see one yet.
This seems like nothing but a publicity stunt. Re-package everything that everyone else has been doing for a while and call it "innovation".
Certainly, a company with the resources that Microsoft has should be leading computer industry innovation. But there is more to innovation than clever marketing, which is all I've seen from Live so far.
http://ideas.live.com/
I didn't know Office Live was actually available
The sad thing is that people will follow along, and because it supposedly eliminates piracy, the government will allow this extortion scheme to continue, regardless of the supposed rights of the end user.
Even if these "Web Services" are free, they shouldn't be used. If MS gives something for free, they are only doing so to stifle competition.
So far, I have not seen anything new or very innovative on live.com. The news I read here, or netscape. They usually have the more interesting headlines. For search, I have google. Basically, there is a better (or at least more popular alternative) to anything live.com has to offer. Sorry Microsoft, you will not convert me today!
The thing with Microsoft is that they cannot help themselves when it comes to bloat. Everything they do ends up big and fat like them. I remember when Messenger was lighter than ICQ, now it is a fat dog. Google is the only company who knows how to create light and fast products and services and keep them that way. Google's products work well with none of the extra crap.
When I order a hamburger I don't want all the extra stuff unless I ask for it.
Microsoft just cannot goooooogle, coz they are toooo fat.
Google talk within the browser is a proud example of this. I congratulate whoever came up with that idea. You rock Google.
http://ideas.live.com/
Quite a collection of offerings for most purposes. But it looks very staid when compared to the askjeeves
Congrats for a 100 pages of Googles search all for the keywords "EARL BENSER" and all point to CNET news postings by you. The number of searches made are for a total of 205,000 listings most of them repeated. However there are a 100 pages of your acheivement.
I believe someone should intimate Cnnet on this. This is another newsworthy story by itself! Way to go, Macatic... ;)
But, I don't lay claim to 'Macatic'. since I run PC's and Mac's both.
Mac's more than PC's, to be sure, but the Mac's do most of what
I want to de better than the PC's - at least I think so. The PC's
are needed for the programs not available on a Mac - like the
software I license to my clients, and for other PC only
applications.
I will give the PC credit where credit is due. It just doesn't
happen all that often.
TY and the rest of the anti Earl lobby (Includes me, of course) would see red.....
- Microsoft Live mail...
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by zman2121
March 17, 2006 12:10 PM PST
- had alot of errors... took it off and will not reinstall... to be nice, it had no gravity...
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