With over 100 million unique visitors, MSN Spaces is the largest blogging service worldwide according to comScore Media Metrix. It is amazing how blogging has taken off. With popular sites like MySpace and MSN spaces, it is safe to say that almost everyone is doing it. Who ever thought that someone's random inner wonderings would actually mean something to someone else, enough to post it on the Internet? Apparently, we all like the more human element in information publishing. Blogs such as post secret draw people in by the droves, because somehow blogging reaches people in a sincere way, and sometimes a deep way. Personally I love blogging, and though I haven't set up my own blog on MSN spaces, I do like their format and options. So swing on by and see what is hoping over there. There is a new service scheduled to take the place of MSN spaces called of course, you guess it "Windows Live Spaces" later this year, and it will have more social networking, to no doubt compete with mySpace. You can read Microsoft's full story here.MSN Spaces is the largest blogging service
With over 100 million unique visitors, MSN Spaces is the largest blogging service worldwide according to comScore Media Metrix. It is amazing how blogging has taken off. With popular sites like MySpace and MSN spaces, it is safe to say that almost everyone is doing it. Who ever thought that someone's random inner wonderings would actually mean something to someone else, enough to post it on the Internet? Apparently, we all like the more human element in information publishing. Blogs such as post secret draw people in by the droves, because somehow blogging reaches people in a sincere way, and sometimes a deep way. Personally I love blogging, and though I haven't set up my own blog on MSN spaces, I do like their format and options. So swing on by and see what is hoping over there. There is a new service scheduled to take the place of MSN spaces called of course, you guess it "Windows Live Spaces" later this year, and it will have more social networking, to no doubt compete with mySpace. You can read Microsoft's full story here.Windows OneCare is now in retail stores
This is a really good product. Microsoft did their homework on this one. I had downloaded and tested this product and it really does help people keep their systems safe and up to date. The features include anti-virus, a decent firewall, anti-spyware, PC tune-up, back-up, restore, and even email, phone and chat tech support, yup, included in the same package at the same price. The OneCare suite is available online for download, and also in most Best Buy stores and a bunch of other retailers as well. A quick Google search (sorry Microsoft) yielded that both CompUSA and MicroCenter have OneCare available for around $50 for a year's subscription. OfficeMax and OfficeDepot did not seem to have it in their search at least, as of this writing.
Microsoft do da ro-bot!
Microsoft is holding a contest to see who can develop the best new BOTs for the newly launched Windows Live Messenger Beta. BOTs are those little pieces of software that typically help users with things such as movie times, stock quotes, even price quotes and help with using IM. For any budding IM developers out there, you can find the three, yes three, software development kits (SDKs) from Microsoft available at the www.robotinvaders.com website. Entries will be accepted until September 15th, 2006. At stake is $40,000, bragging rights, and a mention in the new messenger application. I don't know the first thing about BOT-ing, so somebody clue me in, is it hard? In any case, go check out the website and get your grooviest robot dance on. Ready? Set? BOT!Windows Live strategy is annoying even to Microsoft fans
Product naming at Microsoft has gotten so bad that even their fans are getting frustrated. Robert McLaws, a well-known developer and writer relates his frustration at Microsoft's product naming fiascos, as does the very prolific and well-respected Ed Bott, author of many books relating to Microsoft products. Others in the blogosphere are piping up all over the place to voice their displeasure.
It's gotten so bad that ever-optimistic Robert Scoble has weighed in on the subject, and quite definitely on the side of needing better product names. Interestingly, he actually got a comment on that post by David Webster, who is the guy that is ultimately responsible for Microsoft's product names. In his long and illuminating comments, David says:
Even if you're not interested in protecting the name, you still need to find a name you can safely use. This isn't a matter of "lawyers running the company".
He then goes into three paragraphs describing exactly that - the legal reasons it is problematic to choose good codenames or product names. His argument comes down to the fact that Microsoft is a large legal target, which, while true, is weak. He points to Apple's legal problems when using a codename of "Sagan" as an example of why they need to be careful.
And I think that gets right to the point. Why is Microsoft perceived as boring? Because everything they do is careful. David is right; Windows Live Mail Desktop is certainly never going to be claimed by anyone else, because the name is so godawful that nobody would should admit to having creating it.
Insightful interview with Garry Flake of Microsoft Search
John Battelle is one of the authorities on search and
his Searchblog is a must read for anyone interesting in the Search space.
Recently he conducted an interview with Garry Flake who used
to work for Overture and then moved on to work for Yahoo. Garry is now working for Microsoft as the director for the
Live Labs strategy. His job being to get Microsoft and Microsoft Research to come up with the next generation in
search. Garry provides some very honest answers to some well thought out questions.Become a Windows Live beta user on Windows Mobile 5.0
If you have a modern Windows Mobile 5.0 device, live in the United States, and are interested in
beta testing Windows Live on your mobile device, head on over to Microsoft's
Connect site. There you can sign up to become a beta tester for Windows Live for Mobile by clicking on Available
Programs, then logging in to your Passport account.
Windows Live for Mobile appears set to replace MSN Mobile, which currently only features support for Hotmail, MSN Messenger, and viewing MSN alerts. BetaNews has further details.
Parental controls coming to Windows XP
Windows Vista is already scheduled to be
released with parental controls baked into the system. Windows XP on the other hand does not contain parental controls,
at least not yet. According to this article by CNET
Microsoft will be releasing parental controls under the Windows Live umbrella this summer. Parents will be able to
control the child’s available web sites, who they are adding to Windows Live Messenger and Mail along with who
can access their MSN Spaces service.Ray Ozzie introduces Live Clipboard concept
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's acquired CTO from Groove
Networks is on
fire these days. Demonstrating a new concept for the web called Live Clipboard. The idea behind Live Clipboard is to
maintain the structure of copied data from web to web and from web to PC. This is something you really have to visualise to understand,
well I did anyway. Ray and friend’s released this idea under the Creative Commons which will hopefully spur on
adoption by the industry; so far Dave Winter is onboard. What I
also found interesting was that all the demonstrations I’ve seen so far were done using Firefox. Isn’t it
great when we work together?
Windows Live Mail Desktop
You know, it should be obvious
by the fact that I blog here at TUMW that I really want to like Microsoft products. And in many cases I do... But
Microsoft is making it harder and harder to figure out what they're up to, and it's really starting to get to
me.
Now, it's important to note that I've never owned a single Apple product. Yet somehow Microsoft has me longing for the design simplicity inherent in Apple products. For a funny/sad illustration of this, check out this video comparing Apple and Microsoft's product packaging design ethic.
Take, for example, email. If you want an email client from Apple, your choice is, well, Mail. That's it. One choice.
Microsoft, on the other hand, just announced the release of Windows Live Mail Desktop. I know we joke about Microsoft's horrible naming practices, so there's no point pointing out this atrocity. So, let's get this straight... if you want to do email with a Microsoft product, there's Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail, Windows Live Mail and now Windows Live Mail Desktop. Granted some of these will be retired or merged soon, but this is verging on ridiculous.
And while I'm not a huge fan of Google's software, none of the email clients mentioned above that I've had the opportunity to use hold a candle to Gmail, and I'm willing to bet Windows Live Mail will be no different. I can tolerate text ads in a web application I'm choosing to use. I won't tolerate graphical ads in a desktop application. Yikes.
[via Robert McLaws]
Windows Live Local now at StreetSide
Microsoft today released a Technology Preview for Virtual
Earth allowing you to view cities at street level. The preview at this stage only includes Seattle and San
Francisco. Internet Explorer 7 is telling me this looks like a suspicious Website so be careful :-).
