Descriptions are spreading about what “Live is not.” Brandon Paddock in some comments on Scoble’s blog has posted some good stuff too.
They’ve helped me.
Here’s what I see: For me, I don’t have much use for MSN. I’m not the market. I’m too much developer- and tech-oriented. I’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like if Microsoft sold off MSN.
This is all a shame because MSN Search (or should that be Search MSN…I always type the URL in backwards 🙂 ) is getting closer. But reality is even if I could type the correct URL consistently (oh, and try writing search dot msn dot com with a pen on a Tablet PC–I have trouble with that too), I probably wouldn’t use it that much. I’ve installed the MSN desktop search and toolbar on a couple systems for myself and friends, but that’s about it in terms of MSN.
So what does this mean for Microsoft? Should they care?
Well, if they want me to click on their MSN ads they’ll need to offer something different. And I think I see that’s where the “Live” brand fits in. It appears–in its very, very early stages–that Live is trying to create a set of services and infrastructure that I might use.
Take email as an example. I have a Hotmail account. Right now Hotmail is MSNish–especially the home page for my account. It’s got lots of stuff I always click past–once I see where to actually drill down into the email itself.
Live.com appears like it would be a better Hotmail front end for me. It gives me a summary of my most recent emails and potentially other stuff I’m more interested in. It’s Hotmail without the MSN feel. As crude as live.com is right now, I can see myself using it as a gateway to Hotmail. Although I’d really, really like to see a full email search entry point on Live.com. This would help save me a couple steps.
Here’s another one: It would be nice if my Vonage phone messages could be broken out of the emails. I guess this could also be done by applying filters applied to Hotmail emails so they could be grouped into different sections. No idea if this is on the roadmap–maybe it’s too email focused–but it would make sense for the way I work.
I’m not sure about the RSS feeds and the like. I imagine if I’m traveling this might work out well. I could have access to my RSS feeds on any machine. I’m not so sure though if this is that important to me or not.
In terms of the other gadgets, I go back and forth whether I’d like to see Live.com morph into an online OneNote-like collector of information for me or a custom news/RSS/OPML/email reader. Time will tell which model is better.
Oh, and please come up with a way to make this all work well when I’m unplugged. Create a cached view. Make the gadget information viewable in the new lid displays.
One more thing. There was lots of talk about advertising revenue and the like at yesterday’s Live announcement. The message that came across from what I read was that Microsoft wants a greater share of the online ad market. That’s fine and dandy. But exactly why do I care? I mean as a user. As a developer. As someone who has helped create and extend web sites such as TabletPCPost and TabletPCBlogs. These sites were created out of our enthusiasm for the Tablet. We’re able to keep them going because of the advertising.
Finally, ignoring all the gadgets and Web 2.0ishness for right now, here are the things I’d like to see that would help me better manage my online and offline world:
* Data backup/sync that leverages the net
* Exchange of my information across systems and devices
* Adhoc collaboration so I can better share files, live screencasts, chats, or create and share my own video feeds (remember the Skype/Festoon disaster at the last TechCrunch BBQ).
These are probably my top wants. Hmmm. Yeah, there are more. But you get the idea. Leverage the Internet for what it does best. And leverage the desktop, Tablets, and other devices for what they do best. It’s not one or the other.
Update: Mary Jo Foley