Memo Outlines Microsoft's Plans

conq wrote to mention a BusinessWeek article that covers some of Microsoft's upcoming web plans. From the article: "Live.com, Microsoft's customizable search-oriented portal, has more than 3 million users and the second-highest Net Promoter score -- a metric showing how many users would recommend the site to others -- of all MSN.com properties, writes Cole. That's good news, since the Live.com portal is the entry point for the first release of its Windows Live Search, the site through which Microsoft hopes to make the big bucks through paid search. Microsoft on Mar. 8 unveiled a slew of features aimed at letting users personalize the way they search the Web."

Live.com

[PakProtector]

I wonder how much MS shelled out for that domain name?

Re:Live.com

[camcorder]

I doubt that it's too much. They prabably registered "live" brand name, and put a dispute on WIPO to get the domain if it wasn't a live web site or not owned by any other company which has live name registered to them. At those disputes jury easily decide on your side as they get paid by you. That would cost you at most $3-4k for 3-4 inspectors or something, though that amount is apart from lawyer fees. I would not expect MS to pay a cybersquatter tons of money as they are already paying for lawyers tons of money.

Deja-Vu

[Brainix]

Why does this [live.com] look so farmiliar? [google.com]

Huh???

[dskoll]

Live.com doesn't even work for me. I'm trying Firefox 1.5 on Debian, and when I enter a search term, all I get is "Loading..." and nothing else.

Has anyone actually made it work under Firefox on Linux?

Re:Poorly disguised shill.

[value_added]

That article is nothing more than a Microsoft press release. This sort of garbage "informercial" is why blogging is gaining credibility over traditional journalism.

LOL. And this is different how from what's published by the real deal MS Press [microsoft.com]? It's never ceased to amaze me how, at their most technical, most all publications read like advertising copy. As to the article, Bill describe his place in the era of live software with

Make no mistake, Windows Live is our strategic bet to change the game and win, while we grow and drive revenue with MSN.com

But on a somewhat related note, a Goldman Sachs analyst discussing Google's acquisition of Writely says [forbes.com]:

We disagree with Microsoft's approach of ignoring the consumer market for a hosted solution and leaving the door wide open for Google to come in and establish a presence in the consumer or potentially the small business market... Strategically, it seems like Microsoft should have been more proactive in leveraging its strengths ..."

Maybe the strategy part of their strategic bets needs work?

Slashdot Survey

[16K Ram Pack]

Has anyone, including the most non-techie friends of yours said to you to check out live.com?

Have you read a blog, beyond Microsoft fanboys saying how great live.com?

I get recommended all sorts of sites by word-of-mouth from friends, and no-one has even mentioned live.com.

Re:Huh???

[an_unknown_soldier]

Try using live.com with IE and extra large fonts enabled. I tried it on IE just to see how bad it was (I always use Firefox). Any, the result is an un-godly mess. It's so bad it's actually funny and just goes to show how much testing MS put in with their own browser, let alone anyone elses.

Actually, as I recall, all web sites in IE with extra large fonts are an un-godly mess.

an_unknown_soldier

Live Mail to grow from 750K to 20M in 3 months?

[yuna49]

Windows Live Mail, the new version of Microsoft's flagship Hotmail e-mail, is hosting 750,000 users, and the company hopes it will host 20 million by June, according to the memo.

Isn't it reasonable to assume that all this means is that all the Hotmail users will be automatically converted over to Live Mail in June? Doesn't anyone at BusinessWeek have the smarts, or the chutzpah, to ask whether this is even plausible?

Are there any reliable estimates of the number of free mail users out there? 20 million seems to me like an awfully large chunk of the entire market.

Re:dead.com poor support

[Skreems]

No offense, but I work in web development and people like you are a royal PITA :-)

I understand that you may not think javascript is completely necessary, but you're asking for access to interactive applications while at the same time demanding that you not be forced to use an up-to-date application runner. If a site is just about giving you information, then great, don't make javascript a requirement. But stuff like live.com with the gadgets and whatnot is not just about displaying text; it's meant to be an application-style experience. Depending what the page does, it's a huge amount of extra work to make it work scriptless, and only benefits a very small percentage of users.

Re:haha.

[spisska]

Even as an MS employee I've always considered the MSN group to be pretty lame, and produce lame products. But I gotta tell you, they have a fire in them right now that is palpable. They suddenly have an influx of real talent, tons of research resources, and a determination to outshine Google. Some of the stuff they have on the pipeline is geniunely interesting. Anyway, take that for what it's worth. They may still come out with lame products and fail spectacularly. But MSN '05-'06 is definitely not classic MSN, which is good for everyone.

That may be, but for as long as I can remember (think MS-DOS 1.0), Microsoft has had a sudden "influx of real talent" and "stuff in the pipeline that is genuinely interesting".

Yet somehow all of these groundbreaking ideas are always six months away, even when competitors are already producing them.

Anybody remember the last time MS retooled MSN search? Has anyone noticed anything really groundbreaking about Live(TM)? (Nonsensical, redundant scrollbars are not groundbreaking) How about anything slightly groundbreaking?

Whatever you think about Google, when something leaks from them it really is a leak. When something 'leaks' from MS, it is a carefully orchestrated maneuvre (do you really think their new mini tablet would have gotten press for two weeks if it hadn't been 'leaked'?). This is because Google never tells you about what they will have in six months, they invite you to beta test it today.

No matter what Google (or Yahoo, or Netscape, or Oracle, or Apple, or . . .) is beta testing today, MS will always have something better in six months. Because they have some really talented people with fire in them working on it, and boy will it be something. And it will be ready any day now.