Microsoft talks about its new services strategy

Dave – I completely disagree with you. I think the rest of the world is excited (maybe not some of the Microsoft trashers) maybe a little unsure on what to expect for some of these services, but hey at least Microsoft is coming out there stating what they plan to do and are welcoming feedback – Unlike google which is all secretive and just pops a suprise to everyone every other week.

It really feels like the people on top of Microsoft do not use anything but a Windows Machine. Robert has been as much an inside evangelizer as an outside evangelizer. He points out to the people inside what is happening. I said it before, Microsoft needs to hire dozens of youngster that uses what is on fashion and tells Microsoft why what they are doing sucks, before the world sees it. live.com doesn’t even work with a Pocket PC! Why would Microsoft do that?

I find it impressive that Microsoft does not realize the importance of supporting the Mac. Web services, new online ideas, rarely really take off until Mac support is added. USB, Digital Music, Movies on portable devices, etc. Napster (the real one, not the Windows only iTunes imitator) released a Mac Beta and its numbers exploded… Why? Because Mac users are early adopters and have really big mouths…

Buzzkill…strategy taxing on acid, bored programmers trying to eternally jumpstart Web Services, rebranding serious time. Lucky for MFST, in that their competitors are inept, as the sheer amount of junk falling from the Redmond sky is amazing. More ‘just you wait’, ‘it will be the greatest’ vapor FUD. Haven’t they learnt a darn thing from PDC 2003? Geesus. “Hard to explain” and “can’t show us”, why bother then? Visit Missouri and SHOW ME. And I am darned tired of Jupiter’s shrill Microsoft backpacking, sick of Jupiter in general, this isn’t 1999, gawd. Michael Gartenberg knows where the checks are coming from. But Ozzie should be ashamed to froth up such mere rebranded Office Live rot. Now if they Groove this up, ok, maybe…

Man, gotta hand it to MFST, they can’t ever launch anything that has any sizzle (well minus the “GDP of a small European country” Xbox 360, but even that only has a brief holdout until PS3).

I think Jason & Co at 37s are their own variety of windbags

Seconded. Motion carried.

Ad scapola:

This is another interesting offering. It might not be interesting to some of you but I think it can be a killer app for small businesses.

“Microsoft Office Live will provide your company with its own domain name, Web site, and e-mail accounts for free.”

You cannot be serious. You either woke up 2 minutes ago after sleeping for 10 years or you don’t have any clue what’s going on in IT world these days…

Hey Robert, is there going to be a public stream/download for the webcast?

I think if people could see some of those demos they’d warm up to Live a bit better.

Chris – this isn’t vaporware. The plan is to have a “rolling thunder” of releases. This isn’t Cairo. We have stuff you’ll get your hands on *SOON*.

scapola, but you just said it yourself… when Google pops a surprise on the world, it actually is something more concrete than anything MS has been doing the last 4 years.

I remember the days when MS would actually announce .NET Framework 1.0 betas and there was something I could actually download – for free – and play with. This? I checked out link Brandon so nicely gave us above….

A blog. By an MSN team member. Words.

Confusing words:

“Windows Live Messenger and MSN Messenger will not be two separate clients in the sense that you cannot have them both on your computer at once. It’s one or the other, just like MSN Messenger 7.0 and MSN Messenger 7.5″

Fear-inducing hype words:

“This is not the end of MSN Messenger, but a Metamorphosis. Come with us on this journey, it will be worth it.”

More confusing words:

“I’m embarrassed to even have to talk about this, but for now, it’s still an issue: Windows Live Messenger and Windows Messenger are still not the same thing. Just pick the one you like to use, and close the other one up, you’re not meant to run them both, one is just a bigger brighter flashier version of the other.”

But my favorite? The words I’ve come to expect from MS? The ones that you rarely hear from other companies?

“Windows Live Messenger is not out yet – but I can promise that as soon as it is, we’ll let you know.”

BTW…. Dave Winer mentioned the internet went down halfway through this demo. Is this true? Doesn’t THAT just excite the heck out of everyone?

scapola, don’t get me wrong. I’m not a biased MS trasher. I used to be an MCSD. Still do some professional work with MS technology.

I wish them the best. But when they want – like Scoble has hinted – to dispell various criticisms like “lock in” and “overhype”, they absolutely need to begin learning from their past mistakes – like PDC ’03 and those fabled pillars of Longhorn.

Leah on the Messenger Live blog has a good explanation…

Eh? Yet another MFST twizzle-headed Valley Girl with a blog speaking like a 14 year old? “We’re told to keep doing what we’re doing, just be aware it’ll be called Windows Live Messenger instead of MSN Messenger 8.0″. Not to mention the 3 ‘Buffy’ and 2 ‘Angel’ references, but see it’s different as, it “unites the online experience”. Spare me. Microsoft-centric web rot and start-uppy globs, all in one place, wheee.

Man this is GREAT PARODY material…only she’s halfway serious.

“Now you can call your friends, drive your car, pay for lunch and photograph it too! listen to The Offspring, freshen your breath all with one unified device!”…Oh sad, metamorphosis makes me think of butterflies. Sniff.

‘The plan is to have a “rolling thunder” of releases. This isn’t Cairo. We have stuff you’ll get your hands on *SOON*.’

Ah yes. Where have I heard this kind of talk before?

Oh, and please – PLEASE – stop with the “rolling thunder” terms. Sounds way too similar to “hailstorm”. I really don’t think you want to do that.

Richard, why don’t tell me what’s going on in IT right now? Tell me who else has that offering right now. Last I checked everyhting costed lotsa of money (per month per user) – an dall the free stuff is either search or rss, nothing else. And don’t tell me gmail is the solution to small businesses because it ain’t.

> Oh, and please – PLEASE – stop with the “rolling thunder” terms.

Dave, this time they mean it. MS is on the warpath.

Scoble promised Shock and Awe after PDC and all we got was block and bore (promises of the future and nothing more). Today we are offered Live Software that certainly was dead (the demo crashed if you have not heard) Probably like most of us, I have read so many comments – all negative – about this announcement. The funniest was that Live spent backwards equals EVIL

But combine Live.com, with Microsoft’s Infocards, AdCenter and Gadgets along with improved Search and you get a very interesting personalised information model. It certainly was a poor start today but it might just be a great finish with Microsoft laughing last if they manage to pull it all together better than Google or Yahoo!

Todd says it all…

Network problems tripped up some of the key demonstrations, causing repeated delays, some of them several minues long, as the assembled reporters and analysts waited to see what Microsoft had to show.

Business portal and services, no thanks, I will stick with Salesforce. Webby stuff frothing around, and now, thunked together in light of the Sun/Google announcement, be my take. Hahah. What a generic bag of tricks, buggy too. Wrapping Search Engines with web toys on an ad-based platter, but not so much as to replace Office itself.

DOA. Or in that MSN Spaces sphere of walled-off dubious stats “millions and millions”.

Not Sure how this product fits into the overall schematics of SOA! Would love the “try, use, buy” paradigm. Where can I download ?

Secondly, handling of outbound POTS ? What was that agin in the world of VoIP ?

Chances are that the spwaned product has some features which may be enablers for small biz units. But is the revenue bucket get filled in by these zillions of mom and pop shops ? Or are seeing a product that is aligned to the ‘long tail’ ??

I dunna… Jus .. Jus maybe there is more then what is beeing seen. Afterall never judge a book by its cover !!

“Rolling Thunder” – for those who don’t know, that is a reference to the carpet bombing of Vietnam from 1965 to 1968. So instead of killing us with hail, MSFT now wants to kill us with “death from above.” Where is Sgt. Kilgore when you need him?

This is classic. I opened up live.com with my Firefox browser and got a “be patient” message. I went to Leah’s blog and thought I was reading the work of a college intern. This is how one of the biggest tech companies in the world rolls out major new advances? Laughable!

Brandon,

I feel for you man. It’s gotta be tough to work so hard and find out people think it’s so mediocre.

See, this is why Apple is kicking your ass when it comes to buzz when releasing new products. Imagine how many people would be using this if you had said “And you can start using it NOW!” instead of “We’ll have cool stuff for you SOON!”. How many people, who didn’t even own a video iPod, bought a video from the ITMS the day they were announced? answer: A whole lot. Live.com doesn’t even appear to have all the functionalty that start.com ALREADY DOES! I mean, at least start.com works in FIREFOX! Why couldn’t the live.com team have walked over and talked to Scott I? Maybe borrowed a little bit of code to make live.com work with Firefox? That’s the biggest disappointment. The Start.com people already did some of the heavy lifting for live.com and they DIDN’T EVEN USE IT!.

“GAH! IDIOTS!”

Quick question … how can Microsoft think that they can be taken seriously in the online world without Firefox support? I know they say it’s coming soon, but who made the decision to show it without it?

Imagine the press that could have been garnered had they demoed something that could run on Firefox.

Yes, I understand they need to protect IE, but you can’t have it both ways. The best advantage of having things online is making them available from anywhere.

Schlock and yawn.

Here’s the silly part. The new gen of web mail that the hotmail team has been doing is actually pretty hot. Some of these other services may turn out to be winners.

But the marketing and messaging just plain sucks.

What does google do when it has a new cool app? It rolls it out as a beta (for 6 or 7 years), limits access via invite only or otherwise gets the party started without a lot of hollow rhetoric.

The ship software.

For all of Microsoft’s bluster, they roll out products via keynote with a buggy demo and then get blasted about it and end up later trying to figure out how to spin half-baked but decent products back towards the origin.

Don’t tell the world about your new great hoohoo with a lot of false, 90′s-esque bluster. Just ship something great, listen to your customers: rinse, lather, repeat.

With all the smart folks up there, does not at least one of them work in product strategy? (I think I just posed the rhetorical equivalent of an oxymoron.)

I’m neutral, I think the market misses a lot of MSFT’s technical merit routinely. I thin MSFT makes life a lot harder for themselves–it’s like watching Intervention some days. But then i see another braindead launch like this and I think to myself, ‘you know, they deserve every last drop of it.’

“Firefox support is coming soon. Please be patient”

There’s point #13 for ya :
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2005/11/01/ross-doesnt-trust-microsofts-approach-to-web/

Is it me or is Microsoft sounding a lot like Creative chasing after the iPod these days? Somebody has a strategy, we’ll copy it. We’ll beat you in a 2 quarters. Nope, we’ll switch strategies. Nope, we’ll rebrand it. Nope, we’ll steal their marketing and throw out some buzz words. Nope. Do we have a strategy? That’s our own? Nope, but others are succeeding… Must chase after them… Must copy them… We’ll still beat you!! Why have you stopped listening to us? Really, we swear, we’re great at this stuff and will elad this industry we just discovered. What? Someone else has been leading it already for 3 years? So what, we can copy everything they do and beat them… someday… somehow…

This is defiantly a great step for Microsoft what else can I say other than congratulations Microsoft I wish you all of the best with it.

This is amusing in the light of the default homepage for IE5Mac would crash and/or cause IE5 to lockup. They don’t even test their horrible creations on the latest versions of their horrible creations. They fixed it though, atleast that’s something.

Scott said, “I feel for you man. It’s gotta be tough to work so hard and find out people think it’s so mediocre.”

Well, no one has seen what I’m working on (well, I work on 2 things right now, but yeah).

But I know what you mean.

Following Scoble’s example, I’ll say what I’m thinking…

I’ve been super-excited about Windows Live for a while now. I think it’s going to be huge for Microsoft. I think it’s definitely the right way to go.

That said, I was underwhelmed by what happened today. I was disappointed that Live.com shipped without Firefox support, even though I don’t use it. I was disappointed that the demos shown on the webcast (Messenger, Live Local, etc) weren’t made available for the public.

I think Live.com needs some work still. And it definitely needs to tie-in better with the “Gadgets Gallery.” Oh, and there needs to be a better system for adding gadgets (other than “Copy and paste this link to the Advanced field for Gadgets under Add Content”…. yuck).

That said, I’m still excited by “the plan.” I know that for you, the proof is in the proverbial pudding. But with all the brilliant, passionate people around these hallways and the aggressive ship schedule we have, the results are going to impress you.

Ugh… this has got to be one of the worst product launches ever. You’re evangelizing a site without Firefox support to an audience that has more Firefox users than the general population? WTF?

First impressions stick and this is a real stinker!