Live.com - some thoughts

I'm sure by now that hundreds of people have blogged about the new Live.com website. I've read at least a couple dozen posts about it myself. I've noticed a lot of people were quick to point out the lack of Firefox support (which is dissapointing but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it). People are also quick to point out the seeming lack of "innovation" of Live.com as a portal page and they're confused about the differences between Live.com and Start.com and why one has Firefox support and one doesn't. Yes, truth be told - it might be easy right now to get confused about it all - if so you should read the Ideas Page. I've seen a lot of "Oh, a portal page, welcome to 1996." and "These portal pages haven't got any better since they began 10 years ago." What I have not been seeing a lot of on the blogs - and it's kind of driving me nuts - is people saying something like this:

"Live.com - hmm...seems rather unfinished...I'll set a reminder to check it out later."

That's it. Just read between the lines a little everyone. It's still in progress. Not finished. No need to verbally/mentally get your panties in a twist over some site that plans to be great but isn't there yet. Take off your uber-geek thinking helmet and think about the business side of software for a minute. Perhaps this site got rush-released because there is a huge product launch occuring in 5 days? I'm sure more than a few of us have had to "just get it out the door" before, right? Go check out the Ideas Page and try and use that reading comprehension a little. Since you're probably too lazy and have already formed an opinion, I'll quote some more relevant portions of it for you:

"...  this is just the beginning – you'll see many more new services in the coming months."
"...  you can check out the very latest Windows Live products—so new that they're not even finished yet. "
"...  give them a try and then tell us exactly what you think. And don't hold back. We need your help to make these products the best they can be. "

You read that last one there? How about instead of everyone jumping on board the "this sux" wagon - you actually provide some constructive feedback. If you already have, great. Pat yourself on the back.

Disclaimer: Am I a fan of Microsoft's products? Sure. Do I post fanboy drivel about their stuff? No, not really. If you read my blog here you'll find that I criticize them as much as anybody else - but I believe in constructive critcism - not caveman feedback. "No Firefox this sucks me no like this ok bye". C'mon guys we can do better than that.

5 Comments

  • Jason,



    Nicely put. My theory is that many developers in the "sux" clan are sheltered from the business reality of software development, where what you write has to be worth the money someone paid you to develop it. And in the case of Microsoft, for the software to be worth something, it must be usable. Since their audience is "the world", the only way to get comprehensive feedback is to release it, and hope people actually provide feedback.



    It would be interesting to hear from the "Live" team on the amount of feedback they are getting, and then check this against a blog search for live.com, and see how it stacks up.



    Cheers,



    Dave

  • werd, brotha man!



    I do have to wonder why MS keeps putting stuff out sooo early, because they have been getting a lot of negative comments. Maybe MS thinks it's worth it, not sure.



    Definitely agree that the biggest problem is people aren't seeing the big picture about what this really is. Part of that can be blamed on people being stupid, but I also think part of it can be blamed on the marketing of it. But then again, it's so early, there really isn't any marketing for it. :P



    Anyway, yah, good post...agreed.

  • Just found out over on Scobles blog that the start.com team also worked on the live.com project. Which makes the lack of Firefox support even more puzzling.



    I'd love to give some feedback, but feedback on what? I've loaded up live.com in IE, ok can add gadgets. Just like start.com. I can search, just like start.com. I can add feeds, just like start.com. I can see my Hotmail. That's new.



    So what am I supposed to be excited about? Microsofts potential?

  • The whole point is that there's hardly a difference with start.com, as other people have rightly pointed out.



    Not only that, but the fact that MS seems to have made such a big announcement about the site's launch and yet, to use your words, it's still rather unfinished and in progress.



    I mean, let us know when there is something to check out that we can be excited about...for now it's just same old, same old.

  • I think MS make it worse for themselves in the way they hype this stuff up. The press release I read about Windows Live made it sound like MS had redesigned the Internet.



    While it's a nice simple portal site, Live.com is far from living up to the hype that has been created. I think the possibility of community developed gadgets makes it a potential hit, but we will have to wait and see.



    As for the other "Live" offerings like:



    Online Virus Scanner - McAfee and others have had this for a long time, and many of us remember MS's last attempt at created virus scanning software.



    Search - Google works fine for my searching needs, and last time I fell for the hype from MS and tried using the new search the released on MSN a few months back - I was sorely dissappointed.



    IM - Doesn't sound like anything new and exciting (Press released mentioned sharing files and pictures - oooo). Internet based voice calls has been around a loooong time.



    OneCare - Sounds exactly like Windows Update.



    The mobile favorites sounds promising.



    Had the hype not been so overdone, people might be more accepting - but you feel like someone is playing a joke on you when the hype vs. content differ this much. It's bound to get some backlash. Eventually, the backlash will subside and people will start to give it more of a chance.



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