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Tuesday, November 01, 2005 8:32 PM PT Posted by Harry McCracken
Windows Live: Web 2.0, Microsoft Style
It figures: Bill Gates and Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie unveil a new Web strategy at a hotel about a mile from PC World's offices...right when I happen to be 3,000 miles away on a road trip. So I'm catching up on the news tonight by reading about it online (here's my colleague Denny Arar's liveblogged report) and trying out Windows Live, the one bit of this new "Live" strategy that is live.
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Windows Live (which is in beta) is a Web portal with a "Sidebar" navigation system, tools for searching and reading RSS feeds, and "Gadgets" which can extend its functionality. It seems to be, basically, a repackaged version of Start.com, another experimental Microsoft portal that's been around for awhile. (Curiously, when I use Windows Live in Firefox, it's somewhat glitchy and issues an apologetic note about Firefox support being in the works, while Start.com works well on the very non-Microsoftian platform of Firefox running on a Mac OS X Powerbook. Is there some rule that you can't be branded as a Windows service unless you don't play completely nice with the rest of the world?)
Windows Live as it stands this very moment is extremely unfinished-feeling (and reminiscent of Google's Personalized Homepage). Apparently, one of its more intriguing elements isn't yet up, but was demoed this morning--an IM/voice chat client that will provide the Skype-like ability to make calls to ordinary telephones.
And by going to MicrosoftGadgets.com, you can get a glimpse of Windows Live's potential, since that site lets you add additional Gadgets to Windows Live. Rather than just being a repository for Microsoft-developed, Microsoft-centric tools, the site will apparently host home-grown stuff from third-party developers, a la Apple's Dashboard Widgets; already, there's a gadget that lets you view pictures from Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing service. (In a sign of just how half-baked Windows Live is at the moment, adding Gadgets is such a bizarrely convoluted cut-and-paste process that it comes with another apologetic note, and mention of slicker integration to come.)
One thing that's unclear--at least to me, though it might have come up at this morning's briefing--is how Windows Live's Sidebar and Gadgets relate to the identically-named items that will be part of Windows Vista. Are they compatible with each other? Or simply two spins on the same basic idea?
To me, the most interesting thing about Windows Live and the other services Microsoft discussed today (including the upcoming Office Live) isn't the services themselves but a slide Bill Gates showed (thanks, Niall Kennedy) that essentially outlines a world in which content and services live on the Web, are often subsidized by contextual advertising, and are deployed to an array of devices. True, the slide seems to indicate that about 75% of these devices will be "Microsoft-based," but not all of them. And the Microsoft devices shown go far beyond garden-variety Windows PCs.
If we're truly headed for the scenario outlined in this slide--which is essentially the same one that Google seems to be pursuing--it's going to be a very, very different time from the still-largely-deskbound era we live in today. And, potentially, a very different one for Microsoft, a company whose immense profits are still predicated on getting millions of people to spend hundreds of dollars apiece on the decades-old pieces of client software known as Windows and Office.
(Side note: One of the noteworthy things about today's announcements is that even Microsoft appears to think that things like Gadgets and Web services should live on the Web in at least some cases, not on the hard drive of a Windows PC. It's a tad surrealistic that Microsoft is going this route while the Sidebar in Google Desktop--no relation to Windows Live's Sidebar except in general intent and feel--is a piece of old-school Windows software that sits on the hard drive of one particular computer. Things are happening so rapidly in the world of widgets and gadgets and other little bits of Web-enabled software that Google's approach here seems even more archaic now than it did a little over two months ago when its Sidebar debuted.)
Of course, the real sea change would happen if Microsoft announced ad-supported, Web-based services that truly competed with Windows and Office rather than attempting to complement them. (And just how Windows Live will complement Windows is still a little vague, at least to those of us who didn't hear Bill Gates explain it personally.)
It didn't go that route today--no big surprise given that doing so would (here's a mixed metaphor) cannibalize its twin cash cows. But even if Microsoft doesn't introduce Web-based counterparts to Windows and Office, it's increasingly clear that multiple competitors will try to do so...and it'll be fasincating to see what happens.
Thoughts or predictions, anyone?
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Haha Web Based Office... Thats a BUZZ word and some media people just love BUZZ BUZZ
I feel pain every time I use Web Based EMAIL (like Hotmail). Outlook is so much better... Cannot imagine myself using Web Based Office
And by the way, for those who knows it, MS Excel is the most powerful/useful piece of software ever. SO DO NOT CALL it 10-years old crap
And by the way, for those who knows it, MS Excel is the most powerful/useful piece of software ever. SO DO NOT CALL it 10-years old
What, even if it is?
Wow, what incredibly stupid comments - you missed the point completely.
Boring. Let's just call it what it is - Portal 2.0. We've been down this road before - several years ago. The only difference is that it's easier to find and add stuff to your customized page with RSS. The only question apparently is whether you want it on a webpage or on a plugin in your browser. zzzz
Get real. Pirated MS warez is hitting BG in the pocket book. Just like he stole cash cow Windows from Jobs and Palo Alto Research Park.What goes around,comes around. That is why the switch to online. Shame that he is a billionaire with stolen ideas and daddy lawyer to protect and copyright stolen ideas. Incidently, Gates foundation pertaining to Malaria is the oldest tax shelter con game,...charity starts abroad.
The push to provide services online will only allow Microsoft to eventually dictate their service offerings to web enabled users exclusively. Of course their will always be backlash for backward compatibility, but I see a future of web enabled services where everyone in the Microsoft arena pays to play. And just like the NFL, they may want to pat you down before they let you in!
Excel over 10 years old --- Mac version in the 80's
Microsoft is still pushing their client/server model.
Who cares and just how many of us need it.
I mostly use Corel on the PC and much prefer Unix and the Mac.
Windows Live will not complement windows it is its replacement... prepare for the new winxplorer OS (not to be shortened to WinXP of course!) where all you get at boot is an Internet explorer window to your windows live desktop... that is the future MS want where you cant have pirate software becaue you dont have any software! basically all you get is a dumb term running Iexplore, that is the MS Vision!
I know very Little about all this but it seems like everybody is saying that this is Old Wine in a New Bottle. Perhaps Recycled after having been imbibed even.
What happens if my ISP goes down? What if I'm travelling? I can't use Office? This will never fly.
Have you heard of disconnected operations Offline Boy? A dumb terminal can still store state information for disconnected operations. Enter the Dataset. Besides there are a lot of ways to store state information on the machine while it is disconnected. XML files are one way. Have you used InfoPath?? The idea is great to have a service based OS. More Users will be able to afford PCs because a smaller size disks will be needed as no huge software is stored on the PC. I can go on and on about the possibilities of this idea but then again you won't understand half of them right Offline?
Hey Visionary, "disconnected operations" are good enough if you're a pansy user who doesn't need the full operation of your software and thus can count on your limited cache that your POS thin client provides.
You know....maybe once...just once...people might stop putting in stupid comments and take Harry's questions and make a good discussion.....must drive him nuts.
We don't need to hear how great Macs are etc when the subject is about Windows Live/Office Live.....
Essentially this could be huge for Microsoft in terms of direction but right now its a rebranding excercise. I wouldn't expect a lot until 6 months after Vista is launched.
Visionary - "More Users will be able to afford PCs because a smaller size disks will be needed as no huge software is stored on the PC"
**Visionary may be a misnomer. I could run WinXP, Office, and just about anything else i really needed for productivity from a 20gb hd. We already have far more hardware than we need. People buy 3ghz computers for the same reason they buy 3 ton SUVs...because advertisers say that everybody needs one (and so youll never have to worry about running out of resources for your animated paperclips and slick interfaces).
moving products and services from client to server is in fact far less efficient, as it puts far higher demand on bandwidth, and creates server-side bottlenecks. It's like inverse distributed computing, returning to the mainframe era.
I would agree that microsoft is persuing a business model "where you cant have pirate software becaue you dont have any software".
Providing online services makes product deployment simpler, reduces real-world overhead (hey, no packaging), and standardizes things like tech support (only one version to worry about). it also removes any right the end user might have to privacy, personal use, and individual ownership.
fuck that
CAn't we all just get along??????????
Well, there's really no point to bothering with using Windows anymore. Bill, if you're going to do Web 2.0 (which at its core requires open-source type collaboration and open standards for proper functioning of the meme), do it right ffs! While everyone is diligently waiting for MS developers to update this "MS Live" thing, helplessly and stupidly, I've been writing my own Open Source Web 2.0 system, cross platform, that is very likely further along due to *gasp* actual collaboration. Link: http://sakura-os.sf.net
Let us say you want a web browser, a spread sheet, an email client, a word processor, and a few games, plus some room for storage. If I told you you could get all this to fit on a 200 meg hard drive, without using the subscription software over the web model Microsoft is offering, would you believe me?
Depends on what kind of games you're talking about.
Visionary has the right idea. We have no other choice but to go toward a system where huge central servers (disconnected operations, datasets, whatever) are located where we access what we need or want at our convenience or when we are required to do so (new world order?). Some might see it as a narrowing of the gap between the 'haves and the have-nots', but it can also be seen as an eventual means of more control of the 'have-nots' by the 'haves'. There will always be contoversy (good/bad, left-wing/right-wing, etc.). Peace!
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