Cause for Concern
A year after launching the Windows Live effort, Microsoft is still lagging behind Google and Yahoo in the search industry. Is this finally an example that Microsoft's decade-long business strategy has failed? Windows Live has been growing by the week in terms of volume and services offered, but they seem to be missing a big point - it's the quality of the services that matter.
Let's take a brief look at the core new products offered in Live:
- Live.com Personalized Homepage - The idea of content personalization has not been a new one; Microsoft is simply rebranding the MyMSN technology into Live.com. Except they are now spending many more resources in trying to make the service more user-friendly, minimalistic, and scalable. This service has probably seen the most re-designs. In terms of improvement over these re-designs, you definitely have to give them credit. After all, I can only imagine the millions of users who had a terrible first impression of Windows Live when they first tried using the Live.com beta service. But they are still way behind Google in terms of being able to stably list out content. Here's to hoping that more gadgets can be developed for Windows Live.
- Windows Live Mail (new Hotmail) - This service can be summed up in one sentence: I'd rather use the basic version. The UI for the full version is not only dull and contrast-less, it takes forever to load and often the javascript malfunctions and I lose what I type in my mail window. Basic version is a lot cleaner and more efficient. I think somehow Microsoft missed a major point here - people check email mostly when they are in between appointments. They won't be in need of a rich email client unless they're at the office or at home after work. If that's the case there are plenty of downloadable clients that can provide the rich user experience. What people want on the web is an email client that allows them to view, edit, reply, and compose mail quickly. That's why the basic version appeals to me so much. Instead they're spending thousands of dollars trying to develop a rich AJAX client that takes 10 seconds to load.
- Windows Live Local - The only completely new product in the Live domain. It has taken great strides in catching up with the Google mapping suite, and some can say it is probably even better. Despite nagging performance problems with slow machines, Live Local offers a clean UI and highly readable maps. The bird's eye feature is attractive but frustrating to maintain and develop. I would say, however, that the Collections feature in the June 2006 release propelled it above all other mapping software. With that they became the first service to introduce community-based map sharing and enrichment. This is my favorite service of them all.
- Windows Live Messenger - Re-branded from MSN Messenger. A key improvement is the development of a search-based model. No longer do you have to scroll through contact lists to find some contact who changes his display name every hour. Just search! I'm still turned off by the excessive content they slap onto the UI. Why can't they just make it a messenger service and only a messenger service? With the introduction of an MSN Video bar below the contact list (which occassionally displays advertisements) the Messenger main window is starting to resemble AOL's instant messenger UI.
Having used most of Live's services for the better part of 4 months, I've come to feel that Microsoft is not going to be as successful as they project to be in the online domain. After all, they're missing the point. They're trying to fully port their content-rich applications to the Web, when in truth they can filter out many features and options and give the users an effective experience. Especially with Windows Live Mail, I have reason to believe that end users will become pretty frustrated with it and start using other services. If not for the solid community of Hotmail users, Windows Live Mail may have been a failure already. After all, that's probably why they introduced the basic version.
(More pics to be added)
posted by cr33tic @ 7:36 PM
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