Microsoft’s Live.com portal will change significantly this evening. No longer will it be a simple search engine with a few other services bolted on. It’s now a social network, too, pulling in activity information and content from around the web. They’re also launching Windows Live Photos and Windows Live People, and other services. Check it out at Home.Live.com.
A lot of what they’ve done is exactly what Yahoo has been talking about for over a year now – leveraging social connections that already exist (Yahoo is using email, Microsoft is using Messenger) and doing a lot more with it.
Users are automatically connected with any friends they have on Windows Live Messenger, which is by far the most popular instant messaging service worldwide (Comscore: Microsoft Messenger has 268 million worldwide users, compared to 116 million for Yahoo and 6 million for Google Talk).
Users are asked to build out their profile, and can also bring in content they create on blogs (or any RSS feeds, Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora, Photobucket, iLike, Twitter, Wordpress and Yelp. When you do something new on those sites, the information flows into Live.com for your friends to see (in a very similar way as FriendFeed, Plaxo and others do today). Eventually, says Microsoft, more than 50 partners will be supported. When users add photos, write reviews, and update their profiles directly on Live.com, that content will be put into the activity stream as well.
The hope, of course, is to get people to hang out a lot more at Live.com. At least those people who use Messenger, since they already have their contacts established. Like Yahoo, Microsoft is going with its strengths, which in their case is instant messaging.
Microsoft’s software plus services strategy has clearly infiltrated Live.com as well as their approach with Office. Live.com users can now access a variety of online services like mail, calendar, photos, online storage, etc., as well as downloaded services that include a mail client, instant messaging, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, the Toolbar and other services. And now it’s also one big social network.
The result is an impressive personal productivity suite that makes me almost wish I wasn’t solely a Mac user.
Overview video and reviewers guide are below:
Windows Live Reviewers Guide – Get more Information Technology
Hairless and faceless models. WAY TO MAKE IT PERSONAL, Microsoft!
But in all honestly, I hope to see Microsoft improve on the Plaxo idea.
isn’t it the friendfeed idea? who did it first? I should probably know that.
Microsoft will rule the world, once again.
Mike, I really think you could have made a pretty penny by asking Facebook for some points in return for not printing this. Oh well
It doesn’t matter who did first but who success.
You should probably know that.
Plaxo was first.
bottom line is did it succeed or fail! some pass some not so lucky
http://dabberde...mple-works.html
Interesting move. At least they are trying.
they have a chance. the domain name live.com is the best one they have going. what business savvy professional wants a hotmail address to use certain functions. the mylocator platform has the potential to offer custom email for consumers and businesses on over 1300 strategic natural language location based domain names.
LiveLocator.com – found it
ok, i went to livelocator.com, i found a video of obama and then pictures of joe the pluber ass.
keeping user is more important than atracting a user. Whats the point of your natural lenguage locator if i dont locate what i want.
hi lolec its been awhile.
just “preachin’ my potential.”
unstructured content is an overabundant commidity that is a dime a dozen. strategically integrated natural language, location based content is scarce. 10 years at the table and i believe nobody in the industry has the “potential” to offer long tail custom offerings that we can.
CustomLocator.com – prepare yourself
location, location, location.
Stupid venture,
i do not remember using live.com for over seven years. that was from when i was introduced to the internet..
cant teach the old dog new tricks..
What’s that about “MySpace messenger”? Is that a typo?
One of the reasons I prefer Google is because it is so much simpler to type in google.com than search.yahoo.com (and no, I do not want anyhing from yahoo.com around my search box). Yandex.ru got it right with their ya.ru address. Microsoft got it right with simple live.com design and now they are going to reverse it? How stupid…
If you like, you can type in ysearch.com instead. I’m one of those strange people that doesn’t mind being distracted by web portal content, but I can certainly sympathize with wanting to be able to get straight to searching without any clutter.
(then again, isn’t that what the Firefox search box is for?)
If you go to Live.com, you get their search page. To get the profile, you go to either http://home.live.com or http://home-beta.live.com.
How is this a reversal of a simple URL strategy?
I am absolutely agree with you.
Why not just use bookmarks? Why not just use the autocomplete feature built into most browsers? Is this seriously a concern?
i’m still seeing the same old crappy live.com with the same old crappy live mail landing page. i don’t think google/yahoo have anything to fear. aol tried a similar concept with aim pages a couple of years ago, which totally bombed as well. looking at the services that MS offers, i still greatly prefer google’s offering, and yahoo’s mail, while no gmail, is light years beyond live mail. google/yahoo still offer a better ecosystem to tie it all together, ms office notwithstanding.
try http://home-beta.live.com.
Successfully dragging it all together would be great.
Except the update snippets from IM and email.
Not leaving Twitter for Live.
Ditto.
This would have been cool 4 years ago.
Arrington, did you mean Microsoft Messenger as the most popular in the world? I don’t think you meant Myspace Messenger.
In that vein – does anyone have any clue how Myspace’s integration of Skype has performed? If eBay has essentially written off its investment in Skype – maybe it belongs under the Fox Interactive umbrella where it has a chance to create more ad space?
Couple typos in the post…
- It is Windows Live Messenger, not myspace’s. Messenger is the largest social network in the world.
- The all new web services and client apps will be available SOON, but not tonight. Check out windowslive.com for more info: http://www.wind....com/ComingSoon
the other downside to live and live toolbar was the removal of onfolio; one of the best research tools out there. microsoft purchased that company which was way ahead of its time…then shut down that app and support with zero info about what their plans were with it.
thanks microsoft. thanks for ruining the web.
We still use friendster for social networking. hehheheh (asia)
Wait…Microsoft has a search engine?
Never used Live.com for any practical purpose, once I was given a demo of Live maps, and beautiful 3D perspective it generates. Soon I figured out, not only it is slow as hell, but its limited to some popular destinations or cities. Google is 37times better than that … And given MS Hotmail once deleted all my emails, because I didn’t sign in for a month, makes me MAAAADDD!!
To be on a social network, you have to trust the platform, and I have no trust on MS.
You know, things can change in a year. I think Virtual Earth is far better than Google Earth, because they were first with color 3D buildings, and now they even added trees and other things for a more natural setting. If you’re computer is slow, too bad.
I think Microsoft extended the account deactivation. Makes sense to delete accounts that aren’t getting used, right?
I think the basic idea is good…always thought IM clients can make a good foundation for a social network – the only issue I can think of is probably it is too late.
I really enjoyed messing around with my live profile! It was easy to use and a lot like the old facebook. You can rearrange the look of it. Two thumbs up. Another social site for social networking freaks like me!
no more social sites… please go away… MS you can’t be everything to everybody. Try to focus on testing windows 7, something you forgot to do on Vista.
It want to try something new buy rogain and make stevey b some hair…
Messenger is the crown jewel in Windows Live. Everything else in Windows Live has better alternatives out there that are popular.
Trying to wedge their way into other areas using Messenger will not work. Spaces was built on top of Messenger userbase. 150MM spaces and zero page views. 100MM people have already moved to Facebook with lots of page views.
I didn’t know you were a MAC user until now. Thanks for the update on Live. It will be interesting to see how people react.
yes, its really cool to hear… but yes, social networking sites are too many, why dont do something new… make IE support all javascript and ajax codes… end limitations
I am a Mac and it doesn’t work on Safari – CSS disaster
It works and looks ok in Chrome, but the customization functionality is limited unless you use Firefox or IE. I don’t have FF installed on this machine to test, but using the site with IE was waaay slower (moreso than usual), especially in the Advanced customization box.
And as mentioned above, 3rd party services aren’t enabled yet. Wish I would have known that before spending 45 minutes trying to figure out how to add it (I’m a Sharepoint 2007 user, so I’m used to not finding what I need in Microsoft web interfaces).
I’m a development lead on Windows Live, and I can tell you that we do fully support Safari in this upcoming release and have tested on it. Once we release, if you do see problems, I encourage you to contact support and report it.
A little too late to jump on this bandwagon.
Btw
Check out http://www.jobstaxi.com
New Jobs. Nixon Inc.. oDesk. Rockstar New England. FixYa. Snap. Gorilla Nation.
Die bitch!
I run the Windows Live business at MS – and I’m happy to tell you that we’re not creating “yet another social network”. we’re building more ways to keep in touch w/ the people you already have if you’re a Windows Live Messenger or Windows live Hotmail customer. this is a big group of people with a big network of people that use these services because they’re trying to keep in touch with others (using email and IM, but those are just means not ends). we’re providing more ways for them to keep in touch with the people htye want, and now also letting people link their other activities across the web so that they don’t need to just use our services. if you’re a happy facebook user – great, keep using facebook. ditto myspace, bebo, skyrock, daum, QQ, linkedin, … there are lots of social networks out there doing a very good job.
brian, are you *automatically* sending notifications and activity to everyone in my Messenger list? seems like there is there a privacy issue here….
All this is great news on paper….The site doesn’t open
I am getting the following error:
The Windows Live Network is unavailable from this site for one of the following reasons:
* This site may be experiencing a problem
* The site may not be a member of the Windows Live Network
Anannd, we haven’t released the new Windows Live services yet. As stated in the press release (http://www.micr...ServicesPR.mspx), we will be rolling out services over the coming weeks. Full details in the press release.
I wanted to learn more, but the voice in that video was just WAY too ridiculously pleased with itself to listen to.
Seconded.
Ha, definitely made me cringe a few times.
Not feeling this at all. Most people I care to keep in contact with I do through gchat anyway – none of my friends use Hotmail or Live…it’s sooooo….last decade?
I can’t leave MSN IM b/c everyone I know uses it (evne though it sucks)
I can’t leave FB b/c my friends are on it (even though I hate it)
I can’t leave yahoo mail b/c I have so much data there (even though it’s slowly getting worse)
I can’t leave outlook because my contacts and dates and everything else are too critical (even though it’s so unbelievably buggy)
I can’t bring myself to leave IE because I’m really picky about site rendering and sites plain & simple look better in IE (even though it crashes all the time)
So I guess getting people entrenched is the way to go…………….. people are too lazy to switch once they get used to something.
1. You can use Y! IM since it supports both MSN and Y! IM users (you can IM both at the same time).
2. FB apps can pull in your content from most other platforms so your friends will be informed (and exposed to the other platform).
3. Y! Mail allows you to export your email into an archive format (this may be only available to “Y! Mail Plus accounts).
4. You can export your Outlook addressbook and calendar to file formats (e.g. csv) that can then be imported into most other platforms.
5. Be sure to periodically delete all your temporary files from your browser’s cache regardless of which browser you use. This will reduce the opportunity for site-related crashes.
Hope this helps.
Joe
ps… I’m a long-time Yahoo! fanboy that just migrated to the Live.com platform as a result of the new Y! Profiles debacle.
Y! Hosted Wordpress Blog ==> Live Spaces blog
Y! Mail/Calendar/Contacts ==> Live Mail/Calendar/Contacts (download the fantastic beta desktop Windows app – this is what sold me)
Y! IM ==> Live Msgr (just added my Y! buddies to the contact list. I have very few friends using Live/MSN Msgr
Flickr still is my photo/video depository but what I hear about what’s coming next on Live has me expecting to move over there.
You could say I’m more a Live and less of a Yahoo! now.
Yahoo! has done this already, if you are yahoo mybloglog user, and your friends use Y! messenger 9.0, all your pulses on social networks will appear as a status message in y! messenger. These pulses will also appear in Y! oneConnect (both mobile and web), and will soon appear on Y! Profile page and probably appear in Y! Mail inbox page later. It is a quite scary stuff, I never like this social broadcasting thing.
I like it (-:
I think they’ve done a great job
http://www.amazooz.com
seems informative……..
http://www.pixelshots.co.nr
Actually, you could just put a link to your Facebook/Myspace profile in your Live Messenger profile, and it would be just as good. Sometimes you don’t want everyone you chat with to see your social networking page, so only your Facebook friends would be able to see your Facebook profile anyway (people WANT privacy). Young people don’t use email so much for socializing, and old people don’t blog much. I guess some people will want to display some information about their browsing/messenger activity on their social networks, but I think those things would mainly be for real friends. So, currently I can just put a link to my facebook in Live Messenger, and that is about all of the unification I need.
I just think this will make Live a bit more viral. But it won’t attract many people to use it as their social network, especially as many people are already using Facebook or Myspace. The other thing it could do is to become a sort of “social business card”, a sort of fully public social page that anyone on your Live Messenger list can see. I am not sure if this is a must-have for anyone.
Anyway, in hindsight, it would be surprising if Microsoft DIDN’T do this. Why wouldn’t they try to introduce their Live Messenger userbase to their other online services? And why wouldn’t they compete with Facebook and Myspace to try to become the “glue” of the social web? Competition is good.
I don’t like the design of Live.com.
The more social networks are created the better it is for people who are trying to create a personal brand. The problem is that even though it is better, it becomes so much tougher! Why? Because you need to be part of everyone of them to spread the word.
So reading about live.com ‘going social’ scares me in a way. Now there is just more to cover! Whew!
Oh, by the way, not digging the live.com design at all. It looks obscure and out of proportion left to right. Bad whitespace management in my humblest opinion.
Live.com email rocks. IMHO it’s better than GMail or any others. I’m hosting a couple of custom-domained live ids and don’t seem to be getting spam for almost a year now. And yes, they’ve changed the Inbox look a couple of weeks ago and they’re moving on to a social network. That’s fantastic, cause they’ll show all the powers of the Silverlight technology ^_^
A Tad too Late IMO …
http://tinyurl.com/67evwp
its like lipstick on a pig
I think Yahoo 360 used Yahoo messenger as well. Somehow i had a 360 page even though i never put anything on it and everyone on my messenger got an invite to it.
Another stupid Microsoft initiative.
Nice attempt, but VERY late to the game. Guess those few people who still use hotmail may like this. Looks way too much like the Windows desktop, ugly and clunky. Sorry, no thanks.
Will my InPrivate sessions also be displayed on my home page? I don’t want everyone to know whenever I visit pornhub.com.
Otherwise I’ll give it a try.
yawnnnnnnnnnn!!
Yeah, cuz we need another social network.
Will believe it when msn.com 301s to live.com
wait a second… are you saying that they’re *automatically* sending notifications and activity to everyone in my Messenger list???? is there a privacy issue here? please clarify….
What’s with these “late to the game” haters?
Google doesn’t do this. Apple doesn’t do this. Yahoo talked about doing this a year ago.
Seems to me, that MS DOES do this.
Sure it won’t be perfect (neither is google recipies, and .mac crashed a few times there). Let’s see this version and then figure it out.
(oooh quick! Add your seesmic below. THAT’s awesome.)
Plaxo has been doing it for quite a while now. Friendfeed might be doing it too, but I’m not a FF user and this new Live portal isn’t live yet, so I can’t say.
Only Microsoft could create a 7 page password retrieval arrangement. pft
Brian Hall: Thanks for your comment, but to be honest, that was my first reaction too, “OH My GOD, yet another Social Media to learn about and be active in” the numbers are going crazy, and as a Community/Social Media Manager, my job keeps getting harder because I have to learn more and more and be familiarized with all of these new sites/features. I wished there was a source we could go to who would tell us, ok for your business model just stick to these, but right now, it seems as if you don’t stay on top of things you will be lost in no time.
Allan: I want to share my opinion that it is a huge misconception that Skype is a burden to eBay, my husband and I are both huge skype fans, sure it is not alwasy perfect, the quality sucks, but Skype does wonders around the world, and in face brought in a lot of revenue for eBay.
What about the investment they made in facebok, wonder how that will fit in MS plans…
The home-beta.live.com 404’s on me. Might be because I’m Dutch, but that hasn’t stopped MS from suddenly switching languages on me while I was clicking around on Live.com. Clicking around as in “trying to find out how the hell to do something simple”, not as in “browsing and having a great time”. Lisa Brewster’s comment (”I’m a Sharepoint 2007 user, so I’m used to not finding what I need in Microsoft web interfaces”) sums it up nicely I think.
Just lauch the thing, make sure people don’t need 35 slides and an infomercial to find their way around.
Apart from that I “love” the video (I guess I’m a user of “Popular Site” and “Popular Site” — do they really admit that live.com is not, here?). The way they make sure not to mention any competitors made my toes curl. I used to like CommonCraft. *sigh*
MS is clearly trying to become one of the cool players. There’s MS ppl commenting here and stuff like that. They still have a long way to go, tho.
the best free porn tube is http://www.sexgrid.com