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Windows Live Gets MySpace Activity Updates

Chris Crum — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:35:51 +0000

Microsoft and MySpace announced that Windows Live will now begin broadcasting MySpace user activity streams to the Windows Live Platform via MySpaceID. What this means is that users of Windows Live, Windows Live Messenger, and Hotmail, who are also MySpace users, will be able to see their friends’:

- Status updates
- Blog Entries
- Photo uploads
- Music

MySpace’s Windows Live MySpaceID implementation is built upon the activitystrea.ms open standard. MySpace calls the announcement "an important step forward" in the company’s promotion of open standards.

"Utilizing an increasingly open Web enables our users to broadcast, discover, and express themselves in richer ways across multiple networks," says MySpace Group Architect Monica Ciberch.

To check out the MySpaceID integration, go here and sign into your Windows Live account, click "add web activities," choose MySpace from the options, add MySpace to your account, and then you can see your MySpace activities and share them with your Windows Live Network.

Standards for Activity Streams and more info about the activitystrea.ms api can be found here.

Ballmer Talks Windows 7 Beta, Dell Deal At CES

Doug Caverly — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:46:43 +0000

Steve Ballmer didn’t drop many jaws with his keynote speech at CES yesterday; for better or for worse, he didn’t confirm or deny rumors about Zune phones, deals with Yahoo, or 15,000 layoffs. Still, Microsoft’s CEO got into some interesting stuff, touching on the subjects of Windows 7, search, and a top social network.

A WebProNews team is present at the 2009 International CES this week, and we’ll be bringing you all sorts of coverage. Keep an eye out for more articles, and hop on over to WebProNews Videos to see clips shot on site.

Let’s start with the operating system. A beta version of Windows 7 will become globally available on Friday, and Ballmer didn’t hesitate to get the audience’s expectations up. Different demonstrations pointed to short boot times, impressive energy efficiency, and a friendly interface. "We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows," Ballmer claimed (without announcing any release dates connected to the finished product).

Next, there’s a search partnership that also ties to new PCs. It seems that, on Dell computers in 23 countries, Live Search is going to be made the default search engine. This comes in addition to a similar arrangement between Microsoft and HP, and could help Ballmer’s company get a greater piece of the search market with very little effort.

Then the CEO spoke about deeper integration between Facebook and Windows Live. Facebook status updates should, in short, show up in users’ Windows Live feeds. This may be Microsoft’s financial investment at work, and positions it a little nearer to Facebook than either Google or Yahoo, regardless.

As for old Yahoo, Ballmer at least acknowledged the second company by displaying a joke IM, supposedly from Jerry Yang, that read, "Why do you keep ignoring my friend requests on Facebook?"

There’s more to come from our crew at CES.

Windows Live Making Big Social Leap

Doug Caverly — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:56:53 +0000

A new version of Windows Live is arriving, and a heavy emphasis has been put on all things social. Certain aspects of the Microsoft property now look reminiscent of Facebook and MySpace, and agreements have been reached with some of the top names in Web 2.0.

On the whole, the overhaul’s quite impressive. The layout encourages people to create (and/or flesh out) user profiles, and then offers the sort of Friend Feed-style updates to which we’ve become accustomed. Profiles will also be useful when it comes to tagging and sorting photos, or creating groups.

New Windows Live Homepage

As for other matters of utility, the email, messaging, and photo-sharing sections of the site all look to be within a few clicks of each other. Windows Live seems to have a clean design, and yet customization options can make it quite colorful.

Updated Windows Live Toolbar

Then there are the partnerships to consider. Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora, Photobucket, Twitter, WordPress, and Yelp have all been named as collaborators, while users’ address books can be pulled from places like Facebook, Hi5, and Bebo. Microsoft’s made a real effort to turn Windows Live into a central hub.

Fresh Windows Live Messenger

What’s more: it’s done all this in a timely manner. The new Windows Live will be available to everyone by early 2009, with U.S. customers seeing it rather sooner. This should put Microsoft ahead of Yahoo, which is bucket testing a similar sort of upgraded homepage.

Chris Jones, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows Live Experience Program Management, tried to sum up the accomplishment in a statement. He explained, "Our customers have friends across the Web. They communicate through many unconnected Web services and want access to it all from a single location – without worrying about how it’s done. Now Windows Live takes care of that, with an integrated personal communication service that works across the Web with optimized experiences on the PC and mobile phone."

Microsoft Cleans The Panes On Windows Live

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:57:49 +0000

Microsoft’s collection of services under the WindowsLive.com banner received a little attention from the company’s makeover artists.

It’s probably a good thing Microsoft turned its marketing staffers loose on WindowsLive.com, because quite frankly we’d lost track of what they were doing with their ur-portal of services. The company spends so much time promoting things like Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger separately, it’s easy to lose track of what else they offer.

The new push as noted by Microsoft’s Marty Collins comes from the community aspects of WindowsLive.com. They’re emphasizing the user-generated content aspect of the main site, in the form of testimonials.

The Vista operating system receives a mention, so it’s likely this latest push comes as part of the Vista branding message. Vista earned, deservedly, criticism for some shortcomings, and no less a Microsoft luminary than Bill Gates wondered what the hell was going on with his company’s signature OS in a legendary rant from 2003.

It could be that Microsoft finally realized that people who know them for software may not know them as well for other services. Google picks up fawning admiration, mostly, when they release something new as an online service. Other than Virtual Earth, Microsoft hasn’t excited the imagination as much.

Though they offer some useful services, Microsoft is as much a walled garden as are Google or Yahoo, IM interoperability efforts notwithstanding. They dare not try and tie WindowsLive.com services too tightly to their OS or the Internet Explorer browser, lest they raise the ire of antitrust overseers in Washington.

In a way that’s a shame, and we say this as long-time observers of Microsoft’s shenanigans over the past couple of decades. They were a vicious competitor on numerous fronts, and only Gates’ blind spot for the Internet in the early years of the World Wide Web kept them from becoming as powerful online as they are on the desktop.

Maybe Collins and her team can persuade people to yawn at Yahoo and gloss over Google in favor of Windows Live services. There are some good services under the Live banner, and if they help enhance the perception of Vista, particularly among back to school computer purchasers, they may be able to build a little brand loyalty among those young computer users.

Become A Part Of Windows Live’s New User Community

Darren Straight — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:49:32 +0000

Just noticed this post on the Windows Live Messenger Blog:

We here at Windows Live love to create software that makes keeping in touch with your personal community fun and exciting. If you love to chat on Windows Live Messenger, use Windows Live Writer to post to your Windows Live Spaces page and post photos from Windows Live Photo Gallery then we have just the community for you.

We are looking for people to share their stories, tips or tricks, or product reviews of Windows Live with others. We’ll show the world what amazing things you can do with Windows Live.

You can start by taking this quick survey so we know where to get you plugged in.

Thanks for being part of our Windows Live community!

And there’s also this one on the Windows Live Hotmail Blog:

We’re looking for people who love using Windows Live products. More importantly, we’re looking for those of you who would like to share your experiences on Windows Live with others.

This is your chance to help build a community from the ground up. We’d like to showcase for the world the best of what you do on Windows Live. If you have stories, tips or tricks, or product reviews you would like to share with our entire Windows Live audience, we’d like to hear from you.

If you’re interested, take this short survey so we can find the best way to get you involved.

Thanks for participating!

Marty Collins
Community Manager for Windows Live

So yeah if you’re interested in joining a new offical Windows Live user community, then you know what to do, take the survey!

Not much hidden info can be getherd from the survey, except it’s title is “MSFT Live Pre-Launch ID Survey”, shall be looking forward to what comes out of this!

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Microsoft Launches New Windows Live Online Services

Darren Straight — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:08:21 +0000

Microsoft has stepped up its software plus services strategy with the launch of its next generation of Windows Live services that make it easier than ever to communicate and share information safely, from anywhere, and across multiple devices.

The new Windows Live offering is a key element in Microsoft’s software plus services approach, designed to deliver a desktop and web experience that work naturally together. This next generation (Wave 2) of Windows Live services provides an all-in-one package to help consumers easily communicate, connect, share and stay safe on the internet.

Today’s launch features enhancements to existing popular features, such as Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger and Spaces, as well as integration of some additional new tools into the Windows Live Suite:

Windows Live Unified Installer: Offers the option of an all-in-one download for the full Windows Live suite of downloadable services

Windows Live Events: A new service for planning events – from inviting friends with any email address to sharing photos after the event

Windows Live Writer: A desktop application that simplifies the process of publishing content to a blog

Windows Live Photo Gallery: A complete solution for finding, fixing, organizing and sharing your digital memories, including photos and videos

The new Windows Live Photo Gallery is a perfect example of the integration of software plus services in Windows Live. This application runs on Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2, and has built-in links to Windows Live Spaces and Windows Live Mail. Customers get the offline access and responsiveness of a rich application, plus the online service benefits of easy sharing and anywhere access.

“Entertainment, community and communication are all deeply intertwined elements of Windows Live,” said Sharon Baylay, General Manager, Microsoft Online Services Group UK. “The suite combines serious communication with a great deal of fun – sending videos, sharing photos, planning events, flirting, chatting, sharing stories and more. We are offering a rich set of software plus web services covering communications, community and entertainment that our customers can use on their desktop or on the move”.

“Five years from now we expect every software product to have a companion online service to support it – customers will come to think of this as standard. It is our software plus services approach that allows us to deliver this and we are one of very few companies that can execute this at scale. We believe the seamless integration between online and offline services will enable us to offer our customers an enhanced user experience.”

The free upgrade for Windows Live is available to download at once, or users can pick and choose their favourite services at http://get.live.com/ and http://www.windowslive.com/

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Windows Live Communicates Its Relaunch

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:20:45 +0000

Goodbye, beta. The assortment of communication and other web services linked together under the Windows Live name offers a single sign-on to access all of its products.

That one-time sign-on makes it easier for people to use email, instant messaging, and all of the products dressed up under the Windows Live brand. The single sign-on takes the form of the Windows Live ID.

People with multiple Windows Live IDs have the opportunity to link all of them together from the service’s management screen. For those who have experimented with Spaces under one ID, and Hotmail under another, for example, this brings the two together.

The services remain the same. On the web, there is Hotmail, Spaces, and the new Events, a calendar and sharing product for planning get-togethers and other activities.

Microsoft really wants people to pick up the package of PC software for Windows Live. Those downloadable products include Mail, Messenger, the new Photo Gallery, Writer, and the Windows Live Toolbar.

Part of Microsoft’s OneCare security service may be obtained as part of Windows Live. The Family Safety product provides a shield to keep inappropriate content off one’s computer and away from younger Internet users.

The launch of Windows Live took the beta label off the various services. Microsoft’s promotion of the new Windows Live included children’s medical nonprofit Operation Smile, which will receive a portion of Windows Live Spaces’ advertising revenue through November and December.

Windows Live Takes A SkyDrive

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:20:03 +0000

The product formerly known as Windows Live Folders has been renamed and opened up to people in the US, UK, and India.

Windows Live Takes A SkyDrive

Microsoft’s Windows Live-branded online file storage service received a new moniker as the beta opened up to a broader audience. SkyDrive allows people to store files and share them with friends or the public.

In simpler terms, it looks like they have made a pretty drag and drop interface for a FTP server, with an easy way to set permissions. They made plenty of storage space available for potential users, with 500MB accounts available.

Users need a Windows Live ID to access the SkyDrive account. Files can be placed into shared folders, and each person will need a Windows Live ID to read or add/delete files, depending on the permissions given to them.

Public folders function as described. The folder owner can share a link to a file in the folder with others as desired. Those visitors receive read access to the content.

The SkyDrive Team posted the main changes they have made to the service, based on feedback from beta testers:

• An upgraded look and feel – new graphics to go along with your new features!
• “Also on SkyDrive” – easily get back to the SkyDrives you

Will AOL Charge More Now?

David Honig — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:09:59 +0000

Nielsen/Netratings has just started ranking Web brands. It does this by measuring “engagement” by total minutes spent with the brand and unique audience. Brands that had a large unique audience spending a long time engaged had the highest score. AOL came in first, followed by Yahoo!, then MSN/Windows Live, with Google coming in fifth.

If that sounds backwards to you, it’s because it is. In fact, it’s basically the exact opposite of what we tell our clients. Anyone in online advertising knows that Google has the largest, most valuable audience, period. But aside from the obvious, there are three additional reasons why this new ranking system is potentially dangerous. First, the measurements aren’t necessarily going to be accurate, second, even if they were accurate, it won’t reflect the value, and third, it might empower high-ranking publisher sites to up their rates without adding value.

Let’s start with reasons why the measurements won’t be accurate. First, there’s the ongoing problem of cookie deletion. According to Nielsen/Netratings, AOL had an audience of 91.6 million unique visitors in May 2007. According to a cookie deletion study by comScore, 31% of users delete their cookies once per month. If a user visits AOL, deletes AOL’s cookie, and then arrives at the site again, AOL erroneously counts that second visit as a unique user. Simple mathematics tells us that AOL’s numbers are inflated by 28 million visitors. True, all brands ranked should be affected equally by cookie deletion, but the true value to advertisers is what suffers here.

Additionally, is time where the user minimizes the browser window counted as time spent “engaged with the brand?” What about time where the user opens a new tab in a browser like Mozilla Firefox, or opens a new window and maximizes it? Or what if I leave a page open and get up to go to the bathroom? Or I could leave my office for a three hour meeting. You get the idea. If Nielsen’s clock is ticking during situations like these, I’m not sure how that time adds value to any brand. What if I have two windows open but minimized, like AOL IM and AOL News. Does that count as twice the time?

But even if the measurements are accurate, it’s hard to see how some of that is relevant to the power of the brand. Suppose I’m on AOL IM for ten hours a day. I have a hard time seeing how that helps me feel connected to the brand beyond the first three minutes of that session. The same goes for the iTunes store and Apple, or Windows Media Player and Microsoft.

Similarly, I find it difficult to believe that there’s any additional value created for advertisers by increasing the length of the impression. Perhaps with a video ad, you’d want to make sure that the viewer sat through the whole thing, but with a static banner ad, or any type of rich media outside of video, a long impression does not equal a more valuable impression. My AOL instant messenger buddy list window may have had a rich media ad for T-Mobile going all day, but, if I notice it at all, I’m unlikely to pay attention to it more than once during the period in which it is open.

This begins to get worrisome because I meet with publishers all the time who charge arbitrary rates. When asked what the value is, they respond, “that’s just our rate card.” The big concern with this is that the publisher sites that rank well will be able to say, “according to Nielsen/Netratings, we’re one of the top one hundred brands on the web, so we’re charging a $20 CPM.”

Personally, I never want to see another rate card again, and the next time I hear a sales guy tell me if I spend more, I will get a discounted rate, he had better be prepared to show me exactly what I’m getting for my money. Time spent on sites and unique users do not guarantee us anything.

Windows Live Platform Discussion

Darren Straight — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:39:40 +0000

Windows Live is best known as a collection of end-user offerings – like Messenger, Spaces, Search, Hotmail and a whole bunch more. It’s also in the process of evolving into a platform. Koji Kato and Danny Thorpe, from the Windows Live platform team, discuss with Catherine Heller a Windows Live Technical Evangelist on Channel 9 their views on internet software and what it means to “componentize” Windows Live.

Koji sets some context by drawing an analogy to Office (00:02:27), and its early evolution from a set of end-user targeted apps to a set of components. Beta versions of the Windows Live Contacts Control and Spaces Photo Control (described by Danny around 00:11:37) represent some of the initial Windows Live components, and include customization plans (00:21:21), international/localization support (00:19:13), and support for multiple browsers (00:18:15).

Koji Kato is a Group Program Manager on the Windows Live platform team.

Danny Thorpe is Architect on the Windows Live platform team.

The interview was conducted by Catherine Heller, Windows Live Technical Evangelist (who you may remember from her former Windows Vista evangelism days).

Check out the video here.

But Koji, why aren’t you blogging yet? you said at the 2nd Windows Live Session in London last year that you would think about it! surely you haven’t decided not too!

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