Microsoft’s 320 million anti-Google weapons

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Yesterday I was sitting in Brian Hall’s office when the Yahoo/Google news was breaking. Who’s he? The guy at Microsoft who runs most of the non-search Windows Live stuff. You know, Hotmail, Messenger, Spaces, and a bunch of other stuff.

We filmed a little fun cell phone video, but our longer interview will be up sometime over next few weeks.

In that he told me what Microsoft is going to do now that the Yahoo deal fell through. He admitted that he was one of the guys working on that deal.

His number one weapon to use against Google?

The 320 million active users of Hotmail and Messenger. That’s 320 million people who have signed into these services in the past 30 days (which, by the way, is WAY up from when I worked at Microsoft — when I worked at Microsoft they were saying 150 to 200 million). Keep in mind that Facebook looks like they just passed 100 million users, so you can see that these are still very popular services.

The trick is how do you get an email user turned into a user of a larger set of services.

Brian showed me several ways. One of the coolest was that if you try to email a photo to someone, which he claimed was still the #1 way to share a photo with people, it automatically uploads those photos to Microsoft’s photo-sharing service and builds links to those pages right in your email.

What did I take away from our visit to Microsoft? You can never count these guys out. They always have the potential to change the marketplace because of how many users still are engaged with their stuff.

The ties they are building between services are interesting. I think Microsoft needs a social networking component like Google’s Friend Connect, though, which would be used on all these services.

Hmmm, why doesn’t Mark Zuckerberg build them one? Imagine if that happened and the social graph showed up on Hotmail and on Messenger?

UPDATE: tons of people are talking about this post over on FriendFeed.

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

Published

96 thoughts on “Microsoft’s 320 million anti-Google weapons”

  1. Pingback: Mike’s Search-Blog » Wie Microsoft gegen Google um Benutzer kämpfen will

  4. Trance: not true. Nice try, though. I’m still on Hotmail and I get very little spam. Also, almost none of the spam I get originates from a Hotmail address.

    Like

  5. Trance: not true. Nice try, though. I’m still on Hotmail and I get very little spam. Also, almost none of the spam I get originates from a Hotmail address.

    Like

  6. I’ve signed in to Hotmail in the last 30 days, but they would have to shoot me and then run my fingers over the keys in order to keep me from using gmail and iGoogle as my regular web tools. If they ended the web clutter and slow loads, maybe. But then they wouldn’t be Microsoft.

    Like

  7. I’ve signed in to Hotmail in the last 30 days, but they would have to shoot me and then run my fingers over the keys in order to keep me from using gmail and iGoogle as my regular web tools. If they ended the web clutter and slow loads, maybe. But then they wouldn’t be Microsoft.

    Like

  8. I’ve signed in to Hotmail in the last 30 days, but they would have to shoot me and then run my fingers over the keys in order to keep me from using gmail and iGoogle as my regular web tools. If they ended the web clutter and slow loads, maybe. But then they wouldn’t be Microsoft.

    Like

  9. I’ve signed in to Hotmail in the last 30 days, but they would have to shoot me and then run my fingers over the keys in order to keep me from using gmail and iGoogle as my regular web tools. If they ended the web clutter and slow loads, maybe. But then they wouldn’t be Microsoft.

    Like

  10. I’ve signed in to Hotmail in the last 30 days, but they would have to shoot me and then run my fingers over the keys in order to keep me from using gmail and iGoogle as my regular web tools. If they ended the web clutter and slow loads, maybe. But then they wouldn’t be Microsoft.

    Like

  11. I’ve signed in to Hotmail in the last 30 days, but they would have to shoot me and then run my fingers over the keys in order to keep me from using gmail and iGoogle as my regular web tools. If they ended the web clutter and slow loads, maybe. But then they wouldn’t be Microsoft.

    Like

  12. “if you try to email a photo to someone … it automatically uploads those photos to Microsoft’s photo-sharing service and builds links to those pages right in your email”

    Wow, what a horrible idea. I don’t suppose there is anything to keep the recipient from posting the link anywhere they want is there? Sure, they could forward or post your attached photos but posting a link is so much easier. How long before someone’s photos end up being seen and/or used by a complete stranger and/or “bad person”.

    Like

  13. “if you try to email a photo to someone … it automatically uploads those photos to Microsoft’s photo-sharing service and builds links to those pages right in your email”

    Wow, what a horrible idea. I don’t suppose there is anything to keep the recipient from posting the link anywhere they want is there? Sure, they could forward or post your attached photos but posting a link is so much easier. How long before someone’s photos end up being seen and/or used by a complete stranger and/or “bad person”.

    Like

  14. Hey Robert, I know it’s only a couple of comments, but I think the few here seem to reflect the real challenge that MS faces in this Google hunting game.

    Like

  15. Hey Robert, I know it’s only a couple of comments, but I think the few here seem to reflect the real challenge that MS faces in this Google hunting game.

    Like

  16. “if you try to email a photo to someone … it automatically uploads those photos to Microsoft’s photo-sharing service and builds links to those pages right in your email”

    Wow, what a horrible idea. I don’t suppose there is anything to keep the recipient from posting the link anywhere they want is there? Sure, they could forward or post your attached photos but posting a link is so much easier. How long before someone’s photos end up being seen and/or used by a complete stranger and/or “bad person”.

    Like

  17. Hey Robert, I know it’s only a couple of comments, but I think the few here seem to reflect the real challenge that MS faces in this Google hunting game.

    Like

  29. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  30. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  31. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  32. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  33. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  34. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  35. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  36. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  37. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  38. I guess I am not the only one that likes Hotmail more then Gmail.

    @Ben, your argument is ridicules if you email the pic, the recipient could do what ever they wanted with it/post it where ever. With a link, you go back and remove it from the server.

    Microsoft almost has a social graph with your email/messenger contacts.

    Like

  46. Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.

    The trouble is they don’t have as accurate a portrayal of the social graph as Facebook does. And nobody is using their other services (Live Events, Spaces/Photos etc)

    Like

  47. Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.

    The trouble is they don’t have as accurate a portrayal of the social graph as Facebook does. And nobody is using their other services (Live Events, Spaces/Photos etc)

    Like

  48. Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.

    The trouble is they don’t have as accurate a portrayal of the social graph as Facebook does. And nobody is using their other services (Live Events, Spaces/Photos etc)

    Like

  49. Scoble,

    You are the Fox news of tech. Not in the conservative way, but in the turn off the volume and watch the cool graphics kind of way. Interesting, but not that deep, a lot of speculation, and fantastical. The consumers are falling away from Microsoft (.) Just because people use something doesn’t make it powerful. Many people use toilet bowl plungers, I heard you need to use yours often for all the crap you spew on the web, but they don’t change much and people don’t expect them to. Toilet plunger makers aren’t that powerful, they just push ish through the pipes.

    Microsoft is a high tech toilet plunger maker. Necessary, but people just don’t care about them much.

    Show me a Microsoft advocate and I’ll show you 100 Apple advocates, etc. The shi(f)t away from Microsoft is happening on every front. They have no chance, just wait.

    Like

  50. Scoble,

    You are the Fox news of tech. Not in the conservative way, but in the turn off the volume and watch the cool graphics kind of way. Interesting, but not that deep, a lot of speculation, and fantastical. The consumers are falling away from Microsoft (.) Just because people use something doesn’t make it powerful. Many people use toilet bowl plungers, I heard you need to use yours often for all the crap you spew on the web, but they don’t change much and people don’t expect them to. Toilet plunger makers aren’t that powerful, they just push ish through the pipes.

    Microsoft is a high tech toilet plunger maker. Necessary, but people just don’t care about them much.

    Show me a Microsoft advocate and I’ll show you 100 Apple advocates, etc. The shi(f)t away from Microsoft is happening on every front. They have no chance, just wait.

    Like

  51. Scoble,

    You are the Fox news of tech. Not in the conservative way, but in the turn off the volume and watch the cool graphics kind of way. Interesting, but not that deep, a lot of speculation, and fantastical. The consumers are falling away from Microsoft (.) Just because people use something doesn’t make it powerful. Many people use toilet bowl plungers, I heard you need to use yours often for all the crap you spew on the web, but they don’t change much and people don’t expect them to. Toilet plunger makers aren’t that powerful, they just push ish through the pipes.

    Microsoft is a high tech toilet plunger maker. Necessary, but people just don’t care about them much.

    Show me a Microsoft advocate and I’ll show you 100 Apple advocates, etc. The shi(f)t away from Microsoft is happening on every front. They have no chance, just wait.

    Like

  52. Scoble,

    You are the Fox news of tech. Not in the conservative way, but in the turn off the volume and watch the cool graphics kind of way. Interesting, but not that deep, a lot of speculation, and fantastical. The consumers are falling away from Microsoft (.) Just because people use something doesn’t make it powerful. Many people use toilet bowl plungers, I heard you need to use yours often for all the crap you spew on the web, but they don’t change much and people don’t expect them to. Toilet plunger makers aren’t that powerful, they just push ish through the pipes.

    Microsoft is a high tech toilet plunger maker. Necessary, but people just don’t care about them much.

    Show me a Microsoft advocate and I’ll show you 100 Apple advocates, etc. The shi(f)t away from Microsoft is happening on every front. They have no chance, just wait.

    Like

  53. Scoble,

    You are the Fox news of tech. Not in the conservative way, but in the turn off the volume and watch the cool graphics kind of way. Interesting, but not that deep, a lot of speculation, and fantastical. The consumers are falling away from Microsoft (.) Just because people use something doesn’t make it powerful. Many people use toilet bowl plungers, I heard you need to use yours often for all the crap you spew on the web, but they don’t change much and people don’t expect them to. Toilet plunger makers aren’t that powerful, they just push ish through the pipes.

    Microsoft is a high tech toilet plunger maker. Necessary, but people just don’t care about them much.

    Show me a Microsoft advocate and I’ll show you 100 Apple advocates, etc. The shi(f)t away from Microsoft is happening on every front. They have no chance, just wait.

    Like

  54. Scoble,

    You are the Fox news of tech. Not in the conservative way, but in the turn off the volume and watch the cool graphics kind of way. Interesting, but not that deep, a lot of speculation, and fantastical. The consumers are falling away from Microsoft (.) Just because people use something doesn’t make it powerful. Many people use toilet bowl plungers, I heard you need to use yours often for all the crap you spew on the web, but they don’t change much and people don’t expect them to. Toilet plunger makers aren’t that powerful, they just push ish through the pipes.

    Microsoft is a high tech toilet plunger maker. Necessary, but people just don’t care about them much.

    Show me a Microsoft advocate and I’ll show you 100 Apple advocates, etc. The shi(f)t away from Microsoft is happening on every front. They have no chance, just wait.

    Like

  55. Of course people who follow Scoble are usually people who try new stuff and like GMail, GTalk, MAC OS.. But if you think of other people who just like to get ther email and chat, which is like 90% of the people who use computers, I can tell (from my friend group) that 9/10 will say they use Hotmail, Messenger, IE, and Windows. They just don’t care if GMail is better, they are so used to Hotmail and Messenger that they won’t change, they just like it and fell confortable with using those services.

    Like

  56. Of course people who follow Scoble are usually people who try new stuff and like GMail, GTalk, MAC OS.. But if you think of other people who just like to get ther email and chat, which is like 90% of the people who use computers, I can tell (from my friend group) that 9/10 will say they use Hotmail, Messenger, IE, and Windows. They just don’t care if GMail is better, they are so used to Hotmail and Messenger that they won’t change, they just like it and fell confortable with using those services.

    Like

  57. Of course people who follow Scoble are usually people who try new stuff and like GMail, GTalk, MAC OS.. But if you think of other people who just like to get ther email and chat, which is like 90% of the people who use computers, I can tell (from my friend group) that 9/10 will say they use Hotmail, Messenger, IE, and Windows. They just don’t care if GMail is better, they are so used to Hotmail and Messenger that they won’t change, they just like it and fell confortable with using those services.

    Like

  58. Of course people who follow Scoble are usually people who try new stuff and like GMail, GTalk, MAC OS.. But if you think of other people who just like to get ther email and chat, which is like 90% of the people who use computers, I can tell (from my friend group) that 9/10 will say they use Hotmail, Messenger, IE, and Windows. They just don’t care if GMail is better, they are so used to Hotmail and Messenger that they won’t change, they just like it and fell confortable with using those services.

    Like

  59. Of course people who follow Scoble are usually people who try new stuff and like GMail, GTalk, MAC OS.. But if you think of other people who just like to get ther email and chat, which is like 90% of the people who use computers, I can tell (from my friend group) that 9/10 will say they use Hotmail, Messenger, IE, and Windows. They just don’t care if GMail is better, they are so used to Hotmail and Messenger that they won’t change, they just like it and fell confortable with using those services.

    Like

  60. Of course people who follow Scoble are usually people who try new stuff and like GMail, GTalk, MAC OS.. But if you think of other people who just like to get ther email and chat, which is like 90% of the people who use computers, I can tell (from my friend group) that 9/10 will say they use Hotmail, Messenger, IE, and Windows. They just don’t care if GMail is better, they are so used to Hotmail and Messenger that they won’t change, they just like it and fell confortable with using those services.

    Like

  67. @William:

    “Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.”

    I know absolutely nothing about the product, but from the catchy and descriptive name I can already be sure it’s a Microsoft product!

    @Robert:

    The biggest obstacle facing Microsoft in regards to Hotmail is reputation. When your average semi-geek hears “Gmail” they probably think of the early 2000s, but “Hotmail” conjures up visions of the late 1990s… and not good visions either.

    That said, even this non-MS fan and GOOG stock holder hopes that MS succeeds – competition always makes for a better consumer product.

    Like

  68. @William:

    “Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.”

    I know absolutely nothing about the product, but from the catchy and descriptive name I can already be sure it’s a Microsoft product!

    @Robert:

    The biggest obstacle facing Microsoft in regards to Hotmail is reputation. When your average semi-geek hears “Gmail” they probably think of the early 2000s, but “Hotmail” conjures up visions of the late 1990s… and not good visions either.

    That said, even this non-MS fan and GOOG stock holder hopes that MS succeeds – competition always makes for a better consumer product.

    Like

  69. @William:

    “Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.”

    I know absolutely nothing about the product, but from the catchy and descriptive name I can already be sure it’s a Microsoft product!

    @Robert:

    The biggest obstacle facing Microsoft in regards to Hotmail is reputation. When your average semi-geek hears “Gmail” they probably think of the early 2000s, but “Hotmail” conjures up visions of the late 1990s… and not good visions either.

    That said, even this non-MS fan and GOOG stock holder hopes that MS succeeds – competition always makes for a better consumer product.

    Like

  70. @William:

    “Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.”

    I know absolutely nothing about the product, but from the catchy and descriptive name I can already be sure it’s a Microsoft product!

    @Robert:

    The biggest obstacle facing Microsoft in regards to Hotmail is reputation. When your average semi-geek hears “Gmail” they probably think of the early 2000s, but “Hotmail” conjures up visions of the late 1990s… and not good visions either.

    That said, even this non-MS fan and GOOG stock holder hopes that MS succeeds – competition always makes for a better consumer product.

    Like

  71. @William:

    “Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.”

    I know absolutely nothing about the product, but from the catchy and descriptive name I can already be sure it’s a Microsoft product!

    @Robert:

    The biggest obstacle facing Microsoft in regards to Hotmail is reputation. When your average semi-geek hears “Gmail” they probably think of the early 2000s, but “Hotmail” conjures up visions of the late 1990s… and not good visions either.

    That said, even this non-MS fan and GOOG stock holder hopes that MS succeeds – competition always makes for a better consumer product.

    Like

  72. @William:

    “Robert, they already have a “Friend Connect”. It’s called Windows Live ID Delegated Authentication and they are way ahead of the curve on it.”

    I know absolutely nothing about the product, but from the catchy and descriptive name I can already be sure it’s a Microsoft product!

    @Robert:

    The biggest obstacle facing Microsoft in regards to Hotmail is reputation. When your average semi-geek hears “Gmail” they probably think of the early 2000s, but “Hotmail” conjures up visions of the late 1990s… and not good visions either.

    That said, even this non-MS fan and GOOG stock holder hopes that MS succeeds – competition always makes for a better consumer product.

    Like

  73. Robert says: “The 320 million active users of Hotmail and Messenger. That’s 320 million people who have signed into these services in the past 30 days (which, by the way, is WAY up from when I worked at Microsoft — when I worked at Microsoft they were saying 150 to 200 million).”

    I’m more than a bit suspicious of these numbers. “from when [you] worked at Microsoft” hasn’t been that long. Of the people I know, the trend is far, far stronger moving away from Microsoft web services compared to moving to them, especially hotmail. My guess is either they’re counting logins differently now, perhaps counting a single login (at the browser level) twice, once for hotmail and once for messenger (with the browser programmed to log in separately to these services), or some browser plug-in or some such (like Gmail Manager for Firefox) has gotten popular amongst occasional users who want to keep track of either their old hardly-used hotmail accounts or the seldom-used secondary accounts they may have set up.

    Integration between applications is a great feature which has been very successful for Microsoft in the past. The problem is in their approach. Everyone else is doing this sort of integration too, but they are willing to integrate with third-party applications on multiple platforms. Microsoft depends on the lock-in that has insured the windfall profits they are used to, and can’t afford to integrate with non-Microsoft services or especially non-Microsoft platforms. As Microsoft continues to lose their monopoly grip on the OS platform, previously successful lock-in strategies will lose their effectiveness as they find theirselves transitioning from “only game in town” to “odd man out”.

    Like

  74. Robert says: “The 320 million active users of Hotmail and Messenger. That’s 320 million people who have signed into these services in the past 30 days (which, by the way, is WAY up from when I worked at Microsoft — when I worked at Microsoft they were saying 150 to 200 million).”

    I’m more than a bit suspicious of these numbers. “from when [you] worked at Microsoft” hasn’t been that long. Of the people I know, the trend is far, far stronger moving away from Microsoft web services compared to moving to them, especially hotmail. My guess is either they’re counting logins differently now, perhaps counting a single login (at the browser level) twice, once for hotmail and once for messenger (with the browser programmed to log in separately to these services), or some browser plug-in or some such (like Gmail Manager for Firefox) has gotten popular amongst occasional users who want to keep track of either their old hardly-used hotmail accounts or the seldom-used secondary accounts they may have set up.

    Integration between applications is a great feature which has been very successful for Microsoft in the past. The problem is in their approach. Everyone else is doing this sort of integration too, but they are willing to integrate with third-party applications on multiple platforms. Microsoft depends on the lock-in that has insured the windfall profits they are used to, and can’t afford to integrate with non-Microsoft services or especially non-Microsoft platforms. As Microsoft continues to lose their monopoly grip on the OS platform, previously successful lock-in strategies will lose their effectiveness as they find theirselves transitioning from “only game in town” to “odd man out”.

    Like

  75. Robert says: “The 320 million active users of Hotmail and Messenger. That’s 320 million people who have signed into these services in the past 30 days (which, by the way, is WAY up from when I worked at Microsoft — when I worked at Microsoft they were saying 150 to 200 million).”

    I’m more than a bit suspicious of these numbers. “from when [you] worked at Microsoft” hasn’t been that long. Of the people I know, the trend is far, far stronger moving away from Microsoft web services compared to moving to them, especially hotmail. My guess is either they’re counting logins differently now, perhaps counting a single login (at the browser level) twice, once for hotmail and once for messenger (with the browser programmed to log in separately to these services), or some browser plug-in or some such (like Gmail Manager for Firefox) has gotten popular amongst occasional users who want to keep track of either their old hardly-used hotmail accounts or the seldom-used secondary accounts they may have set up.

    Integration between applications is a great feature which has been very successful for Microsoft in the past. The problem is in their approach. Everyone else is doing this sort of integration too, but they are willing to integrate with third-party applications on multiple platforms. Microsoft depends on the lock-in that has insured the windfall profits they are used to, and can’t afford to integrate with non-Microsoft services or especially non-Microsoft platforms. As Microsoft continues to lose their monopoly grip on the OS platform, previously successful lock-in strategies will lose their effectiveness as they find theirselves transitioning from “only game in town” to “odd man out”.

    Like

  76. Robert says: “The 320 million active users of Hotmail and Messenger. That’s 320 million people who have signed into these services in the past 30 days (which, by the way, is WAY up from when I worked at Microsoft — when I worked at Microsoft they were saying 150 to 200 million).”

    I’m more than a bit suspicious of these numbers. “from when [you] worked at Microsoft” hasn’t been that long. Of the people I know, the trend is far, far stronger moving away from Microsoft web services compared to moving to them, especially hotmail. My guess is either they’re counting logins differently now, perhaps counting a single login (at the browser level) twice, once for hotmail and once for messenger (with the browser programmed to log in separately to these services), or some browser plug-in or some such (like Gmail Manager for Firefox) has gotten popular amongst occasional users who want to keep track of either their old hardly-used hotmail accounts or the seldom-used secondary accounts they may have set up.

    Integration between applications is a great feature which has been very successful for Microsoft in the past. The problem is in their approach. Everyone else is doing this sort of integration too, but they are willing to integrate with third-party applications on multiple platforms. Microsoft depends on the lock-in that has insured the windfall profits they are used to, and can’t afford to integrate with non-Microsoft services or especially non-Microsoft platforms. As Microsoft continues to lose their monopoly grip on the OS platform, previously successful lock-in strategies will lose their effectiveness as they find theirselves transitioning from “only game in town” to “odd man out”.

    Like

  77. Robert says: “The 320 million active users of Hotmail and Messenger. That’s 320 million people who have signed into these services in the past 30 days (which, by the way, is WAY up from when I worked at Microsoft — when I worked at Microsoft they were saying 150 to 200 million).”

    I’m more than a bit suspicious of these numbers. “from when [you] worked at Microsoft” hasn’t been that long. Of the people I know, the trend is far, far stronger moving away from Microsoft web services compared to moving to them, especially hotmail. My guess is either they’re counting logins differently now, perhaps counting a single login (at the browser level) twice, once for hotmail and once for messenger (with the browser programmed to log in separately to these services), or some browser plug-in or some such (like Gmail Manager for Firefox) has gotten popular amongst occasional users who want to keep track of either their old hardly-used hotmail accounts or the seldom-used secondary accounts they may have set up.

    Integration between applications is a great feature which has been very successful for Microsoft in the past. The problem is in their approach. Everyone else is doing this sort of integration too, but they are willing to integrate with third-party applications on multiple platforms. Microsoft depends on the lock-in that has insured the windfall profits they are used to, and can’t afford to integrate with non-Microsoft services or especially non-Microsoft platforms. As Microsoft continues to lose their monopoly grip on the OS platform, previously successful lock-in strategies will lose their effectiveness as they find theirselves transitioning from “only game in town” to “odd man out”.

    Like

  78. to be honest, If i wanted to share a picture on a website instead of send it to someone I would do so, no email provider has the right to do something else than I intend to…..

    And guess what, it wouldn’t be Microsofts service I would be using then..

    I want a service to act as I think it would act and not get a mind of its own and starting to do stuff it shouldn’t do without asking my consent..

    Like

  79. to be honest, If i wanted to share a picture on a website instead of send it to someone I would do so, no email provider has the right to do something else than I intend to…..

    And guess what, it wouldn’t be Microsofts service I would be using then..

    I want a service to act as I think it would act and not get a mind of its own and starting to do stuff it shouldn’t do without asking my consent..

    Like

  80. to be honest, If i wanted to share a picture on a website instead of send it to someone I would do so, no email provider has the right to do something else than I intend to…..

    And guess what, it wouldn’t be Microsofts service I would be using then..

    I want a service to act as I think it would act and not get a mind of its own and starting to do stuff it shouldn’t do without asking my consent..

    Like

  81. to be honest, If i wanted to share a picture on a website instead of send it to someone I would do so, no email provider has the right to do something else than I intend to…..

    And guess what, it wouldn’t be Microsofts service I would be using then..

    I want a service to act as I think it would act and not get a mind of its own and starting to do stuff it shouldn’t do without asking my consent..

    Like

  82. to be honest, If i wanted to share a picture on a website instead of send it to someone I would do so, no email provider has the right to do something else than I intend to…..

    And guess what, it wouldn’t be Microsofts service I would be using then..

    I want a service to act as I think it would act and not get a mind of its own and starting to do stuff it shouldn’t do without asking my consent..

    Like

  83. Pingback: Windows Update » Blog Archive » Microsoft’s Number One Anti-Google Weapon - WindowsDailyNews.com

  84. TranceMist made a good point. Half of the spam I receive comes from Hotmail.

    I also agree with neverness. There’s no way a service/program should do something I didn’t ask it to do. First, they upload pictures, then they may start to upload my e-mails (even by mistake).

    Finding new way of involving users is ok (as far as it can be ok), but there must be some limits.

    Like

  85. TranceMist made a good point. Half of the spam I receive comes from Hotmail.

    I also agree with neverness. There’s no way a service/program should do something I didn’t ask it to do. First, they upload pictures, then they may start to upload my e-mails (even by mistake).

    Finding new way of involving users is ok (as far as it can be ok), but there must be some limits.

    Like

  86. TranceMist made a good point. Half of the spam I receive comes from Hotmail.

    I also agree with neverness. There’s no way a service/program should do something I didn’t ask it to do. First, they upload pictures, then they may start to upload my e-mails (even by mistake).

    Finding new way of involving users is ok (as far as it can be ok), but there must be some limits.

    Like

  87. TranceMist made a good point. Half of the spam I receive comes from Hotmail.

    I also agree with neverness. There’s no way a service/program should do something I didn’t ask it to do. First, they upload pictures, then they may start to upload my e-mails (even by mistake).

    Finding new way of involving users is ok (as far as it can be ok), but there must be some limits.

    Like

  88. TranceMist made a good point. Half of the spam I receive comes from Hotmail.

    I also agree with neverness. There’s no way a service/program should do something I didn’t ask it to do. First, they upload pictures, then they may start to upload my e-mails (even by mistake).

    Finding new way of involving users is ok (as far as it can be ok), but there must be some limits.

    Like

  89. Pingback: Mike’s Lookout » Blog Archive » Users as Pawns in the Game
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