Microsoft: too business oriented to get Web 2.0?
Kaliya, Identity Woman, says that to Microsoft we are just customers. “It seems to me that their language regarding those of us who use their stuff - customers. Individuals who buy stuff most notably not creators.”
Very astute. Of course I don’t think Bill Gates will be able to ignore that MySpace announced (at Mix06) that they had just passed MSN and are now in the #2 spot on most popular Web sites.
It’s real fun watching the reactions coming through about Mix06 over on Technorati. Marc Canter, of course, asked the first audience question about open standards. You can see what everyone says about Marc Canter on blogs too.
It’s funny, we create our own content here too. On10.net today Duncan MacKenzie shows how to use an iPod and a PSP to watch its content. Huh? What’s going on here? Someone is gonna get fired. Or not.
Lots of photos from Mix are up on Flickr too.
Someday we’ll all realize that the cool stuff on the Web is two-way.
Oh, and wait until I start doing demos of Second Life to Microsofties. One inch at a time. One inch at a time.
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March 20th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
So Robert, you said, last week, “Wait until next week” in response to me bitching about no information from Microsoft regarding improvements to Vista interoperating with other Non-MS platforms.
Got Link?
March 20th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
[...] How much petty cash would it cost to send someone with a keen eye on conversations (Scoble!!!) down to the hardware store, grab 40 garden power extension coils, and then plug in some power strips to these and spread them throughout all the rooms? [...]
March 20th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Gates 2.0
The Scobleizer leaked photos of a supersecret meeting between Bill Gates and Michael Arrington. According to sources close to Bill he was seeking advice on how to leave the Big Bad Corporation behind and launch an exciting Web 2.0 startup. Michae…
March 20th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Is anyone still in charge at Microsoft. Who let MySpace hijack the event today and announce their platform was number 2 and now a better option for advertisiers. MySpace and BSkyB must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Well don’t say I didn’t warn you MSN UK. With MySpace messenger just released I suspect that MSN Messenger might start to lose marketshare rather rapidly also! I guess an announcement at this years PDC or at the launch of Vista might be a good place for MySpace to announce they are the No1 Messenger provider.
As for the MSN Spaces team they really should be ashamed of themselves. They have been really sloooow to respond to this threat and now it might be too late to deliver new modules such as aggregated category pages or a blog jukebox player like MySpaces. Yes the UI looks better(?), Yes the Pro version contains no adverts and finaly their is an invite friends link to messenger. The problem was the MSN Spaces team were too busy crowing about how many people had tried their new blog service(20m). But how many of those blogs are actually active and used daily/regularly and how many are simply test sites like mine? I use MSN Messenger and so tried the MSN Spaces link like many other people.
And to make matters worse, MySpace’s owners BSkyB are asking MSN UK/EMEA to provide them with a whitelabel email solution to help them fill the gap in their current customer strategy. And guess what instead of MSN saying no and keeping one their few competitive advantages - a scalable email solution based on Hotmail - MSN EMEA Business development leed by AP are instead bending over backwards to respond to a tender and offer them a whitelabel service at next to no cost!
If BSkyB are successful then watch Live Mail become another rapidly abandoned site as teenage users continue to migrate on mass to the MySpace platform - blog, messenger and mail - where all their friends and the cool bands hangout.
March 20th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
Robert, I would suggest Microsoft does not get business …your enterprise apps, database, middleware, professional service etc are 5, 10 , 15% players…given how much bigger the enterprise market is compared to web 2.0 (though much more boring!) that’s where you should be focused..as Ballmer said - focus on IBM,,,
March 20th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Sam, good point! But, this is the hard part of being a platform company: you must let other people win on top of your platform (and, even, celebrate when they do, even as they are beating other parts of your business).
Not an easy dance to do, that’s for sure.
March 20th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Vinnie: agreed.
March 20th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Robert, please don’t tell me that Atlas was your big “Wait until next week” news for interoperability.
Because if MS-Branded Ajax is the sum total of interoperability improvements in Vista and Vista server, sans even a mention of WPF/E, that could very well be the final sign that Steve Ballmer == John Akers, and still thinks that Microsoft can dictate how the computing world will interoperate.
I’d rather not see that, but quite honestly, I don’t see him able to change. He cannot see non-MS platforms as anything but a threat unless forced to with a gun at his head. (The Sun Java Lawsuit being a great example. Face it, without that, He’d have never gotten on stage with McNealy, and you’ll note that not a lot has happened since that “Look, Sun did all the work to interoperate with Active Directory and Windows, we just stand here and smile” dog and pony show.
I’m glad the Xbox is a hot sell, but what’s that have to do with Active Directory or Longhorn server? I’m not sure what the point of Origami was, oh wait, i’m sorry, “Ultra Mobile PC”, other than yet another SKU.
There’s very few things at Microsoft that are simple to buy, and Vista is making this worse, not better. XP started with what, two versions, now there’s six. Vista has six as well, and just as dumb.
Two versions of Windows Mobile 5, (the one that was only supposed to have one version).
There’s *four* versions of Server 2003 32-bit, FIVE versions of the 64 - bit, (and I’m being kind by not differentiating between the SP1/R2 versions on the various architectures)…I mean, holy shamoley…is there a contest to see how many SKUs you can add until people finally say “get bent Steve?”
so for just currently shipping versions of Windows, there’s SEVENTEEN SKUs.
That’s *insane*, and if you want to know why I say Microsoft lacks focus, there’s a great reason to start right there. There’s no reason for that many versions of the OS, other than an inability to do things any other way.
But yeah, I’m not seeing major interoperability news here.
March 20th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
Oh, and wait until I start doing demos of Second Life to Microsofties.
Yeah, and Vista gets delayed another 6 months to a year, while the programmers and geeks, froth on in fakery virtual worlds. Plueeezzzze. Second Life demo’s? You gonna quit Microsoft, like Beth, and become a Virtual World Evangelist?
Web 2.0 is but vaporware, so nothing to get at all, business-oriented or not. But being business-oriented is where you should always be, not playing tiddlywinks with sewer-dwelling Valleysnake HTML web creatures, on a fools-gold shortsell mission to GYM.
March 20th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Great topic, can I pick up on “we” are creators. The big Microsoft may or may not lose out on the desktop, where this creative area is evolving, but definable. The mobile creative area however would appear to be somewhat more open.
Are “we” (a global audience) more likely to create from the mobile than the PC - probably. Given this, there is a different platform game for creation. I will snap a picture from the smart phone and publish - I create. But where will I consume - on the PC screen.
Assuming creation on mobile and consumption on the PC, surely Microsoft should be more worried about the mobile device as a platform company than providing email services?
March 21st, 2006 at 6:53 am
“That’s *insane*, and if you want to know why I say Microsoft lacks focus, there’s a great reason to start right there. There’s no reason for that many versions of the OS, other than an inability to do things any other way.”
I don’t see you ranting that when you buy gas, there are no less than 5-6 flavors at stations today, or coffee at starbucks. It’s all about choice. I don’t want or need to pay for media center capabilities. It’s all about choice.
March 21st, 2006 at 9:59 am
Oh please, stop with the pseudo choice argument. That’s only valid for Windows because you can’t not run stuff. Unix has solved this problem for decades, as has the mainframe and minis. Don’t run stuff you don’t use.
If Microsoft came out with one version of Vista that, like other platforms, customized the install process to the hardware you were using, and charged one price that didn’t go up constantly, you wouldn’t complain a damned bit. But because Microsoft very cleverly has different prices for crippling various things on your OS build, you think you’re saving something.
It’s funny how only Microsoft is unable to handle a modular OS. Is there some crippling lack of technical ability in Redmond that keeps them from being able to do this? Has Apple, Sun, and the various Linux distros STOLEN all the installer geniuses, and there’s no more for Microsoft?
Or is it that the current method lets them make you pay multiple times for essentially the same code? Yeah…that sounds about right.
Just because they’ve suckered you into believing it doesn’t make it the truth.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:26 pm
“One inch at a time. One inch at a time.”
Obscure V for Vendetta homage?
March 21st, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Sam Seth, you should be more concerned about BSkyB :)
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:43 am
Digg has got Vista being pushed back until Jan 07′ now? Is this true?
I guess I didn’t win that “guess Vista release date” contest since I clocked in for Dec 1 :-(
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:05 am
I say May 15th, 2007. They have one more stumble, one more announcement, before it gets out. After winter, but before summer. Seems likely, and an ‘emergency service pack’ on Patch Tuesday in June, of which there will be .wmf-style wailings until such.
You know, I am getting SICK of rent-a-quote Joe Wilcoxisms, diplomatically spit and shining things. Microsoft paid him off well tho, he does the bidding, quite well. But it always annoys me to no end when AP starts quoting the rent-a-quote crowds as impartial.
March 22nd, 2006 at 5:22 am
Oh but Ballmer will explain how it’s not really late, and how it will be the greatest thing EVAR!!!111
Oh, Robert, still waiting on that “wait until next week” hint you were dropping with regard to improved interoperability in Vista.
You know, if there’s nothing beyond Atlas, just say so and take the lumps. Because there’s still nothing new on msdn.microsoft.com on WPF/E, and I’m really about to start writing the article saying “Put up or admit it was a handjob to make people think that Microsoft was going to play nice with others”
No new news since September of 2005, not even a status report. Yeah, I’m thinking WPF/E on non-ms platforms was YAMS handjob to make it look like they were taking interoperability with platforms not of redmond seriously.
like THAT was going to happen.
March 22nd, 2006 at 8:53 am
John: there was a whole session today on WPF/E. I’m sure you’ll hear more about the session and what was demonstrated soon.
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Robert…WPF/E on non-microsoft platforms, or just about WPF/E on Windows Mobile devices?
As well, without *real documentation* so what? You do realize that companies who make a living on heterogeneous products cannot even begin to use WPF/E until it is properly documented, right?
So, when they get some real documentation up on WPF/E on non-MS platforms, I’ll care. Until then, it’s just Microsoft trying to jerk me off.
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Oh wait, it gets sillier. From Network World, (Because, why would I go to MSDN for Microsoft Developer information?)
“Microsoft will release the first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of WPF/E in the third quarter. In the first half of next year, it will release WPF/E plug-ins that will allow graphics built for Windows to run on browsers, including Apple’s Safari, Mozilla.’s Firefox, and Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer.”
So, let me make sure I have this correct:
1) WPF/E was shown in September, and hyped as “Look we get that there are other platforms”, then promptly ignored for six months, until Mix06.
2) It’s going to be at LEAST another three months, possibly another five until devs can realistically start writing WPF/E code even on Vista betas.
3) However, they won’t be able to test that code on non-MS platforms until sometime between January and JUNE of 2007.
Is this a joke? I’m serious. Microsoft expects people to write cross-platform code without a way to test any of it for between three months to possibly a year?
It makes this statement:
Microsoft bills WPF/E as a more flexible alternative to Adobe ’s Macromedia Flash, which also is both a developer technology for building multimedia content and a plug-in that can be downloaded to allow rich graphics to run on the Web.
HILARIOUS. WPF/E may be more flexible, but Flash is FAR more AVAILABLE. See, Robert, in “the real world”, the tool I can USE is better than the tool I don’t have.
Moving at the speed of tar, Microsoft is. Better get out of the way, or they’ll run you over like Cranky Old Man with a new walker.
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:09 pm
If you’re implying is Microsoft too corporate to get Web 2.0, I disagree. I think that they have an obligation to invest in new technologies and do what makes sense for their users and shareholders. I’d feel incredibly uncomfortable knowing that MS and other companies are reliving the 90’s tech boom by buying up a bunch of Web 2.0 companies just to have them in their stable. Long term vision, not short term buzz, is what keeps them profitable. Bottom line — if consumers want it, companies will build or buy it.
June 28th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
this is delightful. http://www.mqgary.com
July 12th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
True money is made selling crippled Windows versions over at Microsoft. But one thing that speaks against the modular OS would be ease of install (never mind the two could be combined :) )
As for WPF/E it makes pretty good sense to support other platforms, as it would seem the plan is to do just about everything that is UI the WPF way.
Where the current situation is more of a “compatibility issue” eg. “Does things look exactly right or are they just readable?” moving from HTML to XAML is “Does it or don’t it”.
August 5th, 2006 at 5:19 am
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