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1814 days ago
More on the Microsoft Spaces strategy: What is fascinating about Spaces is the degree of integration with Microsoft media management tools and services--and not just music, but photos and, I think soon, consumer video. The result is a powerful new product and service integration, and one that will help out Microsoft clients such as Dell and HP. Think of it this way--when Dell and HP sell you a media-oriented personal computer, now you have a powerful sharing service, free, that is just a click away. The total offer begins to approach the degree of media integration provided by Apple, but in a mainstream PC environment. So the big beneficiary of the Spaces service is not just the consumer, but the consumer-oriented personal computer companies. This is very different from Typepad and Blogger, which function largely independently of machine and operating system type.
1822 days ago
Ok, I am starting to get the product vision, mainly by reflecting on what my non-technical brother is doing with his site, Wyoming Wind. What I realize is that the close integration of the Spaces.msn.com blog service with a Windows PC's Microsoft Media Player and photo software is akin to the close integration that MAC users feel with iTunes. The integration is not experienced as "lock in" but "convenience." What Spaces makes easy is displaying and sharing home media--tunes, photos, notes--especially for those who own Windows media-oriented PC setups, such as those increasingly promoted by HP, Gateway, Dell. The Spaces service is just one step away from selling tunes and other audio materials--sort of "alt Podcasting" aimed at Windows machines.. And letting folks share their playlists and then buy from the central store. Much like Andrew Grumett's vision of TIVO users sharing playlists and then downloading from a central service.. The use ...
An instant review of spaces.msn.com, Microsoft's new blogging service, with special attention to ...1822 days ago
Spaces.msn.com is Microsoft's new blogging service, released in beta to the public Wednesday. I invested most of my Thursday afternoon setting up a new blog on the service, in order to try it out. My new test blog is called "Strategy." You can visit it at http://spaces.msn.com/members/strategy The RSS 2.0 feed source is http://spaces.msn.com/members/strategy/feed.rss I intend to develop the blog into a place to discuss strategic thinking, strategy making and the use of ecological concepts in strategy. I. Overall, I found the Microsoft service to be an attractive beta entry into the field. It has a good, simple interface, and it provides core blogging functions effectively. It is not a visionary product--it is, perhaps not surprisingly, a fast-follower product that looks and feels very much like its leading competitors. Because the service looks and feels most like Typepad, and because I view Typepad as the current market and feature leader, I've focused ...
1823 days ago
The quiet launch of Microsoft's public blogging service, Spaces.msn.com, is the start of something very big..mark my words :) Note the global nature of the service--14 languages and 26 markets--and then consider the potential impact of an obvious next feature step: support for cross-language blog translation and links..Hello noosphere! I don't expect the other blog platforms to remain far behind..the competitive dynamic will stimulate Typepad, Blogger, and others to bring multi-language features to the market sooner than would have happened without this stimulus, and will help make blogs accessible to people across the whole world.. But for Microsoft across the wider world, there is another advantage: The most used platforms for communication are in the developing world, for example, across Africa, are (1) hosted email--such as Microsoft Hotmail--and (2) hosted instant messaging. Msn.spaces.com works with Microsoft instant messaging, and with Hotmail. Hmmm. I predict ...
