Microsoft Lives
Somebody's feeling threatened. Forget everything you ever heard about the rumor regarding Microsoft and Google being direct competitors. Don't forget the content of the debate, simply forget the debate and the rumor themselves. It is no longer a rumor or debate, but fact. If you have any doubts, visit Microsoft's new live.com. Does anything look familiar? Can you say "Flamboyant Google Clone?" Let's just say that the sleeping giant has awakened. Mickey, Goofy and Donald (perhaps Google, Yahoo and ?) better get their act together, because when the giant wakes, he quakes.
As a side-note to give credit where it's due, Microsoft's move may also have been influenced by Yahoo's recent revamping of their website and suite of applications, which also closely resembles live.com
So how does live.com resemble Google, and what does it have to offer users? First of all, live.com is a stage for a variety of internet applications, much like Google is. Google has a lean interface that allows you a connection to a variety of services, including a web search engine (arguably the ridiculously prevalent and king of such), image search, video platform, news forum, maps application, and ridiculously large list of other tools found here. Live.com offers a similar list of tools including a web search engine, image search, news forum, map application (called Local), and a growing list of Google equivalents. Live.com also has an all encompassing style, menu (though the menu is kinda buggy yet) and appearance throughout its suite of applications, a somewhat wise and unprecedented move for Microsoft.
The "scary" and amazing part of this story is the fact that this move of Microsoft is a direct blow to Google. Prior to this release, Google enjoyed virtually no significant competition in the arena they pioneered. They pretty much awed the world with their understanding and implementation of new technologies, often using a form of AJAX to give their tools a desktop application feel. It is evident that Microsoft has mirrored this sentiment, and all the live components present a brilliant and stunning and modular desktop application feel and function. Live.com, in my opinion, has upped the ante for Google, offering a far richer interface experience, and in some select cases, more powerful functionality and content than the Google powerhouse suite.
To catalog in exacting detail a comparison between each equivalent component of Google and Live.com would be outside the scope (patience) of this blog entry, but I will take the time to highlight some of my favorites. I will structure my thoughts using the live.com components as the basis for comparison and description, simply because people are largely already familiar with what Google offers. This article is more about what live.com is all about, since it's the new kid on the block. I'll try to be open about my own personal thoughts and am not afraid to say which company clearly has the upper hand in a particular area.
It is of congratulatory noteworthiness that I must mention all Windows Live components appear to function properly in Firefox. This is astounding because typically Microsoft develops and overuses proprietary technology with the sole purpose of promoting themselves and mudslinging the competition. They must have realized that intelligent people frown upon this sort of activity when perfectly acceptable alternatives (usually better than Microsoft's options anyway) exist in standard-compliant code and existing web technologies. I'm somewhat surprised that live.com works in anything but IE (Internet Exploder). Perhaps recent events have triggered in the ancient minds of Microsoft's big wigs that they need to finally get the with the program when it comes to web and browser technology. They might even give Mozilla a run for their "nonprofit money", thought IE7 simply won't cut it. We'll have to wait several more years for version 8 of Internet Explorer to come out to finally compete with version 1 of Firefox, showing the web how it was designed to be! At any rate, hats off to Microsoft for this intelligent move toward more standards-compliant code on live.com.
Windows Live Local Go!
Without a doubt, Microsoft's map application is the most recent and impressive addition. In fact, I would say it is currently the highlight of their suite. Since MapQuest (thanks to GeoSystems and "yuck-gross-company" AOL) brought maps and directions to prominent attention on the web, a variety of mapping services have popped up, including Yahoo Maps and Google Maps among others. I guess Microsoft felt left out, and now they have arguably the best mapping application of all. If you are in doubt, check it out. You can't help but be impressed, even if you are not fond of the software giant and his movements.
A recent feature that has been added to all the major mapping systems that allows the viewing of satellite imagery in addition to the normal graphical street maps. Google for a while had the upper hand on everyone, creating the very cool Google Earth, that made it possible to see all maps in the context of 3D space on a world scale. Google Earth, however is a full-blown desktop application, not severely limited by normal internet concerns (though it does pull its data live from the web). Google's fair mapping equivalent would be Google Maps, a monster to its previous competition. Live Local packs quite a punch, and I have to say it is more powerful and possibly more attractive than Google's and other companies' options.
Live Local offers the standard street map view, satellite view and driving directions. There is also the option to search for people and businesses, which will locate them on a map if found. This feature seems to show much promise, though privacy invasion will likely be a future concern. Adding identifying location pushpins to maps is another feature Local Live offers, an idea pioneered by the powerful Google Earth.
The first thing I noticed about Local Live's map imagery is its unprecedented clarity and continuity. With other mapping services it is quite evident where various mapping tiles and data overlap due to obvious color and resolution changes. To my surprise, every map I have viewed in Local Live is seamless and beautiful - at any zoom level. From entire earth view to street level zoom, every single image is pristine perfection. The satellite images are seamless, and the street maps are unmatched in their visual clarity and intelligent design. To be honest, the street maps are the best of any online service. It appears that each one was meticulously put together by a graphic designer, with all the text tags in appropriate positions, and map features scaling and compressing with unequaled sensibility. When you view about at the county or state level, only large features appear, like major highways, cities and parks. The colors and appearance of these maps parallel the quality of most printed maps I have seen. When at the street level, all the expected details appear in nicely calculated graphical form.
The most impressive (or flashy) feature of Local Live is the new Bird's Eye view. I saw this showcased at work, when my entire department was hovering around our programmers desk, in awe of his demonstration. Local Live offers a three-quarters view (video gamers would know what this means) of many major cities in the U.S., including where I live in Portland, Oregon. Any location can be viewed from North, South, East and West with ridiculous clarity and resolution. I would say that the images are at least three times larger and more clear than anything anyone else has. In fact, it is pretty creepy. I'm surprised they didn't have to jump through any legal hoops to get this imagery online. It is so close and detailed that you can make out people quite easily. Any closer and you could see facial expressions, street signs, license plates, etc. The images for our area are surprisingly recent as well, most taken this summer. If you know the status of some sort of building or location at a specific time this summer, zoom in to see. You might be able to determine exactly the date the image was taken just based on the details shown. We were able to do just that at work.
Windows Live Expo Go!
As far as I can tell, Live Expo is essentially a Craigslist clone. Craigslist set the precedent of offering a place to post free ads of virtually any type. Job listings, classified ads, personals, you name it. So many people are using Craigslist now, that is is pretty much the de facto for the services it offers. Why pay for an ad when it can be free, with a far larger audience than any other medium? Live Expo seems to offer much of the same thing, it just needs more people realizing its potential. Quite honestly, I think it's annoying that there is more than one such service. I'd prefer to know that one place will have the most ads so I don't have to look at multiple listing services.
Windows Live Favorites Go!
Live Favorites offers the unique service of storing web favorites, aka "Bookmarks" online. I am not aware of a Google equivalent for this one, though it could be out there somewhere. I immediately created an account on Live Favorites because I think this is a brilliant idea, one that I have thought of programming in my own admin screens for this site. It allows you to import favorites from popular browsers and create new items. The benefits of such functionality are obvious. Imagine you are on the road or at the office and are thinking, "I can't remember that link. I know it's in my Firefox Bookmark menu at home..." Shazam! Problem solved. With Local Favorites, you can import all your favorites to one place and access them anywhere an internet connection is available (such is necessary to visit the links anyway!). You can even preview the site in a pane within the interface if you have forgotten what the link is and want to check it out before committing to the visit.
Windows Live Spaces Go!
Live Spaces is Microsoft's blogging, multimedia sharing and friends community. It is essentially another form of MySpace. I am actually somewhat annoyed at the ridiculous popularity of services like My Space and Live Spaces. Sure, they are somewhat cool, but they lack any real technological customization. I chose to create my own web site and blog engine because I wanted it to do certain things the mainstream services don't offer, plus I wanted my blog to blend seamlessly within my site. I later created a mirror of my blog on Google's Blogger with hopes of gaining a broader audience. I would like to create another mirror on MySpace in order to be able to add some of their community features and link up with some friends. However, it is not possible to completely customize the appearance of MySpace or host it on an outside server. Too bad. There ought to be a more advanced type of MySpace account that allows for advanced technology features like scripted API commands, integrated custom template creation and external hosting so some of us "power users" can get in the game. I simply don't have the time to write separate entries for a MySpace account.
Windows Live Ideas Go!
Live Ideas is an exact clone of Google's More Products page and Google Labs. It is Microsoft's staging ground for showcasing upcoming web app releases. I'm sure this page will soon have a clone for every single one of Google's groundbreaking services. You can count on that!