LiveSide - Windows Live news and interviews

Whee!, more MSFT-YHOO rumors!

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:14:34 GMT

In a post one commenter characterized as “Some guys are talking about pitching Microsoft on a crazy scheme”, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch says he’s hearing of a complicated deal, still early on, that would have a group of investors buy Yahoo!, heavily financed by Microsoft, who would then get the search and search marketing business from Yahoo!. From Arrington’s post:

Under the terms of the proposed deal, the investment group would make a takeover bid for Yahoo at a relatively low premium of around 20% to its current price of around $13 per share, valuing the company at just over $20 billion.

A complicated financial structure would be put in place to finance the deal, but the bulk of the cash for the transaction would come from Microsoft as debt.

…

Simultaneous to the transaction Yahoo’s search and search marketing business would be sold to Microsoft under terms similar to what Microsoft proposed in June 2008 …

While the deal would give Microsoft control of Yahoo!’s search properties without having to own the rest of the company, what Arrington characterizes as “everything the Redmond giant has asked for”, without knowing who the principals are, and what Microsoft thinks of the idea, it’s hard to tell whether this is just a “crazy idea” or something more. However Microsoft is known to still be interested in the Yahoo! search business, and almost everyone in the industry (except probably Google) wants it to happen, too. Hopefully a deal gets done sooner than later, so we can report some real news instead of speculation about guys pitching crazy schemes.

Verizon to use Live Search, to be announced by Steve Ballmer at CES tonight: Reuters report

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:58:24 GMT

via CNET

Reuters is reporting that Verizon Communications Inc. has agreed to a mobile search deal with Microsoft, details to be announced by Steve Ballmer in his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Wednesday evening.

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg speaking at a Citigroup conference, let slip the news earlier today, giving no further details.

Quickly find your privacy settings on Windows Live

damaster — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:48:44 GMT

Since Windows Live got updated to Wave 3, we saw Microsoft expanding into the field of Social Networking. It introduced the concept of “Profiles”, where you are able to show off what you want to show to others, and also the “What’s New” feed which shows you what others want to show you. Every user using Windows Live, including all Hotmail and Messenger users (who may or may not be aware of the new social networking side of Windows Live Wave 3), now has a Profile. Although this is an exciting update for some, this update also caused some concern about privacy and user permissions – what if you don’t want to show everyone else what you’ve been doing online?

Previously, to turn on/off what you’d like to show others about yourself, there were a handful of places you had to go through to edit the permission settings, with each permission setting buried deep in each of the many services Windows Live provides (just to name a few, you have Windows Live Accounts, the Edit Profile page, the What’s New settings page, your Spaces communication preferences, the SkyDrive/Photos comments settings page, and many more!). We know that the privacy and permission settings are all there, but to find them is another story. Talk about confusion!

Thankfully, Microsoft had listened to our feedbacks, and today they have consolidated one single page for you to edit all your permissions settings on Windows Live. You can locate this page by simply visiting http://profile.live.com/permissions

Upon first visit to your Profile page today you’ll also see a notification for you to manage these permissions:

And just a friendly reminder, when you visit your Profile, you will see your view of your Profile - which will always include all of the information you've entered about yourself, and all of your activities. To see what the public will see on your Profile, simple go to your Profile page, and click “Sign out” (if you haven’t done so already). The subsequent page showing will be what everyone else sees on your Profile page.

Well done Microsoft for getting the acts quickly and listening to our concerns and feedbacks!

2009: The Year Ahead – Mobile

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:13:38 GMT

Lots of changes in mobile in the past year, unfortunately not many of them related to Microsoft. Yes, Windows Live for Mobile offers some real advantages for Windows Mobile phones, but the iPhone turned the mobile world on its head. In fact just about everyone but Microsoft has made significant advances in the mobile space in the past year. Apple has the iPhone, Google jumped in to the fray with Android and the G1, Blackberry is keeping pace with the Storm, and even Palm is prepared to get back in the came with the Nova.

What we know about Microsoft’s mobile offerings coming up aren’t inspiring. A mobile browser, yes, but based on IE6, which is sure to drive early adopters away in droves. IE6 is hated among the tech-savvy crowd, and their vociferous disdain has had a big impact on IE’s steady drain of market share, down at last count to less than 70%. In fact, a post today on the Windows Mobile team blog, while playing up the 3rd party opportunities for Windows Mobile, pointedly shows the lack of a Microsoft mobile browser solution, and Robert McLaws has gone so far as to boycott IE Mobile, switching instead to Opera. Windows Mobile 7 has been delayed and probably won’t make an appearance this year, and a pig-with-lipstick interim version, 6.5, probably won’t do much more than draw yawns and drive more share to the iPhone. Microsoft seemingly made a bet on keeping the corporate market while Apple went after a small and not so lucrative consumer market. They weren’t counting on a game changer like the iPhone, especially when it’s quickly gaining ground in the corporate world. Mary Jo Foley, in a recent article for RedmondMag.com, quoted an IT contact as saying Windows Mobile is becoming the "Vista of the mobile world". As she says, ouch.

However news isn’t all bad, and hints of a mobile version of the underused but really quite good Zune software may be coming sooner rather than later. Couple that with wider adoption of Live Mesh for Mobile, which really could be a game changer for mobile picture taking (it has certainly changed the way I think about a camera in my phone), and Microsoft’s cool factor in the mobile market could creep up a bit. In fact, Microsoft’s best bet seems to be a “sum is greater than the parts” play, with Live Mesh tying Zune, Mobile, Xbox, and Windows Live all together.

So what to expect? Not enough to change the game back in Microsoft’s favor, from the looks of it. We could be wowed by Zune Mobile, but let’s be real – between iPhone + iTunes and Zune Mobile + Windows Mobile, it’s not even a contest. In this economy people are going to use what they have, and that’s iPod. More promising is Live Mesh Mobile, which if it starts to blur the lines between Apple and Windows, syncing up devices no matter what they are, we may yet see some light far down the tunnel. But an underwhelming point release of Windows Mobile, a sad excuse for a browser (that will only work on new phones, at that), and a stick in the mud attitude about competing in an upended mobile world just ain’t going to cut it, this year. We’d love to be proven wrong, though, and we’ll be paying close attention, starting with Steve Ballmer’s keynote at CES. (Watch the keynote live 6:30pm pst Wed Jan 7 100k 300k 750k (thanks, Long!!))

2009: The Year Ahead – Live Search

Kip Kniskern — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:52:27 GMT

Of all of Microsoft’s live services, Live Search could be far and away the most interesting story of 2009. New leadership, increased pressure to perform, lingering questions about a Yahoo! search deal, the coming of age of new technologies, and quite possibly even a whole new name are all stories to watch in the coming year.

Leadership:

Dr. Qi Lu, a veteran search technologist coming from Yahoo! to lead Live Search, will have a full plate when he starts his new job as President, Online Services Group, on January 5th. Its no secret that Live Search has gone nowhere fast in search share, and both Live Search and Yahoo! continue to suffer under the dominance of market leader Google. Lu is a distinguished technologist with a long resume, according to the press release announcing his hiring:

Before joining Yahoo! in 1998, Dr. Lu was a Research Staff Member at IBM Almaden Research Center. Before IBM, Dr. Lu worked at Carnegie Mellon University as a Research Associate, and at Fudan University in China as a faculty member. Dr. Lu holds 20 U.S. patents, and received his bachelor of science and master of science in computer science from Fudan University and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Since Dr. Lu won’t officially begin his new job until January 5, we can only speculate what kind of direction he’ll take Online Services and Live Search, but speculating is the fun part! With a strong technology background (and perhaps just as importantly strong ties to Yahoo!), expect Live Search to concentrate on getting better at core search, and innovating in that space. With a power struggle involving Brian McAndrews (who came to Microsoft with AQuantive and is now leaving the company) an old guard at Microsoft who haven’t placed much importance on search, and a number of other players in and around Windows Live and Live Search now apparently settled for the time being, Dr. Lu will need to get the ship moving. Expect a decision soon on Yahoo!, either to acquire the search business, or finally move on. No one should be better equipped to either incorporate Yahoo! search with Live Search, or make a decision that it just won’t work, than Dr. Lu.

Yahoo!

We won’t go over the sordid details of the failed attempt by Microsoft to acquire Yahoo! early last year, except to say that walking away seems to have been the correct call. Microsoft could still do well by a search deal with Yahoo!, however, and Yahoo! seems willing to listen, especially since a deal with Google fell through (and don’t kid yourself into thinking that Microsoft didn’t have a lot to do with that). One way or another, we should hear an end to the speculation about a Microsoft- Yahoo! deal. Even if a deal does get done (and it sure makes a lot of sense to us), we’ll have plenty to talk about as Microsoft sorts out how to bring the Yahoo! search business into the fold, how Yahoo! fares, and what Google does to fend off what could be a more formidable foe.

Of course if a deal doesn’t get done, still the best place for Microsoft to increase search share could be by taking it from Yahoo!, and the sharks could circle quickly around Yahoo!’s business. With a search deal in place, Microsoft would have a vested interest in the health of Yahoo! as a company, and a search deal would reflect that. Without a deal, all bets are off.

Google

In spite of the saber rattling coming out of Redmond, Google continues to just get stronger. For all the problems Microsoft has with online brands, Google continues to be golden, and consumers continue to flock to Google, and away from Microsoft. It’s been an eye opening experience to monitor Twitter Search for terms like Microsoft, Windows Live, and Hotmail. While Twitter gets more mainstream, the passionate hatred of Microsoft doesn’t diminish (we all know what the Silcon Valley bubble thinks of Redmond, but Twitter is beginning to track a wider audience now, and the news isn’t pretty). Even given a comparable product, Microsoft faces an uphill battle (and the truth is Live Search has quite a ways to go before it is nearly as good as Google. Sure it’s better than it was, but so is Google!). Microsoft won a round by quashing the Yahoo-Google search ads deal, but that was a small skirmish in a big war.

Will Google continue its runaway success? Will the economy, or a strong run by a Dr. Lu led Live Search slow it down? What about Google’s growing issues around anti-trust? Microsoft’s success in search may be as much about slowing down Google as in anything Microsoft does in the space, and Google will continue to play a big role in Microsoft’s search strategy in 2009 (and well beyond, to be sure).

Innovation

About a week ago Danny Sullivan took Microsoft to task and called on them to get serious, really serious, about search. Danny chided Microsoft for going in for the quick buck, without focusing on what really matters, which is to make search better. In his piece, Danny quotes Bill Gates (and highlights some key phrases):

If we thought somebody was doing the best possible job that could ever be done in search and there wasn’t some big revenue out there, maybe we wouldn’t do it, but quite to the contrary. Whether it’s understanding maps or virtual worlds or document analysis, today’s search is nothing, and we’ve got the software technology that will drive it to those new levels, as well as being a very significant business.

In 2009, whether Danny gets Steve Ballmer to chant “Search Marketers, Search Marketers, Search Marketers” or not, Microsoft could well begin to drive search technology to new levels. Last year Microsoft acquired Powerset, and we should begin to see the fruits of that acquisition come to bear. And even though Google dropped Lively, Microsoft has continued to make significant investments in “virtual worlds”, both with the way that it processes and handles 3D imagery for Live Maps, and in acquisitions like Caligari, with TrueSpace, and partnerships like Dassault Systemes with 3DVia. Will we see some kind of map/virtual world/immersive product come to light in 2009?

Consumer/Commercial Search

Microsoft’s strategy up to this point has been to go after a small portion of search, that while it may not show up in the search share numbers, generates a disproportionate amount of the revenue, and there are signs that marketing tricks like Live Search cashback are making an impact. In the past year, concentration on “commercial search” has been about the only visible difference in Live Search. How will the new leadership, now run by a technologist rather than admen like Kevin Johnson and Brian McAndrews, feel about this emphasis on marketing “gimmicks”, especially if they seem, at least up to a point, to be working?

Kumo

Ahhh, the Search Brand Question: it’s been an elephant in the room for quite some time now. Microsoft admitted last year that it needs to “fix the brand”, and there have been a number of hints that Microsoft may turn to a new brand, Kumo, wipe the slate clean and go from there. Certainly one failing of the non-acquisition of Yahoo! is in not getting the brand: even if Microsoft acquires the Yahoo! search business it won’t get the name. We know there’s still a big push coming for Windows 7 (hopefully Microsoft didn’t pay $300 million for a couple of Jerry Seinfeld ads), so it might make sense to ride those coattails with a marketing push for a new search brand. Will a new name make much of a difference?

Economic Realities

No one knows quite what to expect in this world’s economy in the new year, but everyone’s scared. How will Microsoft react if winning at search doesn’t mean piles of cash pouring out of a robust economy? What happens to online advertising, search marketing, and the economy in general are sure to be big stories in the coming months.

Summation

There’s no question that Search is not where Microsoft wants it to be. However its far too early to think that Microsoft is prepared to, or even thinking about, giving up. In spite of all of the obstacles, Microsoft’s Live Search, with new leadership, quite possibly a new name and brand, some innovative technological advances, and an economy that might just stir things up a bit, stands probably in a better position to succeed than it ever has. If nothing else, it will be fun to watch.

The Year Ahead: Windows Live in 2009

Kip Kniskern — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:02:04 GMT

While 2008 took a decided turn for the worse economically, it actually was a pretty good year for Windows Live and Microsoft’s live services. While Microsoft didn’t succeed in acquiring Yahoo! or its search business, the early part of the year was dominated by all the MSFT-YHOO drama. Live Mesh made its first official appearance, hinted at by Ray Ozzie at Mix in March, and then officially announced at Web 2.0 Expo in May. Windows Live ushered in a new era of social networking with Wave 3, and official word that Windows Live would replace built in Windows apps (Mail, Calendar, Movie Maker) in Windows 7 all made for some big Windows Live news.

Of course not all the news was good: a number of services were shut down, or slated to close (most notably Windows Live OneCare), a new version of Hotmail got off to a rocky start, Live Search failed to make any headway in search share, and Live Search cashback failed miserably on “Black Friday”, the biggest shopping day of the year.

With all that going on, 2009 still looks to be an even bigger year for Windows Live and its cousins Live Mesh, Live Search, and Windows Mobile. We’ve enjoyed a bit of a holiday break here at LiveSide, but the new year is upon us, lots of news will be breaking soon (as early as next week, at CES), and we’re looking forward to bringing you the best in Windows Live news and information as we start our 4th year. Just a note of thanks to all our readers, we hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage of Windows Live as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing it to you.

In the next few days, we’ll take a look at each of these services we’ve been following to see what might lie ahead. First up, Live Search.

Virtual Earth Data Refresh/Release – December, 2008

Sunshine — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:13:00 GMT

There has been some housecleaning done the last 2 months with some of the Virtual Earth road network data.

Global vector data updates.

Multi-lingual tile sets for all zoom levels (French, Italian, German, Spanish).

Japan localized tile sets.

All oblique (Bird’s Eye) photography reprocessed with new road labels (minus Japan).

As a result there’s a 48TB big December refresh/release of all tile sets where vector information is included (Road, Hybrid Aerial, and Hybrid Bird’s Eye), with new data source for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

More Search numbers – Live Search Club quietly kicking a@#

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:49:09 GMT

The latest Compete.com numbers came out just before Christmas (Dec 23, for November), and while much of it is more of the same, a couple of interesting items caught our eye. It’s a little hard to get a gauge on any trends, as Compete changed some methodology in August, except to say that Google is still far and away the leader.

Compete has been separating out the numbers for Club Live from the Live Search numbers for some time. The set of games you play on Club Live, using Live Search as an aid, are certainly a blatant attempt to “game” the system, but what’s interesting is how much play Club Live is getting. As Jeremy Crane points out in his Compete blog post:

Club Live contributed 2.6ppts and nearly 300 million queries to MSN/Live. (To put things in perspective, Club Live gets more queries than either Ask or AOL.) Club Live continued to grow, with query volume up 3.4% versus the prior month and 7.2% for the year.

That Club Live gets more queries per month than either Ask.com or AOL is astounding, really. A fairly unscientific observation: people who are attracted to winning Club Live games might be interested in using Search to get deals of other kinds (think Live Search cashback), or at least that’s what Live Search seems to be counting on. Whether or not Club Live will make much of a difference in the long run remains to be seen, but anything that generates 300 million queries per month can’t hurt.

Windows Live For Windows Mobile: Push Hotmail Issue Cause Found

Sunshine — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 12:37:31 GMT

Issues have been reported about push Hotmail not working consistently and after quite a bit of investigation the team has now found the cause and provides tips to get the correct push-email behaviour whilst they are working hard on the fix (server side). These issues only occur if you have your mail set to synchronize “As items arrive” in the “Sync schedule” settings and if you are also signed into Messenger in certain ways.

The workarounds for now:

- If you are signed in to Windows Live Messenger on your PC and your status is “Online” or “In a call” you could see interruption of push mail working on your device. The workaround is to have Messenger on your PC in any state other than “Online” or “In a call”.

So to those of you who have disabled “Show me as Away when I’m inactive for…” and/or “Show me as Busy and block my alerts when I’m running a full-screen program…” : turn it on again (Tools > Options > Personal)!

- If you are signed in to Windows Live Messenger on your Windows Mobile phone you could see interruption of push mail working on your device. The workaround is to sign out of Messenger on your Windows Mobile phone.

Very inconvenient for those who use messenger a lot from their mobile, but well ehhmm…it’s the only way for now. We’ll notify you once the issue has been fixed.

The team has also received reports about contacts synchronization and has already fixed that. And they made discovery of the download for Windows Live for Windows Mobile easier: when setting up Hotmail from Outlook Mobile, the wizard will take you to the download page if you don’t already have Windows Live for Mobile.

Windows Live For Windows Mobile Team Blog
Windows Live For Mobile
http://wl.windowsmobile.com (on your mobile browser)
Windows Mobile

Where’s Santa?

Sunshine — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:12:53 GMT

So you’ve visited Santa’s Village, and starting midnight tonight he’ll begin his journey around the world. He has to deliver all those presents now doesn’t he? Where, when? Can we see him? Yes we can, head on over to MSNBC!

[Click on image to track Santa directly]

A dynamically updated Santa-tracker has been created which shows you where he is at at any time. The Santa tracker requires Virtual Earth 3D and it may take some time to load but once it is you will be prompted that Santa has been located.

Clicking on the OK button will show you where he is on a Virtual Earth map. You may want to check back frequently so you will know when to look out of that window! Hey who knows, you may catch a glimpse!

Merry Christmas!

Global Foundation Services Container Data Center animation

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:40:00 GMT

Just found a mention of this video on an Paul Hand’s msdn blog, a nice video animation about Microsoft’s plans with container data centers.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Fun to watch, although I don’t think there have been any plans announced to build a container data center at 3rd and Atlantic (might have to check out that lot tomorrow ;) )

Having problems with Windows Live Sync / Favorites sync? This might help

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:16:50 GMT

An admission right off the bat: I’m not a Toolbar user. I guess I’m partial to as much browser real estate as I can get, but I don’t generally install any toolbars, from Windows Live or anywhere else. That being said, if you have the Windows Live Toolbar installed and are having issues with syncing your Favorites across computers, John Pollard, a Senior dev on the Live Search team, thinks he’s found an answer. From his blog post:

I had no idea what the problem was, and was going to try the trusted uninstall/reinstall route, but when I went to the uninstall control panel I realised I still had the old Favorites toolbar add-in installed:

John uninstalled the old Windows Live Favorites for Windows Live Toolbar, and his sync options re-appeared on his (new) Windows Live Toolbar. In one case he needed to re-install the new Toolbar, but after that everything worked.

So if you’ve had problems, make sure the old Live Favorites is uninstalled.

Also, if you’ve tried to install Windows Live Sync and have been getting a network error, there is a fix for that. From a comment (from Rachel Popkin MSFT) on the Windows Live Sync blog:

The issue you are experiencing should now have been resolved. To install Sync, please try the following steps:
1. Visit https://sync.live.com/clientdownload.aspx and select the Windows client
2. Save the program to your computer (Desktop, etc.)
3. Run the installation
4. Once the installation is done, run Sync from the Windows Live folder in the Start Menu.

Rachel also comments that there is a new Mac client, so if you’re having issues on a Mac, make sure you have the latest version.

Deep Zoom Composer Has Been Updated: Documentation And Bug Fixes!

Sunshine — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:08:54 GMT

When I found that I couldn’t open previous projects, I headed over to the Deep Zoom Composer Forum to let the team know of this problem. Kirupa was quick to respond to me and I’ve sent him one of the non-opening .dzprj files for investigation, as did others.

As a result there now is a new Deep Zoom Composer release which no longer has this problem, at least not for me. I sure hope you didn’t delete your old project files! Should you still have said problem, please send your non-opening .dzprj files to Kirupa (address can be found in their blog post), so they can look into it.

Besides this improved project support the memory handling has also been improved, the Seadragon Ajax Templates have been updated again and various other tweaks were done.

Download Deep Zoom Composer

NOTE: Please uninstall any older versions of Deep Zoom Composer prior to installing this new version.

Don’t forget to check out the updated documentation! It has become a true User Guide with topics ranging from what Deep Zoom is to how to actually use Deep Zoom Composer. You can access the User Guide inside Deep Zoom Composer by going to Help > User Guide or by pressing F1.

Feel free to post your questions or comments over at the team blog or at the Deep Zoom Composer Forum. They do listen!

MSN UK trials new MSN v13 UI with Silverlight enhancements

Chris — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:35:00 GMT

Over at MSN UK Entertainment, they are trialing the new MSN v13 UI, complete with Silverlight enhancements. The test site at http://entertainment.next.uk.msn.com/ follows on from the testing of a Silverlight homepage design, http://viewer.uk.msn.com/.

As Peter Bale, Executive Producer for MSN UK mentions when discussing the trial, the addition of Silverlight allows for an improved multimedia experience when using MSN, in particular through embedded videos and images. In addition, once you have signed into MSN, you're giving the option to share you MSN activities through Windows Live, using the MSN Web Application. This is currently hidden in the standard web applications directory, so you'll need to enable it via your MSN profile page, or click this link. Note that the MSN Profile is actually using the information from your Windows Live profile, so apart from setting a nickname and avatar, there is no need to enter it twice!

For those interested in where MSN UK is going, Peter Bale gave an interview recently to Jemima Kiss, talking about the launch of MSN Next and how they plan to push original content.

Expect to see more on what MSN is doing in the new year.

Web Messenger coming – not here yet (clarification)

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:58:46 GMT

This evening our friend PicturePan2 IMed me to say that WebMessenger was live on Hotmail. I checked my main Hotmail account and indeed there it was. We checked it out a bit, and I put up a quick post on it, noting that Web Messenger had “appeared and then disappeared again a few times”.

Thanks to some of our readers it was noted that the bay I was on Bay 107df-w, which it turns out is a “dog food” server. Back in October we agreed to an embargo for a private beta so that we could get early access to the Windows Live Wave 3 bits. That embargo ended November 19th at 9pm pst.

We’re not sure why we’re still on dog food servers, as the private beta was shut down on Dec 1, we received multiple emails to that effect. So when we saw the Web Messenger show up, it didn’t even dawn on us that we still had “insider access”. We’re not aware of any current embargos or ndas that cover our talking about what we are able to access, but it doesn’t do much good to point it out if our readers can’t access it too.

Sorry to have caused any confusion, but it’s good to know that Web Messenger is on the way!

Some more on the Hotmail update: Web Messenger, Calendar (?), Today pane updated

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:09:00 GMT

Although Windows Live Wire posted on the scrolling option update today, it looks like Hotmail has snuck in a few more bits along the way. The most noticeable difference is the inclusion of Web Messenger, now built in to Hotmail:

Now you can open a conversation window with your Messenger contacts from within Hotmail (popping up a new window)

Now it looks like these features are just now being rolled out, as the Messenger sign in from Hotmail has appeared and then disappeared again a few times, and the Messenger contact list is pretty iffy – contact icons seem to appear and disappear at random. But Web Messenger is working, at least temporarily.

It also looks like the Hotmail Today page is back:

It appears when you sign in to Hotmail, at least until you change the settings to make it go away.

Picturepan2 thinks that Calendar may have been updated too, due to a new icon, and it does seem snappier, but that may just be wishful thinking.

We’ll keep an eye out for more changes, and as always let us know if you spot anything

Hotmail scrolling returns: negative feedback spurs changes

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:55:37 GMT

After thousands of comments and negative feedback about changes made last month to Hotmail, and after “reviewing how users at various monitor sizes and resolutions were using our product”, Windows Live Wire is reporting that the Hotmail has updated the new Hotmail to scroll like the old one did. According to the post:

To make your Hotmail scroll like classic Hotmail, you’ll need to turn the reading pane off:

Click the Inbox folder.

Click Options (upper-right, below the sign-out link).

Under Reading pane settings, click Off.

We’re also including other fixes. Here are a few highlights, and thanks for suggesting them:

When you’re done choosing contacts to send your message to, click anywhere outside the contact picker window to close it and go back to typing your message.

We fixed an issue where some users couldn’t select the last contact in the list.

Holding down the Shift key and clicking a message in the inbox now opens that message in a new window, as it did in the past.

We’ve changed the links in the header at the top to match the rest of Windows Live and point to more great Windows Live services.

Hotmail users are being greeted with a notice when they log on to alert them to the changes, if you haven’t seen it already, you should be seeing it soon.

Live Mesh: Delayed Client Update For Windows Now Scheduled For January

Sunshine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:28:00 GMT

There isn’t going to be an update for the Live Mesh Windows Client this year. After it got delayed, we saw a maintenance notice, which made me think that maybe after that we’d see the promised Client update for Windows.

However the following update appeared on the Live Mesh blog:

UPDATE: In the world of services, we have blackout periods where no updates are allowed. This is to ensure stability during, e.g., the holiday season when use of a product goes up and the availability of employees to fix issues goes down. The Live Mesh team entered this blackout period before the final testing of our next Live Mesh client for Windows was completed. Thus, we're holding this update until after the holidays - look for more news in early January.

So no update this year. I’ll surely check back in January and keep you all posted.

How To Enable Polygamy In Windows Live Messenger

Sunshine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:13:00 GMT

Many of you will have several WLIDs, and want to sign into Messenger with more than one of them. Until now you had to seek refuge in a patch or add-on to be able to do so. Not anymore! Microsoft’s John Weisenfeld just shared a little trick with me to enable this, which I’m going to share with you.

The trick involves registry editing, so please follow these steps very carefully:

1. Start regedit (admin)
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Live
3. Right click Messenger and create a new DWORD called MultipleInstances

4. Right click the newly added registry key and choose Modify
5. Set the Value data to 1

6. Close regedit

All done! Now you can launch Windows Live Messenger as many times as you want, and sign in with as many WLIDs you want, on one computer. Just don’t try to sign in with the same WLID more than once on one computer or it will throw error 80071392 at you!

Enjoy!

The North Pole – A Virtual Earth 3D Christmas Experience

Sunshine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:56:08 GMT

Santa lives on the North Pole, but have you ever seen his Village? It is way too far and way too cold to travel to the North pole and then you’d have to find the village, which is very well hidden! But not for Chris Pendleton, he found Santa’s Village and together with Jerry Skaw made sure you can have a look too!

Chris Pendleton wrote the application and Tom Grimes and his team - Augusto Michelis, Heidi Simonsen, Matthew Collins and Stephen May – created the models. Coordination of the whole was done by Jerry Skaw.

Once finished the MSNBC’s team put it on their site for you (and of course your kids) to enjoy.

Upon visiting you will see this image:

To explore Santa’s Village click on the image (on MSNBC, not this image :P). If you haven’t got the 3D plug-in installed you will then be prompted to do so. After that you can go explore, if you have an XBOX controller, plug it in and you can navigate even better.

Should you be so unfortunate that your computer can not run Virtual Earth 3D, head on over to Chris's blog post for a video of the application. You will also find more information on this project there.

Now everyone’s snooping around Live Search

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:03:24 GMT

Seems like every time we turn around now someone is turning over rocks looking for news about Live Search, a potential rebrand, and what it all may mean. Just today, TechFlash is reporting on the departure of Brad Goldberg, General Manager of Live Search, to be replaced by another Live Search guy we know, Mike Nichols. Joseph Tartakoff over at the PI is digging into Qi Lu’s patents, and everyone is trying to read the trademark filing tea leaves.

The trademark lawyers are loving it, happy to have a little publicity for their particular passions, and in the meantime Yahoo! goes nowhere fast, and Google gets a little more like Microsoft.

It was almost a year ago when MSFT-YHOO! was the talk of the town, and we can’t wait to see what happens in the new year.

Windows Live Solutions Center: a better way to interact?

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:08:48 GMT

After rolling out a new version of Hotmail only to be deluged with complaints ranging from the somewhat petty (I want the old version back!) to the pretty serious (my folders are gone!), and having to wade through ~~hundreds~~ thousands of comments on the Windows Live Wire and the Hotmail blogs, Microsoft has decided to take action.

Yes that’s right, a site dedicated to complaining about Hotmail! Yay!

Windows Live Wire announced today the introduction of the Windows Live Solutions Center. Initially the site is focused on problems and solutions for Hotmail, but “other Windows Live services will be part of the site in the future”. From the Windows Live Wire blog:

While our blog posts give us a good way to communicate new features that we add to the product, a blog is not a complete solution. We want to have two-way communication with our customers and decrease the time that it takes to solve problems that users are having with their accounts.

We are proud to announce a new and better way to interact: Windows Live Solution Center!

For someone who has been heads down in Community Server the past few weeks, the site is a little painful to look at, and certainly not up to Wave 3 design standards, but we appreciate the effort. The interwebs are littered with similar well meaning but dying on the vine help sites, though, so we’re not too optimistic about this one, but hey, better than having to wade through 3008 comments on a blog.

Live Mesh Notice: Possible Service Interruptions On Dec 15, 16 And 17

Sunshine — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:55:00 GMT

The team posted the following on their forum:

To all our valued customers: The Live Mesh team will be performing some scheduled maintenance this week, over a period of three days: December 15, 16, and 17. The maintenance will occur at approximately 5PM PST each day, and could result in Live Mesh service interruptions. If you experience an outage that lasts longer than 2 hours please post to the forums and let us know.

Thank you,

The Live Mesh Team

Still no sign of the promised Client update for Windows though, perhaps after this maintenance?

Spotting the Changes in Essentials

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:56:25 GMT

Our eagle-eye reporter Sunshine was on top of the Essentials beta update, and so we’ve had a few minutes to take a look around. As reader Deathseeker noted in a comment to Sunshine’s post, there’s now quite a list of peripherals installed with the Essentials beta:

Windows Imaging Component Hotfix
SQL Server CE 3.1
Search Enhacement Pack
Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime
Microsoft Sync Framework Services
Microsoft Visual Studio Runtime
Direct3D 9
Junk Mail filter update
Microsoft Application Error Reporting
Windows Live Communications Platform
Windows Live Call
Windows Live Sync

We agree that’s a lot of “stuff” to watch go by when you’re not expecting it. As wary computer users, we’re conditioned to raise our hackles to anything unusual being installed. Far from being crapware, however, these additional programs offer some nice enhancements to the Windows Live experience.

The Direct3D 9 enhancements, for example, are really adding some nice touches to Messenger and Mail, among others. Really loving the new toast:

(Hi Brian!)

So far we’ve spotted (or confirmed what we were expecting), along with the visual improvements (including the new icons), the ability to insert albums in Live Writer, to save shared photos in Messenger, and What’s new messages in the Messenger header:

Since you all are so good at spotting new stuff, what have you noticed that’s different? Leave us a comment….

Windows Live Essentials Beta Released!

Sunshine — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:19:00 GMT

I know we told you the Windows Live Essentials would be released last week, it really was planned like that, but sometimes things just don’t work out as planned. You had to wait a little longer, but now it’s finally here! Now you can complete the Windows Live experience: services and applications working seamlessly together.

Download Windows Live Essentials Beta

The Windows Live Essentials are Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Toolbar and Family Safety. Additional programs that can be installed are Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, Office Live Add-in and Microsoft Silverlight. The installer will let you choose which ones you want to install, nobody forces you to install them all. Dependencies will be installed automatically and only for those applications you choose. Like if you choose to install Photo Gallery, Windows Live Sync will be installed along with it. Of course you can uninstall this manually later but that will mean you won’t have the full features.

Requirements and Release notes