It’s interesting to note that Microsoft has finally shut down MSN Shopping (a site I thought was just horrendous for shopping) and MSN Travel (a site that really didn’t have much going for it either).

Here is Bing Shopping:

Here is Bing Travel:

I predicted this would happen eventually at some point, and I was right.

Personally though, I’m still not liking the design of Bing. It just seems rather bland and too white for me. And the ways it looks and is laid out just bores me. There’s very little graphic appeal, no nice colors, nothing. Just a bunch of text to look at with a few graphics.

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Then there’s MSN Soapbox news. Apparently, Microsoft is pretty much killing Soapbox as a place for users to upload and share videos. Rather than making it user oriented, they want to make it a specialized video-sharing site for just bloggers and citizen journalists. You know,kinda like Brightcove? Here’s a direct quote from CNET, the source of the news:

“Microsoft hopes to transform Soapbox, originally code-named Warhol, from an also-ran in the user-generated content space into a forum where bloggers and citizen journalists can post videos relevant to areas in which MSN focuses, categories like entertainment, lifestyle, and finance.”

I’m rather disappointed. I was hoping Microsoft would eventually update Soapbox with Silverlight effects, video thumbnail previews (like Bing), more Bing and Windows Live integration (like the What’s New feed updates and integrating Bing Maps for geotagging), and a bunch of other stuff Microsoft could/should do.

Instead, it’s been an awful video-sharing service. MSN Video is at the forefront, with Soapbox as a small pet project underneath it and hidden away with no advertising whatsoever. Many people who have posted comments to this news were surprised MSN Soapbox ever existed. This goes to show that Microsoft didn’t really even try with Soapbox. This was just another half-hearted attempt it seems to compete with someone. Examples of how Microsoft has not really tried:

1. No ad campaign for MSN Video or Soapbox (that I remember)
2. On the MSN homepage, in the list of content offered on MSN, there’s no direct link to MSN Video (however, there is a MSN video player with other video highlights, but it’s not direct to the MSN Video homepage)
3. No major features added (well except a nasty filter crawler that detects copyrighted material) since launch around 2 years ago
4. MSN Soapbox team blog long decommissioned. It used to be here: http://soapboxteam.spaces.live.com

MSN Soapbox was awesome in its beta days. There were no ads, my video showed up in amazingly high-res compared to YouTube, and the whole site seemed to have a lot of potential.

Nowadays, MSN Video reigns over Soapbox with it’s many MSN content videos, and partner channels. Soapbox is a small link away. Ads practically play before every video (often 30 seconds long, wasting lots of time), an MSN content video autoplays after 9 seconds a video finishes (mega annoying since I didn’t request this), very little content in comparison to Youtube, etc. I could go on and on.

The only really thing MSN Soapbox has going for it is its slick interface (where you can always video the video player while the page changes, and it’s convenient video queue. That’s about it. The fact that it’s going to become some stupid thing for writers, makes me think that Soapbox will soon be dying with the other services that have died because MS no longer really cared about it. Quite sad frankly.

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I’ve also noticed something tacky and utterly disgraceful about MSN: ads that pop onto the page (don’t confuse with pop-ups). Say you’re on the MSN Greetings site, and you’re browsing for eCards. Up shows a little ad, just like the one in the picture above. Not as a pop-up, but as an ad that appears on screen where you have to click “Skip Ad” to get it off the page. That’s something I’d expect from trashy website, not something affiliated with MSN. It could have something to do with the fact it’s really the American Greetings site, but Microsoft should be more responsible than that. Those ads are nasty and annoying and don’t make me want to use this site at all. Also, these eCards are rather weak for a high price and membership requirement.

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I’ve been looking around international MSN sites, and I noticed something called MSN Wallpapers on the British and South African version:

Gathering from the information on the site, you can find and discover interesting wallpapers MSN has collected, and you have the ability to fix the images up in a special type of software designed for MSN Wallpapers and you can even add speech balloons. You can also sign a wallpaper to specific times a day, or a wallpaper slideshow. Kinda interesting if you ask me. I might try it later and write about it.

So that’s about it for MSN news. There may be even more, but that’s all that’s too interesting at the moment.

The red band leads to an MSNBC article that I saw was posted at least 4 minutes ago, and updates 5 minutes ago:

Now that’s fast!

The other day, I just posted my Bing entry, and now Bing has already been released to the public as a preview in the American market, and a beta in others. It’s interesting how rapidly it’s been spreading in the news and on other sites. There’s already been a somewhat positive feedback on Bing, where bloggers and readers have commended Bing for bringing a more different and useful style of search where Bing brings back results or information in a layout that is quite useful.

Bing has also invaded several website. On MSN, there’s already a Bing moniker next to the search box. If you take away the Bing logo, the search box actually looks kinda nice.

Bing is also present on Windows Live, in the (useless) search box. The only use the search box has in my opinion is to search the web, though it’s not the default. I still can’t find most of my real life friends using Windows Live.

Ask.com already recognizes Bing as a competing search engine, and tells users they should use Ask instead. (Personally, I think Ask.com has gotten worse since they removed universal search, and the many text ads are extremely annoying).

Bing also appears to have a mobile version. Bing Mobile can modify web pages to fit on a mobile phone screen by breaking the page down into sections. You can also call 1-800-BING-411 (1-800-246-4411) and orally tell Bing what local information you want to know.

Bing seems to be pretty promising. Keep up the good work Bing team.

News has come out that Bing will be replacing Live Search, and the Kumo branding has been scrapped.

Bing has several promotional sites you can visit including:

1. Decision Engine – Just one video that shows how Bing can help you decide stuff, a letter from the Bing Team, and links to follow Bing and share to your friends.

2. Discover Bing – This will showcase additional information about what Bing is, how it was developed, and the people behind some of the projects. There’s videos, and several Bing applications you can download.

The actual site is up, but it’s not available to users until June 3rd at http://bing.com/

Microsoft is marketing Bing as a ‘decision engine’, meaning that Bing isn’t just a typical search engine that will display the just pages and pages of results, but it will try to make it easier to display information that might help you reach your goal.

In my opinion however, Bing is pretty much the SAME as Live Search. Same results, just a new look and different layout. Personally, I don’t like that new look or the new layout. It didn’t add anything new, it just looks different and I don’t like it.

I do like the scorecard feature that they offer to compare prices and reviews. Microsoft has this neat algorithm that can scan through reviews and pick up keywords that will indicate how well a product/place does in a certain category. This already exists on MSN City Guides.

I also strongly dislike the logo the chose:

The font type isn’t really attractive, the ‘g’ looks too similar to another search engine we all know well of, and I don’t under stand why toe dot in the ‘i’ is yellow. Really, it’s just ugly.

I also don’t like the background fade that appears at the top right of the page. It’s distracting in my opinion, and doesn’t really do much.

I am also not a fan of the whole orange-blue-gray color scheme they have going. Looks kinda tacky.

Of course, things can change (the transition to MSN Search to Bing has shown this), so maybe they might change their logo to something better, and may you can turn off some of the glitzy effects. I really do hope Bing brings great results, and will add extra features over time. I think Bing may have the potential of finally being more on a competitive level with at least Yahoo! and maybe Google.

Official Press Release: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/may09/05-28NewSearchPR.mspx

Here are some of the latest MSN developments.

MSN City Guides has finally gotten a facelift! I wrote a nasty blog entry more than a year ago on how cruddy MSN City Guides was, and they finally listened to some of my feedback.

Well the have changed the look that’s fore sure. Here’s what I like about the revamped City Guides:

1. Complete switch to Live Search Maps and Live Search – Finally. Not just static Live Search Maps, but maps you can zoom and pan around in to look at the local area. When you hover over a point, it shows general info as well as an option to write a review or upload a photo about the point. The search results are also generally better and you can filter by neighborhood, type, or relevancy.

2. Social aspect – Users can now earn a reputation for their knowledge about a local area (though if you’re an expert in Houston, you  may still be a newbie in Chicago). Reputations such as:

• City Newbie
• City Amateur
• City Pro
• City Champ

What qualifies you to level up?

• 1. Write reviews for any business within that city
• 2. Upload photos for that city. This may or may not be associated to any business.
• 3. Add businesses from that city to your collections
• 4. Add any business/location from that city to your “Plan to go” or “Been there” lists.

This is definitely an interesting aspect, and it might encourage some people to actually participate. You can also have specialties, public/private collections, reviews you’ve done, and (maybe) photos you uploaded. For more info: http://cityguides.msn.com/help.aspx

3. Ability so share a collection of places you’ve been – I can share a bunch of places I like to be publicly viewed, and I can also tag places where I’ve “been there” or “plan to go” and my Windows Live friends can see this.

4. Ability to make reviews – When MSN and Citysearch (a more true expert local site) broke up, you couldn’t make reviews anymore. Yes, that officially made MSN City Guides a site to avoid. Now you can add reviews with a rating, title and review.

5. Ability to upload photos – It’s not quite obvious, but if you hover over a point on the Live Search Map, there’s an option to upload a photo of the place. Now the process isn’t too hard, but I never saw the images that I upload of my high school in public display. Maybe it’s a quirk, but I upload 2 on specific points of the high school, and couldn’t spot them again. If my photos weren’t approved for some reason, I didn’t get any message saying why it wasn’t approved. This is a really awesome feature though, because often times, a lot of the listing have outdated photos or no photos, and allowing users to upload relevant photos is a great thing.

6. Ability to add events, venues and performers – It’s another very unobvious thing, but if you click on this: , right under the weather widget, you can add events, performers, and venues in your city and information about them.

7. Scorecards (for some restaurants) – The scorecard can be really useful if you want to a variety of categories that a restaurant has been judged on, such as it’s value, atmosphere, dessert, food quality, etc.

However, I couldn’t find any way to write a review where I can grade a restaurant based on this criteria. I’m wondering how MSN works this out. Actually, I’ve noticed these reviews are from CitySearch, so why doesn’t MSN offer such criteria to base our reviews on, if they’re going to welcome CitySearch reviews with such criteria?

How it could be better:

1. Can’t add events directly to Windows Live Calendar – I got this pop-up when I wanted to add an event to my calendar:

I’m surprised that there’s no direct access to Windows Live Calendar, but you do get other options…

2. Still kinda ugly – It’s hard to not notice how tacky looking the site is. The font type, colors scheme (black, navy blue, orange and yellow?), bad rendering in Safari (see below), among other details that suggest that the MSN team needs to hire better designers on the team. I know looks aren’t as important as the features and content, but the design is still crucial because it determines the site’s usability, discoverability, and may have aesthetics that make the user feel more positive.

3. Listings could use extra information to differentiate – Microsoft needs to differentiate MSN City Guides from the competition. One way would be to make listing include extra information, such as health rating, whether the restaurant is currently opened or closed (including a countdown of when it will close/open), tags, categories, excerpts of expert reviews from more professional sites, etc. Make the listings on MSN City Guides stand out against what the competition currently has.

4. Basic City Profiles – There should be a page dedicated to an overview of what the particular city is all about. Some up the characteristics, geography, and local hotspots a person may notice if visiting this city. Have a nice slideshow of great photos of that city, as well as a cool video showing the city in action. At least this would help bring some more truth in the whole “city guide” name.

5. Throw in classified listings – It would be neat if Windows Live Expo could live on through MSN City Guides. It will encourage more users to participate on the site, and make the site more alive. Users could also sign up to pay for premium listings, listings with extra feature like uploading a video,

6. Allow users to do ‘Scorecard’ reviews based on criteria – I think the ScoreCard is a great idea, but instead of just limiting this to people on CitySearch, how about giving users the same option? It provides far more accurate results, and it’s a key differentiator from just any review site. It honestly doesn’t make sense, because the Scorecard can be really handy. It seems really backwards that users on CitySearch get to have ScoreCard reviews, while we just have the same old-fashioned style reviews.

It’s fine and all that Microsoft has finally pushed a good update for MSN City Guides, but is there really a need for MSN City Guides? In my opinion, Microsoft really shouldn’t have MSN City Guides. There’s already well-established sites out there that do this, like Yelp, CitySearch, Yahoo! Local, etc. that take on a much better job.

Instead, Microsoft should just scrap MSN City Guides, and implement these features on Live Search Maps. Honestly, the stuff you can do on MSN City Guides already exists on Live Search Maps (such as finding places, info. and reviews about places, discovering users’ public collections, etc.). The only thing missing is a way to add data layers (such as events) on top of the map and a way to have user participation (which can be an external link to view someone’s profile). That’s about it. Otherwise, Microsoft would be golden if they keep improving Live Search Maps.

For more info: http://news.ebrandz.com/microsoft/2009/2606-microsoft-overhauls-msn-city-guides-with-live-search-and-maps.html

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MSN Autos is finally upgrading to Live Search Maps, even though Live Search Maps has been here since like three years ago at least. It’s being called the “Gas Center” where it will allow you to zoom to street level, see gas listings and the map side-by-side, lets you navigate along your route to find the best gas prices, and share with friends.

I guess it is much better. Here’s the old version:

Here’s the new version:

You can see how the new one is MUCH better. However, I wish they would have gone on and beyond, and just combine the Gas Center and Local Traffic maps together instead of being on separate pages. It would be much more useful. Also, there should be data layer directly on Live Search Maps that show gas prices. It’s such a great feature, I don’t get why it’s available on MSN Autos and not Live Search Maps.

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After hearing news of MSN Direct being phased out, I’m surprised that they’re even offering a new watch.

If you go to http://direct.msn.com on Safari 4.0, this is what it shows. However, after testing the site in IE8, I didn’t get the same result. It wasn’t shown. On the Safari browser, I tried clicking on the Flash banner, but nothing happened. It says there’s a new watch, but nowhere on the site does it show hardware devices. It only shows the Channels and Coverage available. Really stupid to say there’s a new watch, and not have any web link to it.

I have noticed a new MSN Direct site at http://msndirect.com/

It’s obviously a lot more up-to-date, so I’m still confused as to why they created a whole new URL, instead of just scrapping the old site it was on. The only bad part of the site I could find, was that when I checked out under the ‘Devices’ section, under ‘Smart Watches’, it just gave me a link the referred me back to the old site. Which in case if you I hadn’t mentioned, doesn’t show any watches or devices!

Instead, it should redirect you to this link (which I found by clicking MSN Direct Service Plans on the old Direct site).

Now that’s just even more stupid. The old MSN Direct site claims there’s a new Smart Watch. It doesn’t show this so-called watch anywhere on that site. I go to the new MSN Direct site, and references to Smart Watches brings me back to the old MSN Direct site (that didn’t even have a section for devices!). I find this link that leads me to a Smart Watches page on the new site (why didn’t it redirect me there the 1st time?) and now I realize: There’s no new Smart Watch! This is plain idiocracy. It’s not a wonder why MSN is having a hard time if you such bumbling things like this going on.

Well anyway, I’m hoping that MSN Direct can continue to stay, and I wish Microsoft could do some more advertising to keep it afloat. MSN Direct is extremely handy, and I’ve heard a lot of great compliments about it. Please don’t sell the service or destroy it.

Ok, I saw this site called the Newspaper Project, and it had me thinking of the future of printed news media. I’ve said it before, and I’m always a progressive thinker, thinking ahead into the future. Here’s how I think traditional paper companies should deal with the decline in people preferring newsprint if they want to survive into the future:

1. Do more LOCAL news coverage – National news is almost everywhere. I can see it on the web, TV networks, news tickers, through friends, etc. What I do want to have more coverage on is local news. Sometimes, newspapers forget that there is local news worth covering. Local news really brings a community or city together, especially if someone you know or something you are a part of is mentioned. Special interest pieces on people that come through tips, or neat little places that a lot of people may not know about and are interested in. That’s the kind of news I think most people want to see more of.

2. Publish news on the web and offer eBook subscriptions – Having a website is pretty vital to success today, as we use technology more often. Have a nicely designed websites that not just publishes news articles, but also offers more pictures and video coverage, weekly podcasts, special interactive features, online classifieds, and even forums/discussion boards. Offer eBook subscriptions to the most popular eBook devices. Go digital.

3. Create a public news kiosk – Ok, this is one of my original ideas. Here’s my news kiosk concept:

Imagine a 30”+ multi-touch OLED screen that’s super thin and set into a wall of a public place (such as a library, light rail/BRT stops, hotel lobbies, airport terminals, etc.). You can drop money into a slot, or swipe your credit card against a scanner, and with the touch of your finger, you can have the latest updated news. A slick interface pops up, and you can navigate around the news page in traditional newsprint-style, or just like a slick webpage. There may be even an option where you can make an account, and just login if you subscribe rather than paying again. You could also use that account to save your favorite articles or comics too. There may even be an option to download some articles onto a mobile phone.

4. Mobile devices – Simply put, newspapers will want to allow users to view their news on a mobile phone of some sort as easily as possible. As more advances in smartphones come out, the more dynamic and feature-rich the content available should be. Maybe if the mobile device has GPS, the news site could use an API that will bring up news related to the current location you are at.

5. Move into televised news reporting – Buddy up with a local TV station or air on the public access channel to report news from the newspaper’s sources. Maybe one day, the newspaper will just transform into another local TV station for news.

So any opinions on this? Some of these options do seem plausible, would you agree? Comment.

Microsoft’s cool Search and Give program is on it’s last legs. On June 1, 2009 at 12AM Pacific Time, it will no longer work.

I think this is really sad. I thought this program was a wonderful way of contributing to an organization of your choice, as well as getting to the websites you needed. Now it’s going to die so soon.

As of 9:04 PM, Central Standard Time, the current amount of money made since September 2007 is just $536,348. Multiply that by 100 and that’s roughly the amount of searches that has been done.

Each person can do up to 100 searches a day, with each search being worth 1 cent. It’s a small change, but it’s change nonetheless.

You can choose from a variety of organizations, including schools and other local things. I managed to find my high school on the list, as well as its booster clubs.

So please, if you really want to help benefit an organization you like, use Search and Give before it dies. One search makes a difference, especially if you get all your friends to use it.

I landed on the MSN page after signing out of Hotmail (darn Windows Live!) and I noticed that the MSN page looked different. It had this nice black gloss, but it also seemed to be spotlighting Chanel No. 5 perfume:

You can even watch the film ad for Channel No. 5:

If you can see close enough, you would notice that this is just an overlay over the MSN homepage. Pretty good. I wish you could control the slider on the timeline though.

I love it when MSN does stuff like that. It’s at least different, and jazzes up life a bit. Though they could do even better, because I still think the MSN homepage is still ugly after all these years. I noticed this ad on 5/5/09

Wave 3 was pretty neat, and a big step forward, and I hope to see Wave 4 continue on with what Wave 3 has brought. So here’s a list of what I’d like to see come out by then:

1. Windows Live Pro – This is for an option for users who want to get more out of their Windows Live experience. For possibly a fee of $25-30 a month, they can get:

• NO ads – No advertisements on everything Windows Live. Whether it’s Hotmail, Profile/Spaces, Messenger, Live Search, MSN Video, etc. they all won’t have any ads if you sign-in. This could be a major plus for some.
• 100MB limit on attachments – instead of 10MB
• IMAP on Hotmail – Should be free like Gmail, but if POP3 does a free route, then IMAP is fine to pay for

2. Universal Inbox – Instead of going to separate places to view e-mails (Hotmail), offline IMs (Messenger) and video messages (Windows Live Video Messages), and voice mail, it’d be far convenient to see them all in one place. I’m quite sure if anyone could do it, Microsoft could, but most likely, they’ll be catching up when someone else gets there first.

3.  Combine Live Mesh, Sync, SkyDrive, and Office Live Workspaces into one – Here’s how I’d do it:

• Mesh+Sync – It’s already going to happen, from what I’ve heard. They’ll take the cool technology and features in Mesh, and combine them with the current Windows Live Sync to become simply just “Windows Live Sync”.
• SkyDrive – Make this the official cloud storage option for Windows Live Sync, yet independent enough so that users who are only interested in backing-up or sharing data could just go directly to SkyDrive, without having to bother with Sync if they don’t want it.
• Office Live Workspaces – As far as the web service goes, you just store documents and open them into the Office programs if you have them. Boring! You could just store the documents on SkyDrive instead, and offer REAL-TIME collaboration right within a browser with a web-based Office 14 or some simple editing tools for those that don’t have Office (Microsoft showed a demo of this at PDC 2008 – here are some screenshots)

As you see, it IS possible to cleanly integrate all these into one simple data synchronization/sharing/storage service. It’s just up to Microsoft to do it. I can’t think of a better way of combining these redundant services. Hopefully, there will be a mobile version of this service, instead of another redundant service like My Phone.

4. Web-based RSS feeder – Windows Live Mail already has a nice RSS feeder built-in, but now it’s time to take it up a level, and make it web-based. Feeds you add on the web-based feeder, and feeds you add on Windows Live Mail are AUTOMATICALLY SYNCED. You can SHARE a favorite feed to you contacts via the What’s New feed, or E-mail or whatnot. Essentially, just do everything Google Reader does, but see if there’s any room to do MORE.

5. MSN Video to Windows Live – I said it once, I’m going to say it again; MSN Video should just be rebranded to Windows Live Video or some other name. At least the Soapbox part, where users can upload videos. The MSN Video site hasn’t had any major improvements for over a year, I think? It’s current state would hardly make it a good alternative to the already existing video-uploading sites. I think that if it gets moved over to Windows Live, there will be a more faster updates that users actually WANT, and there’s a better chance of it succeeding and being more extendable across the web. I would say it’s probably one of the worst video-uploading sites if it weren’t for Google Video managing to cling to it’s dear life.

6. Windows Live for Mobile upgraded – A version for non-touchscreen phones, and a more feature-rich version for large touchscreen phones (like drag-n-drop, more graphics, etc.). Full synchronization for Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Calendar, Windows Live People, etc and push updates? Give a more slick interface, especially for the touchscreen phones, and improve voice command input.

7. Tools – Provide simple tools that can be handy, in something like a quick and convenient toolkit, or built into Live Search. I’m talking about tools like a currency converter (look at Yahoo!’s for inspiration), dictionary (Encarta’s?), unit converter, and other on-site applications that may be handy to access (not necessarily through a search box), as well as an option to download a gadget/widget for it.

8. Bring back the icons for commands! – I know there are people that don’t mind, but I’m visually oriented when I’m on the computer, and icons really help when I’m hunting around for a command, and looking at word after word to find something, when I can easily recognize from an icon just doesn’t make sense. How about an option if we want the icons on or off? Sometimes I don’t even notice the little pieces of text commands. Just please bring it back.

9. Make the search box useful – I find it rather useless. If you are on a specific service, the search box should purposely offer a specific search, with “web” as a secondary or one of the last options. Like if you are on Hotmail, the search box should be fit to find either “Messages”, “Contacts” or “Folders” or something like that with Web as probably the last basic option. If you’re on Spaces, it should offer to find content on “My Space”, “Users’ Spaces” or “Posts” of other users with “Web” as a convenient option if you want none of those. Make the search box actually useful.

10. MORE themes – I’m pretty sad by the scanty amount of themes available. The themes are nice, but we need more! I’d like to see different color variants of the default Windows Live theme (basically the Flair) like it had before in Wave 2. Also I like the idea on how Windows Live Messenger lets users drag-and-drop a personal photo to create a custom static theme, so why not allow the same for all Windows Live? Maybe not drag-and-drop, but uploading a static personal photo would be just as neat.

11. Bring back the toolbar for comments! – I loved it back when you could customize your comments, at least a little bit. Whether I leave a note on someone’s profile, or add a comment to a blog entry, I want the toolbar back so I can do basic text editing, or embed a photo/video/URL like other social-networking sites like Facebook, Flickr, and MySpace do. A simple comment box isn’t enough for me to express ideas.

12. New brand name? – I’m still not liking the “Windows Live” branding. One, it hasn’t been effective. People still call Windows Live Messenger as either 'MSN’ or ‘MSN Live’, which is kinda sad. Also, it’s just not catchy, and it’s a long brand name. Saying, “Hey, have you tried Windows Live Personalized Experience?” would not make sense to most people. A new catchy name should be made (I don’t like Kumo btw).

13. Combine the free storage and allow user to allocate it – You can get 25GB in SkyDrive, 5GB+ in Hotmail, 2048MB in Video Messages, etc. all for free. Now how about combining all these storage options, and letting me choose how I want to use up my free storage. Like someone may use SkyDrive a lot, and has GBs of storage in Hotmail that they could really use. That person should be able to use those free GBs, instead of running to the limit that Microsoft allocates for SkyDrive.

14. Allow users to download/delete individual Windows Live programs – I know a lot of people complain how the Windows Live installer wants you to download all the Windows Live programs available, but there are people who just want one specific program. It’s annoying, and people don’t want to push their hard drive space with programs they won’t use. Please let people download what they want. They  also want to delete certain Windows Live programs they do not use often.

As for each current applications that I’d like to see an update or more functions to:

Windows Live Hotmail:

1. IMAP access for free users – Free IMAP is the reason why many techies prefer Gmail above all others

2. Collapsible ad pane – I like Yahoo! Mail’s method of allowing the user to close the ad pane, at least until you click upon another message or something. When I collapse the ad pane, I’ll at least take note of the ad (advertising works!) and it allows more room for viewing messages and pictures and whatnot.

3. Fix the in consistency with “Mail” on the Windows Live header – You’ve seen the Wave 3 Windows Live header, right? You’ll notice a link that say “Mail” but it doesn’t take you to Windows Live Mail. It takes you to Windows Live Hotmail, which is kinda dumb. Just rename Windows Live Hotmail as Windows Live Mail, and as for the application that’s called Windows Live Mail, just call it an Organizer or something, because it does more than just e-mail at this point.

4. E-mail tagging and favorites – Gmail has these nifty features, and I’d love to add special tags and favorite e-mail messages. It’s also more flexible than dropping them into folders, as it makes it easier to search.

5. Use Web Messenger directly in Windows Live Hotmail – I don’t want an external tab to have conversations and whatnot. I want it done the way Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and even AOL Mail do it; directly on the page. How about supporting Windows Live Web Toolbar right into Hotmail?

SkyDrive:

1. Thumbnail views work for all types of files, not just just music – How about a thumbnail view of a Word or PowerPoint document? A video clip? As far as I know, only photo have thumbnail views. Hopefully by Wave 4, we can get thumbnail views for most types of files where it makes sense.

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/03/04/the-windows-live-team-wants-your-wish-lists

2. Preview files within SkyDrive – I might not necessarily want to download it, and it’d be nice if I could be able to play the media within the SkyDrive site so I could get a preview of what I might or might now download. A Silverlight player maybe? Same for documents; I’d like to be able to preview documents within a pane possibly so I know what I’m attempting to open/download.

3. Move multiple files at once – I wish there was something similar to the ability to hover over an image (or images) in Windows Live Photo Gallery and check to select it and do whatever you want with the file(s). I want SkyDrive to have such a feature so I can easily move around many files to the same place all at once.

4. Annotations on files – I’d like add notes on top of viewable files, to maybe point out something to someone that can view it, or for myself.

5. Ability to share personal SkyDrive files onto group SkyDrive – For instance, if I join the I LUV COOKIES group on Windows Live Groups, and I already have a good number of pictures of delicious cookies on my personal SkyDrive, why not allow me to share the photos on the I LUV COOKIES group without having to upload my SkyDrive files there and storing and taking up space in the group’s SkyDrive? Essentially, I just want group members to see a file I want to share with them (in the form of a the form of a thumbnail), and when they click on it, they’re taken to the file’s page on my personal SkyDrive. No need to upload the same image from my PC or from my SkyDrive onto the group’s SkyDrive and having to take up storage space for it. At the same time, the file page, with all the details about it, will mention that my photo is shown on a certain group and users can click on the group name to take a gander and might be interested in joining in it. This is the way Flickr groups work.

6. Geodata on media – I’d love to post exactly where it was shot, or the vicinity it was show with an embedded Live Search Map or something. Especially useful if your camera has the ability to add GPS coordinates to your content.

7. Give me more stats! – I want to know how many views, where the sources came from, and other useful bits of data. Maybe for Windows Live Pro users?

8. File tagging – Please let me tag files. Tagging files gives each file a unique identity and can be useful if you want to search for it, or view related media associated with the tag.

9. SkyDrive Mobile – Upload your smartphone’s latest pictures, videos, text messages, etc. over to your SkyDrive. In fact, why not bring together My Phone and SkyDrive together and call it SkyDrive Mobile?

Windows Live Profile:

1. More “Web Activities” to add – It’d be nice if Microsoft could continue working with mainstream social networking sites in allowing updates to show up on Windows Live. Also, even if they aren’t working, it wouldn’t hurt to list other popular sites and allow me to link my profile from that site next to the site’s favicon, so at least people can find me on other services. Better than nothing.

2. More feed updates from other sources – Why doesn’t it show videos I uploaded to MSN Soapbox? Or a new song I added as a favorite on Zune Marketplace? Or updates to my latest public Live Search Map collection? I’m talking about services that Microsoft already offers, and could use some promotion by allowing feed updates to include and integrate other Microsoft services that users may commonly use. It makes so much sense.

3. Easily access Private Messages and Invitations from Profiles – It makes more sense to highlight any new invites or private messages on Profiles than just on Windows Live Home, right? Apparently not to Microsoft. On the Windows Live Home page, it’s easy to see if I have any new private messages or invites to look at.

However, it’s not quite as obvious on Profiles, where I’m more likely to interact with my friends/contacts and view their messages and invites.

That’s why I’m stressing Microsoft put out some icon to make it noticeable, or put it on the header where it can catch my eye.

4. More “favorite things” to add – Like how about TV shows/series (from MSN TV), songs (individual songs from Zune Marketplace), brands/products, and whatnot. I have a lot of favorites, and I need more than just movies, books, and artists.

5. Customized URLs like Live Spaces - Some people would like to have more meaningful URLs than just those GUIDs. Like for instance, http://iloveyou.profile.live.com/ instead of just some random combo like http://243aslrkjlasjkdlrje.profile.live.com/

Windows Live Home:

1. Combine My.Live.com with Windows Live Home – Even though Netvibes will probably be the best internet start page ever, Microsoft needs to update Windows Live Personalized Experience and they might as well just integrate with Windows Live Home instead. Windows Live Home will like stay the same, but with the ability to add “gadgets” and “feeds” from Windows Live Gallery.

2. Option to get rid of MSN headlines – No offense to MSN, but I’m just not interested and I want the option to take the MSN headlines off. Takes up too much space, and I already visit MSN sites from time to time anyhow. A lot of people feel the same way; thanks, but no thanks.

3. Change status message directly on the page – I don’t like that you can’t easily change your status message right at Windows Live Home.

Taking me to another page that doesn’t even render properly, is just annoying, and it’s not user-friendly.

4. Show my contact if they are online, even if I’m not signed into Messenger – I should be able to see if my contacts are online, even if I’m not actually signed into Messenger. Isn’t signing in to Windows Live Home good enough to show which of my contact happen to be available? I noticed that if I’m not logged in to Messenger, I wouldn’t know if they were online.

5. Show emoticons next to ‘Headlines’ – I would be really handy if I could have the source’s emoticon next to each source. Really, icons improve usability, so I don’t see why the team has been so against this lately.

Windows Live Photo:

1. Extra features – Such as annotations, viewing all sizes, keeping online favorite collection (another update for the What’s New feed), add metadata tags, flag/report pictures, different slideshow views, and other plethora of features to better compete with Flickr.

2. No duplicates! – I noticed that when I resize the original on a blog post, it often duplicates the original pictures in Windows Live Photos: One is the original, while the second is the resized version. Please, just show only the original; I don’t need a duplicate of one slightly resized in a blog post.

3. Metadata tags – Makes it much more useful for sorting, or looking up similar photos from a collection.

4. Give me stats! – I want all types of stats like the one Flickr displays, including what camera took the photo, how many times it has been viewed, what location it was taken (Live Search Map embedded?), show what Windows Live Groups it is a part of, etc.

5. No graphic ads on individual photos! – It’s really tacky to insert a graphic ad right next to a photo. The only interesting thing on a photo page is just the photo; no distracting ads! Do a text ad or something, but please no graphics. Put advertisements when you’re searching for a photo or something else. But not graphic ads next to a photo!

6. Make public photos system wide searchable – That’s what I love about the more popular photo-sharing sites; Just as it is easy to share photos, you can also FIND cool photos. Personal photos are often times more interesting than looking up pixelated photos on an image search engine.

Windows Live Video Messages:

1. Integration with Hotmail and Messenger– I don’t think Windows Live Video Messages (WLVM) needs to be a standalone site. I think it should just simply be an integral part of Hotmail and Messenger. There can be a video capturing button on Messenger and Hotmail, and just click and record and send. That’s it. Integrating WLVM would be a better idea.

2. No need to “add” contacts to WLVM – I don’t understand why I need to add my contact to WLVM. Is there a reason? Why can’t I just simply choose one of my contacts to send a video to and it’s done?

3. Load faster – I think the site designer needs to update to the latest Silverlight, because it’s somewhat slow in responding, and I don’t like the beaded circle that keeps cycling itself.

4. See online contacts at the top of the list – I want an option to see online contacts at the top. Makes it more convenient.

Windows Live Calendar:

1. Support synchronization with Windows Mobile phones – There should be instant syncing with Windows Live for Windows Mobile by now. It would make viewing and adding stuff a whole lot easier.

2. .ical subscription is still buggy – Like if I subscribe to a Google calendar that a site offers, it won’t always sync so well. Initially, it worked fine for a few weeks, but the calendar entries disappeared and never came back. It’s not all calendars, but there are some bugs.

3. Synchronization with Outlook/Exchange Calendars - Synchronization is important!

Windows Live Spaces:

1. Bring back the Home dashboard – I like how you could view recent comments right when you landed on the Spaces Home page. Now it’s another dumb click away.

2.  Delete comments without a prompt – It would be create if I could delete a comment without seeing this:

I’m quite sure after seeing this one time, I’m smart enough to know that clicking ‘Delete’ means I’m deleting a comment for good. This is especially annoying when I’m going through a bunch of spam comments (though spam in comments has decrease considerably).

3. Allow Javascript, Silverlight, and other more advanced scripting – It’s really sad that I can’t embed a Silverlight video from Microsoft’s own video site. Please, update Live Spaces to support modern scripting so things can be more easily embeddable. I know Javascript is an iffy issue, but Silverlight support needs to be there.

4. Even more ways to customize your Space – I wish Spaces was on the same level of customization as Blogger.com is. Spaces is pretty customizable, but I want to reach the same extent as I can on Blogger. I hope Spaces can be more than just a ‘casual blog’ for people. I want more fonts, wider color gamut, module shapes,

5. Better statistics – We need a better statistic counter, like what Microsoft’s Gatineau project was.

6. Make nice quick changes without reloading the page – AJAX would be good

Check out more here: http://msftandthefuture.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!1CA34B674D84900!3210.trak

Windows Live People:

1. Change the name to ‘Contacts’ – Honestly, stick with the simplicity shared by other Windows Live properties, and call your contacts as contacts. Not your ‘people’

2. Show results-as-you-type – As I’m typing to look for my contacts, any contacts whose names correspond to what I’m typing should show up in a drop down list. Makes it much easier.

*This list only covers the most prominent Windows Live services. Other services like Events, Groups, Family Safety, etc. are not widely used by myself or most people, so I have not included them.

Any opinions? Thoughts? Just comment!

I’ve noticed this before, and I noticed it today on the VE Team’s blog:

I’m really curious, cause I’d love to do this too. I checked my blog settings, and it isn’t available. Which leads me to believe that someone on the Virtual Earth team blog did this manually, probably through connections with the Windows Live team?

If that’s true, I wish they’d extend that feature to users, if it’s not already available. Anyone know how to turn off comments (not disable completely) on a particular blog post, whenever you want to?

Everyone loves playing games, right? Well based on this snapshot, it definitely does look like an Xbox kiosk.

This would seem like a good idea for arcades – They can provide Xbox use for maybe those who can’t afford an Xbox or for people who happen to have an Xbox addiction right nearby.

It would also seem like a good idea for public terminals and waiting rooms – Waiting can be boring, and instead of playing with your mobile phone, you could just walk over to one of these units and start playing. Maybe even connect to Xbox Live or something. It also seems you could have two players at the same time.

Perhaps these are the next-gen Xbox gaming units? Who knows? It’s up to you to interpret this photo.

I caught sight of this sink, and I think it’s pretty neat. It’s called the Abikso washbasin made by the Eumar Washbasin Factory:

It is named after a Swedish national park called Abisko National Park, and the design concept was to make something very minimalistic that would allow a free flow and moderate treatment of water without unnecessary details such as drain pipes and whatnot.

While it does look rather cool, I find it more interesting that this could be utilized as a sink/urinal combo. Now the company didn’t promote the washbasin as a sink/urinal combo, but it’s not a bad idea, right?

A guy could pee in the lower part of the basin, wash his hands at the top where the faucet is, and the runoff water will wash away the urine into the drain. This would be pretty eco-friendly as it conserves water and serve a dual function. I’m surprised this isn’t in Ikea.

Of course it’s not going to replace a regular toilet, but the Abikso wouldn’t be a bad idea for public restrooms in fancy/upscale places or maybe even in a personal home. It also makes a nice art piece.

Any thoughts?

Here are some of my tips for doing some spring cleaning work on your PC.

Hardware:

• Get a duster, and dust around the screen, keys, external speakers, printer, and any type of hardware you’ve got. Don’t forget the desk too!
• If you have a desktop with a separate hard drive unit, clean the dusty areas around the air vents. There’s tons of dust that accumulates there.

Software:

• Delete old files and programs that are not needed – Just trash personal files and programs that really aren’t necessary, and files you won’t regret destroying. Takes away some of the clutter, and allows more room for other files and programs.
• Delete browsing history – This is pretty important, if you don’t already do so. It’s a good idea to do this, maybe even monthly, to ensure security from all the nasty viruses and malware on the web. Cookies and temporary internet files can contain malware, your history may allow someone to know what sites you’ve been on, and saved passwords and form data can allow someone to access using your identity. If you use Internet Explorer 7, go to Tools > Delete Browsing History… > Delete All – NOTE: This will refresh your browser as if you never used it, but you’re favorites, toolbars, and whatnot will still be there.
• Delete old toolbars – Perhaps you have mistakenly installed a toolbar, or you just really don’t use it anymore. Wouldn’t hurt to just do away with it, by either checking the toolbar’s settings, or just going to Add and Remove programs or in Windows Vista, Programs and Features.
• Defragment your hard drive – This will free up space and makes files run more contiguously as possible. For XP, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. It will take maybe an hour or more, depending on your computer. It is suggested you don’t run anything else while it is defragmenting.
• Take time to reorganize media – Often times, I find really neat photos and videos on the web, and just download it quickly into my system without placing it in a specific place. You should make time to reorganize your media to make it easier to find and access. Create folders you find necessary to make, and drag and drop items into it. Add tags to media in Windows Live Photo Gallery for easier discoverability.
• Run your AV program or a free online scan – If you don’t run your AV program all the time (I have no idea why), then make a scan and see what it comes up with. If you don’t have an AV program, Microsoft has a free Online Safety Scanner with OneCare (not sure how long this will last) and Windows Defender for Windows XP. The free online scan checks for routine things, and while it will fix up some problems, it will not fix everything. Windows Defender looks out for spyware and pop-ups.

So these are some simple stuff to help spruce up your computer and the area around it. Good luck. Any other tips I should add? Leave a comment.

Well, maybe it is not specifically my feedback, maybe others as well, but they at least updated part of their policy that I’ve been pushing for.

I noticed as I was reporting this person, you do not have to link to the person’s Windows Live Space URL; you can now link to the person’s Windows Live Profile URL. Which of course makes more sense nowadays.

Using the person’s Windows Live Profile URL makes much more sense than using a person’s Windows Live Space URL, because it is quite common to find a lot of users have not signed up for a Windows Live Space, so it makes it quite irrelevant to have to report with a URL that does not exist. It just makes better sense to go with the Profile URL.

However, I still think a better and hassle-free way of containing the situation, would be for Windows Live to automatically know some of the data without the user having to provide it.

Like for instance, if a person posts a comment containing spam, then all you should have to do is click a report abuse button right next to the user’s name (or from the list of options when you click on his/her display picture) and Windows Live should know instantly who is being report, and where exactly where they are being reported from (based on the source of the report abuse click) making it a much easier process.

The smarter ‘report abuse’ button would knock out the need to enter a person’s Windows Live Profile URL and label the exact location of the abuse. All the person would need to do is just explain what the abuser did, and that’s about it. No more having to go through the process of copy and pasting URLs, the exact content of the message and then digging through a list to go through specifics. A more speedy reporting process would be a life saver.

Other sites can do this, so why can’t Windows Live? Anyway, I’m at least happy there is some progress happening, even though it is kind of slow.

I don’t think I’ve checked my inbox for just a few days, and imagine my surprise when I get 99+ e-mails after signing in to Messenger.

So I have 126 new e-mails, 40 invites to Messenger and possibly Profiles, 38 private messages, and honestly: MOST of these are pretty STUPID. It’s ridiculous all this mountain load of spam I’m getting. Microsoft may be trying to make Windows Live more sociable, but instead, it’s just making it easier for spammers and the “I-gotta-add-more-people” types in full force and bugging the heck out of me. Windows Live just doesn’t have enough “normal” users, like actual teenagers and young adults that actively use it, so instead, you just get mostly riff-raff. Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s kinda true. Not that everyone is this negative type, but it’s hard to miss.

If you read my blog, or kept up with my updates, you know I complain about this a lot. But maybe if the Windows Live team notices this, they’re going to get with the program, and do much more to make Windows Live a better service network.

At the Game Developers Conference, Microsoft announced a new Xbox 360 development kit, specially crafted for developers with 1GB of memory (debugging and stuff), and a sleek, blue-tinted chrome with a black exterior that’s quite appealing. Here are some photos:

Now you have to admit, it’s quite a looker. I hope that Microsoft will release a similar version for just us average joes. What do you think? Do you Xbox?

SOURCE: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/03/24/behold-the-new-blue-tinted-xbox-360-for-developers-only-gdc-2009

Interesting concepts like BatSignal (like Aero Peek, but kinda cooler), windows managing, taskbar designs, thumbnails and whatnot that just didn’t make it to the current version of Windows 7. There’s said to be 400 design sketches.

Links:

1. http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/03/23/windows-7-concepts-that-never-made-the-cut#
2. http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/yochay/Designing-the-Windows-7-Taskbar/
3.  http://winbeta.pl/sample3/windows7prototypy_1.htm

If you haven’t seen it by now, there has been a video floating around the web about Microsoft’s vision of the future, including a wide arrangement of vision types.

Here’s the basic Future Vision Montage if you haven’t seen it:

That video is composed of other videos including:

1. Health Future Vision (June 2007)

2. Retail Future Vision (April 2004)

3. Banking Future Vision (July 2005)

4. Manufacturing Future Vision (June 2006)

5. Productivity Vision (2009?) - personal favorite of mine, considering how in-depth and long it is

Here are some intriguing snapshots I took from some videos:

Future Windows Mobile?

Future Windows OS UI? Or a version for multi-touch surfaces?

Interesting links to look at:

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/productivityfuturevision/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/futurevisionmontage/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090228/microsoft-office-labs-vision-2019-video/

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090317/behind-vision-2019-interview-with-ian-sands-office-labs-director-of-envisioning/

http://www.onten.net/blogs/larry/Inside-Microsofts-2019-Vision-Video/

Ok, this is yet another quirk of the Windows Live system. Whenever I log into Windows Live Messenger, and a bunch of IM invites come up, I usually reject most of them (because they’re from strangers who I don’t really want to know). However, when I login to my ID on Windows Live Home to check out invites for Windows Live Profile, Messenger invites that I had ALREADY REJECTED are still mentioned. Windows Live needs to understand I already rejected those, and I don’t want to see them AGAIN when I check out invitations on my Profile.

For instance, when I logged into Messenger and a bunch of IM invites popped up, I got one from Caroline. I didn’t know her or want to know her so I rejected the offer.

I said “No, thanks.” and then clicked the OK button. Next, I clicked the e-mail icon to read unread messages on the web version of Hotmail, and no surprise – Most of them were either private messages or invites to other peoples’ profiles. So I deleted all of them right away, and just went to to Windows Live Home to read on them.

I read the private messages (I usually get a lot of stupid stuff like simple “Hi!” or just junk mail) and then moved onto the Profile or network invitations. To my chagrin, Caroline (who I recognized from her e-mail address) still had the option to add me as a Messenger contact even though I rejected her once!

Now I can’t be the only one experiencing this problem, right? I think there has to be other people having the same issues too. I just find it very annoying and disruptive, and also quite a time-waster rejecting tons of invites (I guess my blog reaches out to the worst) from Messenger, then having to sift through the same stuff again on Windows Live Profiles.

I just resort to picking “Decide later” simultaneously on each invite, and then rejecting them from Windows Live Profile – but it shouldn’t have to be this way. Period.