From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Well Eweek wasn't impressed

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1880657,00.asp

Microsoft 'Live Era' Meets Dead Air By David Coursey
November 1, 2005

Reporter's Notebook: Microsoft's new set of online platforms can be
described as a yawn. What the company showed was that it is embracing a new
services model, though not totally.


SAN FRANCISCO-About every five years, Microsoft holds an event to introduce
a "big bet" that Bill Gates is making in hopes of changing
computing as we know it.

On Dec. 7, 1995, he announced Microsoft would support the Internet in its
applications and operating systems.


July 2000 brought .Net, a programming architecture for Web applications,
among other things.

On Tuesday here at the Palace Hotel, Bill introduced what he's calling the
"Live era," in which software and online services and
applications work together, portions paid for by advertising and
subscription revenue.

It will be a few days before I've really digested what was I witnessed here
Tuesday, but here are some top-line thoughts:

Microsoft showed two online platforms, Windows Live and Microsoft Office Live.

Windows Live is a renamed version of Microsoft's Start.com service. You can
play with Windows Live at www.live.com.

What you will find there looks like a cross between MSN and SharePoint.
It's a customizable home page, with new features to be added as the beta
continues.

Microsoft Office Live is a set of small business services, including Web
hosting and e-mail that is built largely atop SharePoint and incorporates
the old bCentral hosted services.

If you get the idea that Microsoft didn't show anything incredibly new,
you're right. What was shown were feature enhancements and repackaging.

Still, Office Live will interest really small businesses (10 or fewer
employees) as soon as it goes live early next year.

I will describe the specific features of the two Live platforms to the news
stories. I've played with Live.com a bit already and as it currently
exists, it's a yawn.

Microsoft is making its biggest push ever into advertising-supported
software. This isn't at all surprising, and the company will soon roll out
a new, global ad server to place relevant ads into content and services
delivered to users.

The new ad-based services are a major swipe at both Google and Yahoo, and
seem to eclipse both of them.

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