Introducing Windows Live

[bosky101]

Top executives at Microsoft unveiled the company’s strategies on hosted services Tuesday at an event in San Francisco.After start.com launced as a gradual shift of attention to the increasing competition from online sources, Microsoft is back with a big release for "Internet based personal services to bring together your digital world." The same development team that developed start.com within the past 9 months has come out with live.com - a melange of services and the start of a new era for Microsoft and its evolution online.

Start.com was initially released on February 2005, on start.com/1 and with Live,the intended goals are :

-To bring the web’s content to users through:
-Rich DHTML components (Gadgets)
-RSS and behaviors associated with RSS
-High customizability and personalization
-To enable developers to extend their start experience by building their own Gadgets

Check out Live Beta herewww.live.com​

"The Live era is just starting... It's a new way to look at software, a better way that creates lots of new opportunities," Gates concluded.

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Live.com is currently a Beta - this means that you may experience some glitches from time to time or features may not be fully polished or complete. but we're hoping you're willing to bear a few glitches and partial features in exchange for seeing your thoughts and ideas implemented as fast as we can. Most of our ideas come from your feedback, so please send us feedback.

Microsoft has frequently been criticized by analysts and industry watchers about its out-of-date enterprise applications, which are built on old technologies and are not able to compete with tough players such as SAP and Oracle and, most recently, hosted applications providers such as Salesforce and NetSuite.

Highlights when you sign in at live.com
TE had earlier reviewed start.com and here are some highlights that have been added ,apart from the branded services like favourites,windows onecare,office live,etc .
1.mail inbox
this is currently our most requested feature on start.com - we're very excited to enable all hotmail and windows live mail users to get their preview on live.com (keep in mind we expect this to fully work by ~4 pm PST today! i told you we're in Beta )
2.search
- get inline answers, web, news and feeds
- search for feeds and subscribe right inline
- add your search queries to your page and keep track of the latest news
3.customize your site
expand or collapse your modules and drag and drop them as you please.
search for content that interests you and subscribe to it to stay updated
4.gadgets
Does remind you of the konfabulator initially ,but check out that show sidebar ,stocks, weather, mail, etc...go to http://www.microsoftgadgets.com to build your own gadgets and see what other gadgets have been built by the community.Gadgets come in three flavours:

• 
  
  [*]Gadgets for Windows Sidebar: will run on your desktop or dock into Windows Sidebar, an upcoming feature in Windows Vista alongside other applications. Desktop Gadgets can developed using Windows Presentation Foundation, DHTML/Atlas, and even ActiveX controls. The beauty of Desktop Gadgets is that they are visually and programmatically rich – scaling from vector-based graphics and managed code to standard techniques you’d use for the Web. You’ll be hearing more about Windows Sidebar over the coming months here as we approach release around Beta 2 of Windows Vista.
  
• Gadgets for Start.com (a.k.a. Web or Server-based Gadgets) provide a fast, customizable homepage with a clean user interface – putting the user in control of more of their online experience. Currently in incubation/public preview, Start.com is a place where consumers can customize the web to their liking by adding their own sources of content including RSS web-feeds and web-based Gadgets that extend functionality of their site- anything from custom calendars to service integration. Start.com demonstrates the use of DHTML and ASP.Net Atlas, which separates the data from the UI resulting in significant performance improvements. In addition, Start.com Gadgets can easily support docking into the Windows Sidebar.
  
• Gadgets for Windows SideShow(tm) (a.k.a. Auxilary Display Gadgets) allow users to view their information on devices. Users can view their data where they want it, whether it is for instant access on the lid of a laptop PC, for notifications on a keyboard display or for convenience on a detached device like a cell phone. Gadgets for Windows SideShow run on the PC and use COM interfaces to send data to devices. This Windows SideShow platform combined with the power of desktop applications allows for new scenarios and opportunities.

Sources
1.Redmond
2.Live from San Francisco: Bill Gates on Next-Gen Software Plans Hosted Services[/url]
3.Live 's official Blog
4.TE review of start.com
4.Microsoft Gadgets Blog