Or more precisely, why are there so many Windows Live home pages? A blog post on Windows Live Wire the other day announced:

As you probably know by now, Windows Live Home is the central page for Windows Live on the Web. It provides an easy jumping-off point to all your Windows Live web services and gives you at-a-glance status for some of them. On the Home page, you can quickly check for new e-mail, new comments on your blog, or updates from your Spaces friends without having to go to each of those pages.

Today we’ve released a new version of the Windows Live Home page. We’ve taken off the “beta” tags, which means we’re no longer just testing this page out–it’s here to stay. 

But is it the central page for Windows Live on the web?  What about Live.com, or MSN.com?  What about the Spaces home page?  Heck, what about Get.live.com, or even the header bar?  All of these pages offer very similar sets of offerings, but none of them seem to, as yet, pull Windows Live together all in one place.  That’s been a problem with Windows Live since it was first announced, a lack of cohesive identity.

Here’s a quick recap of the major home pages for Windows Live, and some similarities and differences between and among them:
(click on the pictures to go to each of the sites)

Windows Live Home Pages	Similarities	Differences
Just the Header Bar	New header bar, of course Orb Search Home Hotmail Spaces OneCare	Calendar Office Live Xbox Live Gallery
Windows Live Home	New header bar Orb Search Hotmail Messenger Spaces	Weather info at a glance Updated SkyDrive upload info Link to Live Wire Link to Events home page
Get.live.com	Hotmail Messenger Spaces OneCare	No new header bar No search No orb Expo Toolbar Betas
Live.com (you must be signed in to see your personalized information)	Orb Search	No new header bar Personalized info Live.com gadgets Detailed mail at a glance RSS feeds
Spaces Home (you must be signed in to see your personalized information)	New header bar Orb Search	Friends updated info Events SkyDrive
MSN.com	Hotmail Messenger Search	Not a Windows Live property, so no Orb or header

As you can see, each of these pages are slightly different, but most contain mostly similar information. I haven’t broken down everything completely, but the effect is that many of the same services are offered on most of the pages, but there are some slight differences.  Are the differences enough to warrant a completely different page?  Why isn’t Windows Live Home a newly redesigned Live.com?  Is there any reason to have them both?  The new Spaces Home page, once you’re signed in, is by far the most intriguing offering here, but it lacks Hotmail and Messenger integration.  An ability to add Gadgets to the Spaces page, similar to Live.com, could make all the other pages obsolete.

And while the shift from Windows Live Search to Live Search separates Windows Live offerings into its own suite of communications related services, there’s a distressing lack of support/promotion for cool new services offered by Live Search.  Certainly Live Maps 3D and the improved driving directions should be featured here somewhere?

Windows Live has been making strides to try and consolidate the vision, to clean up the unfocused and haphazard mess that marred the beginnings of Windows Live.  Looking at these home pages, there’s still work to be done.