LiveSide - News blog : Live Drive

New storage service - Windows Live Folders

Chris — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 06:07:00 GMT

While news on the "Live Drive" front has been rather non-existant of late, there are some signs that may be about to change. A new service, Windows Live Folders beta, was recently listed on the Windows Live Feedback site, though it was only a matter of days before it was removed. While it doesn't take a genius to work out this is likely to be a storage service, the question is what will it be? A revamped FolderShare, the "Live Drive" cloud storage service everybody has been waiting for, or a combination of both?...(read more)

Windows Live Mail Plus to offer 4GB storage

Chris — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 00:06:00 GMT

As more Windows Live services launch out of beta in the next few months, one of the unanswered questions still remains around premium subscribers. Some good news for Hotmail Plus users comes in the form of Windows Live Mail Plus, which is currently only marketed in Holland.

Features:

4GB inboxes from Spring 2007 *New*
Attachments upto 20MB
No advertisements (across several Windows Live services, including Mail, Mail desktop and Spaces)
Microsoft Outlook access
No disabling of your account due to inactivity
Yearly cost remains at €19.99, expected £14.99 and $19.99 when launched in other regions

While the addition of 4GB storage may seem like overkill for email, Gmail is currently on ~2.8GB, it makes more sense if you can share it between services. While Live Drive is not yet released, this would seem like an appropriate place for it to integrate with Windows Live.

Will CES bring Windows Live News?

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 13:56:00 GMT

Robert McLaws is guessing that Windows Live Drive may be announced at CES in Las Vegas in January. Basing his assumption on an ad in the CES 2007 guide, "Announcing a new way to share, protect, and store what matters most", the "All Together Now" ad does seem promising. While Robert may be going out on a limb here, as a number of Microsoft incubations would seem to fit a product that would "share, protect, and store", Live Drive is certainly one possibility.

Our own Matthew Weyer will be at CES, and will be bringing you all the Windows Live news from the Consumer Electronics Show (or from the parties, anyway)

Windows Search Preview "indefinitely postponed"

Chris — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:40:00 GMT

The word is that the Windows Live "desktop search" project has been shelved, as a result of the recent reorg. In Sinofsky's vision of "Live 2.0" (did I just say that?), the 6 groups rule all, giving consolidation into a Windows Live suite. The screenshot below is about as much as we will be seeing anytime soon of the ill-fated "Casino".

Live Drive is still yet to be seen, Nemo the Media Center add-on is on hold. While thankfully someone has seen sense to stop churning out Live-branded products everywhere we look, these non-core products are the ones that can differentiate Windows Live from Google and Yahoo. Hopefully we'll see them or their technology in other products in the near future.

Windows Search Preview homepage

Amazon launches QnA rival

Chris — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 03:29:00 GMT

If you were in any doubt as to which way most of the big internet portals think search is going, Amazon has made it crystal clear; Askville, Amazon's new social search service, has launched into beta in competition with the likes of Yahoo Answers and Windows Live QnA. Since South Korean search engine Naver first showed the way to dethroning Google, social search has become a key battleground.

Cameron Marlow notes the main differences between Askville and the existing sites:

"Probably the most significant change is the flow of the question/answering exchange. In Yahoo! Answers, and elsewhere, answers are shown publicly as they are received; in Askville, answers are hidden to the public until 5 answers have been received. Any discussion or clarification can happen in a public message board attached to the question. After 5 answers have been collected, the group of asker and answerers vote and the whole thing is made public.

Askville rewards users with “coins,” a virtual currency that will be redeemable in another community named Questville slated for release in early 2007."

The most notable advantage Askville has over Windows Live QnA is the presence of a rewards system - not many people choose to work for free, which is why a Live Points system is a urgent requirement for QnA. Gold stars can only encourage users so much.

With Amazon's S3 taking the initiative over the yet to be released Live Drive, it will be interesting to see how Askville does against the more established QnA.

Cameron also has some Askville beta invites :)

Has "Live" gone out of fashion?

Chris — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 06:10:00 GMT

First it was Warhol becoming MSN Soapbox. Next up is Search Center, the latest program which surprisingly will be losing the "Live" prefix that is being given to nearly everything else coming out of Redmond this year. For now it is looking to be called Windows Search Preview, a name that is supported by a recent Newgroup post over at MSDN by a Microsoft employee.

In case you've forgotten the history of this product, here's a quick recap:

Originally codenamed Casino and internally called OneView
Announced by Bill Gates as just Windows Live Search
Named as Windows Live Search Center by Steve Ballmer
Now being called Windows Search Preview

Now you see why the blog was named "Find My Stuff".

Back in July, the press release said that this product would be "coming soon" and as yet we are still to see an external beta program. While we're waiting for Windows Search Preview, maybe someone can suggest that the naming team leave this product alone now and start looking at some of the products already out there - Windows Live Local seems to be a favorite.

New Storage Service: Windows Live Drive

Chris — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 01:15:00 GMT

Mary Jo Foley over at Microsoft-Watch reveals Microsoft is developing a virtual harddrive service for Windows Live . Here's a little more from Mary Jo: "Sources close to Microsoft described that service as one where Microsoft would back up users'...(read more)