What's the name of that Map thing?

On names and codenames...

Bit-cycling — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 00:03:01 GMT

The naming of products at Microsoft is something that never ceases to fascinate the world. The latest

Windows Live: Where it started, where we've been, and where we are now

LiveSide - News blog — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 03:18:22 GMT

Well, it's that time of the year again. It's the time where everyone does their predictions for the new year and recap of the events of the year that is on its way out. Kip is going to be covering our list of things to watch for in 2007 and that means

Windows Live: Where it started, where we've been, and where we are now

LiveSide - News blog — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 03:18:14 GMT

re: What's the name of that Map thing?

tophtucker — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 09:51:51 GMT

Yeah, while it's exciting to start hearing some more about Live Anywhere (there's another example of the prefix being dropped), I was kind of confused by that site. Actually, it's been nagging me ever since they announced Live Anywhere: will it still be Xbox Live, or will it be something-else-Live? ("Games for Windows Live"? That's a mouthful.) That GFW just calls it "LIVE", but that's inviting all sorts of confusion with "Live Search," "Live QnA," etc.

Xbox Live for online gaming stuff, Office Live for online business stuff, Windows Live for online consumer stuff. It used to be a nice neat little Live triangle.

If Microsoft wants to expand "Xbox" from being just a console to being a whole gaming initiative, they could just call it "Xbox Live" on the PC (and cell phones), too. Would that be so hard for people to swallow? It's a tough choice.

And then there's the Zune.......

Every Zune user gets a ZuneTag, right? Does that make the Zune network "Zune Live"?

Maybe everything needs to be redivided into those 3 nice neat categories. Zune and Xbox Live can go together under the "Entertainment" category. But what to call the combined category? Mircosoft Entertainment Services Live 2007(r)(tm)?

Maybe it's fine the way it is....

But all of this is very important in terms of the whole "Who is Window Live?" issue.

re: What's the name of that Map thing?

Chris — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 22:08:22 GMT

Correct, the "Windows" part of several services have been silently dropped. I agree that with Office Live and Xbox Live it is needed, especially when other services are becoming just "live" too:

http://www.gamesforwindows.com/live/aboutLive.aspx

re: What's the name of that Map thing?

tophtucker — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:02:23 GMT

I was about to say "good decision" about the name change until I read "Live Search Maps." Windows Live service names are wordy enough as it is (compare to "Windows Live Mail" to "Gmail", for instance). Throwing "Search" in there is just totally unneccessary.

But speaking of name changes, some services appear to have dropped the "Windows" - see Live Search, for instance:

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=liveside&mkt=en-us&FORM=LVSP

Or Live QnA:

http://qna.live.com/

Interesting. It's nice in that it's less wordy, but including the "Windows" seems important in light of Xbox Live and Office Live.

re: What's the name of that Map thing?

Chris — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 06:15:59 GMT

how about Windows Live Search Maps? ;)

re: What's the name of that Map thing?

Khristopher — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 05:47:23 GMT

i hope they just call it windows live maps not windows live maps search!! that's a bad bad name. the word search just does not need to be included in it!

re: What's the name of that Map thing?

bf1977 — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 04:01:22 GMT

Very good Penalty that not yet has the cities of Brazil in 3D

re: What's the name of that Map thing?

BV2312 — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 03:08:33 GMT

I'm confused by just reading about it... it's either Local or Maps but if you look at the advert they took out in UK's Metro (reported yday) it's map underneth the live search bar... Oh well it's goin to be Windows Live Maps/Local Vs Google Maps/Local and Virtual Earth Vs Google Earth or something like that :S