The Web Pitch
A blog exploring The Social Web – Learn. Explore. Profit
The second instalment of the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld video, promoting Windows Vista has just been released. The series of videos are designed to help counteract Apple’s Mac bashing PC videos, which have received much praise in recent times. Microsoft has remained fairly silent in response to Apple’s video campaign, until now that is.
Microsoft have enlisted the help of the American comedian, Jerry Seinfeld for their videos. There’s something in common with the humour of the Microsoft ad campaign and with the American comedy, Arrested Development. I wasn’t sure about the first video release, but the second one above is fantastic. See below for the first ad.
So where’s the relevance? Well, Microsoft are doing something both interesting and exciting with these videos. The ‘Bill and Jerry’ effect is causing a lot of discussion within the blogosphere. There’s almost a Marmite like quality to the discussion – You either love the videos, or you you hate them. They have created, what Seth Godin describes as a ‘Meatball Sundae’
"A meatball sundae is the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas. The meatballs are the foundation, the things we need (and sometimes want). These are the commodities that so many businesses are built on. The sundae toppings (hot fudge and the like) are the New Marketing, the social networks, Google, blogs and fancy stuff that make people all excited".
If Bill and Jerry are the foundation ‘Meatballs’. The ‘Sundae’ surely is how the videos are going viral. Microsoft has aided this by creating a YouTube page to help the masses watch the videos and more importantly, to help bloggers embed them! The point here is that the videos are memorable, people are talking about them whether they like them or not. The videos provoke a discussion. So far, there’s been no mention of Windows Vista which I feel is deliberate.
It is too early to tell whether these series of videos will be successful in changing the public feeling of Windows Vista. But, used as a tool to start a conversation about Microsoft and to continue that conversation, these ads are creating the perfect meatball sundae.
[UPDATE] – Mary Jo-Foley posts her view on the second ad
Indeed, Microsoft UK are selling Office 2007 for the bargain price of £38.95 in their Ultimate Steal Promotion. What’s the catch? You have to be in academia and have a registered .ac.uk email address. I made use of this offer last year and I am very glad I did!
This post is dedicated to all those in UK Universities. I think I’m missing my days stressing over essays!
Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office,The Ultimate Steal
As has been widely reported in the press last week. Bill Gates has formerly stepped down from his official duties at Microsoft to concentrate on humanitarian efforts. I salute his efforts and raise my glass in admiration.
Bill Gates, though lacking the charisma of other pioneers such as Steve Jobs has always inspired me. Bill’s passion and dedication to software, (as can be felt in the video above) is amazing. From small and humble beginnings, he created an amazing company. But what now for the company, as its former Chief Software Architect looks to save the world?
Steve asks, “Whether bloggers can fill the void after Gates?”. This is a great question. Over the last few years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many Microsofties both in the UK and at various European conferences. Predominantly, most of them blog and you can feel their passion about their chosen field. However, can all these individual bloggers replace the voice of Gates?
Steve, is a great blogger and engaging presenter. But I ask myself, where are the other ‘hidden gems’ at Microsoft and particularly in the UK? I have so far attended two Web technology focused events recently. Both of which Microsoft had sponsored. I saw some great demos, but where are the passionate people at Reading hiding? I want to see, hear and engage with you. Believe me, I’m not the only one.
Microsoft may have lost a key asset as in Gates. But, as the world becomes ever smaller and our connections and relationships become more important. I hope that the company increases its efforts with the on going dialogue with its customers and especially, its consumer communities.
The big voice may have gone. But I think now might be the time, to “Pump up the Volume” on many of the other quality voices within the company.
Like many people today, I use multiple computers and use multiple mobile devices (Mobile Phone, iPod etc). I have a designated ‘work’ PC, a Dell laptop and an Apple Macbook laptop (which I think of as a ‘lifestyle computer’). My lifestyle computer carries all of my digital media – music, pictures and video. My Windows Mobile phone carries all of my Outlook contacts and syncs my content from my Dell Laptop. My iPod connects to my Macbook. As you can see, I spend time in the content management space. But I’m not alone.
One of the biggest issues I have, is keeping my digital life synced. The above scenario, is just one consumer’s perspective. What about a small business? Today, more people are working from a greater number of computer devices. There soon comes a need to backup. Sharing and syncing content is a headache. Of course, there are options. Copy data to memory sticks or email data to yourself. Functional solutions but hardly elegant Microsoft’s Live Mesh platform can help consumers and businesses in data management – Best of all it is free.
I dream of a day when my data is stored in the cloud. No matter, which device I pick up, it recognises who I am and securely logs me on to the Internet. My files are copied over to my device and are available wherever I go. Live Mesh, is a first step to that dream.
Live Mesh is currently invite only 
( But signup over at www.mesh.com or www.sharemesh.com for chances to signup to the technical beta
Technorati Tags: Live Mesh
Major hat tip to Steve Clayton
Live Mesh is an ambitious initiative — it combines a software platform and a service. Live Mesh follows on from Ray Ozzie’s mission on Software + Services. Ozzie has been setting the stage for Live Mesh since October 2005, when he outlined his thoughts, in his “Internet Services Disruption” memo to the Microsoft troops.
Steve notes that the design goals for Live Mesh are to have:
- Your devices work together
- Your data and applications available from anywhere
- The people you need to connect with just a few clicks away for sharing and collaborating
- The information you need to stay up-to-date and always be available
- The Live Mesh blog captures it nicely with their tagline – Here, There, Everywhere.
I’m truly excited about Live Mesh and look forward to using it soon!
The blogosphere is going mental at the moment regarding Live Mesh. Here are some notable blog posts:
Steve Clayton – Steve’s Mesh Coverage
Mary Jo-Foley – Ten things to know about Microsoft’s Live Mesh
Scoble – Ray Ozzie delivers with Live Mesh
Ray Ozzie delivered a memo to Microsoft employees on Live Mesh. You can read the excerpt. (The full version is also available below)
Excerpt:
Central to this strategy is our embrace of both a world of the web and a world of devices. Over the past ten years, the PC era has given way to an era in which the web is at the center of our experiences – experiences delivered not just through the browser but also through many different devices including PCs, phones, media players, game consoles, set-top boxes and televisions, cars, and more.
Guiding Principles
There are three overarching principles guiding our services strategy – principles informing the design and development of products being implemented across all parts of Microsoft, for both individuals and business.
1. The Web is the Hub of our social mesh and our device mesh.
The web is first and foremost a mesh of people. . . . All applications will grow to recognize and utilize the inherent group-forming aspects of their connection to the web, in ways that will become fundamental to our experiences. In scenarios ranging from productivity to media and entertainment, social mesh notions of linking, sharing, ranking and tagging will become as familiar as File, Edit and View. . . . To individuals, the concept of “My Computer” will give way to the concept of a personal mesh of devices – a means by which all of your devices are brought together, managed through the web, as a seamless whole.
2. The Power of “Choice” as business moves to embrace the cloud.
Most major enterprises are in the early stages of a significant infrastructural transition – from the use of dedicated and sometimes very expensive application servers, to the use of virtualization and commodity hardware to consolidate those enterprise applications on computing and storage grids constructed within their data center. . . . Driven in large part by the high-scale requirements of consumer services, the value of this utility computing model is most clearly evident in cloud-based internet services.
Software built explicitly to provide a significant level of server/service symmetry will afford choice and flexibility in developing, operating, migrating and managing such systems in highly varied enterprise deployment environments that are distributed and federated between the enterprise data center and the internet cloud.
3.Small Pieces Loosely Joined for developers, within the cloud and across a world of devices.
Application design patterns at both the front- and back-end are transitioning toward being compositions and in some cases loose federations of cooperating systems, where standards and interoperability are essential. . . . At a higher level, myriad options exist for delivering applications to the user: The web browser, unique in its ubiquity; the PC, unique in how it brings together interactivity/experience, mobility and storage; the phone, unique in its extreme mobility. Developers will need to build applications that can be delivered seamlessly across a loosely coupled device mesh by utilizing a common set of tools, languages, runtimes and frameworks – a common toolset that spans from the service in the cloud to enterprise server, and from the PC to the browser to the phone.
Here is the full memo (Via TechCrunch):
Microsoft has announced a new partnership with five of the six most popular social networking sites. The partnership will allow users to more safely and easily share contacts with various Windows Live services.
Microsoft’s new partnership includes Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, LinkedIn, and Tagged. A notable absentee is MySpace. MySpace currently uses an older version of Microsoft’s Windows Live Contacts interoperability and will therefore likely be compatible at some point in the future.
Users of Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger service can visit, www.invite2messenger.net, where they can invite contacts from Facebook to join Windows Live Messenger. (NB. Support for Hotmail, Bebo, LinkedIn, Hi5, and Tagged will be added in the weeks ahead).
Hugh and Steve, get a well deserved mention in Business Week! Excerpt follows the break. Rock on Guys!
In the fall of 2006, a group of senior European executives at Microsoft (MSFT) entered a meeting expecting to see a PowerPoint presentation. Instead, Steve Clayton—then the chief technology officer for Microsoft’s U.K. Partner Group—showed them a hand-drawn image of an impish blue creature bearing gnarled fangs and sporting the provocative caption “Microsoft: Change the world or go home.” After a few initial gasps, recalls Clayton, the attendees engaged in a lively discussion around the current direction of the company and the brand. “People liked the way it changed the angle of conversation,” Clayton says.
The image was not the product of Microsoft’s marketing department or an ad agency, but of cartoonist, writer, and marketing strategist Hugh MacLeod—a friend of Clayton. Ever since MacLeod sent the cartoon to Clayton and posted it on his blog, gapingvoid (www.gapingvoid.com) more than a year ago, the “blue monster” character has become an unofficial corporate mascot among many Microsoft employees, posted in cubicles, printed on business cards and T-shirts, and added to e-mail signatures. “I’m told it always leads to an interesting, atypical Microsoft conversation,” says MacLeod—the result he had hoped for.
This is great news!! Windows Live SkyDrive has increased its online storage to 5 GB. Earlier today it was 1 GB.
The “Beta” tag is also removed. Well Done Skydrive Team
Rock On!
http://skydriveteam.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!977F793E846B3C96!1697.entry
Technorati Tags: Windows Live Skydrive
Microsoft is now offering its Office Live Small Business product for free to SME’s!
Office Live Small Business is aimed at companies with ten or fewer employees and to date has pulled in over 600,000 subscribers, which is somewhat modest by Microsoft standards.
New features include Store Manager, a $39.95 per month ecommerce tool for small and medium-sized business to sell their wares online either through their own website or on eBay; and a beta email marketing add-on for newsletter production.
Customers can expect to stump up $14.95 for each subsequent year that they have a domain name registered on the service. Anyone who subscribes to Office Live Small Business will be able to keep their personal information out of the public Whois database, Microsoft says.
Microsoft is also supporting the Firefox 2.0 web browser – which means Office Live will be accessible on non-Windows-based systems.
The service is currently available in the US, UK, Germany, France and Japan.
Microsoft’s press release is here.
I’m surprised the Office Rocker hasn’t blogged about it 
During a conversation earlier today, I was still surprised to find that many executives still fail to see the business benefits that Instant Messaging (IM) can bring to the workplace. Or, as an additional way for your potential customers to contact you.
IM is wildly popular with home users, but in a business environment the ability to communicate with colleagues in real time can derive real benefits. However, corporate managers and network administrators still remain divided over its utility in the business world.
IM presents some of the same benefits to business users as to home users: it allows you to communicate with colleagues, customers and partners at a distance in real time, like the telephone, while avoiding expensive long distance charges that apply during normal business hours. The growing popularity of Voice over IP (VoIP) services is taking some of this advantage away, as firms can now use the Internet to place telephone calls at a substantial savings over the traditional phone system, e.g. Skype
Nevertheless, IM continues to be the communications method of choice for many because it provides more of a “personal” link than email, while being a bit less intrusive than the telephone. IM is handy for dual communications. For example, you can get information from a colleague via IM while you’re on the phone with a customer, without having to disrupt the telephone conversation.
For the small firm, IM can provide many benefits which are listed below:
- Allows for "instant" communications between people. This can save time and money as you can resolve questions or problems immediately.
- Transmits messages fast enough to allow for natural flowing conversation. Once you get he hang of it, you can easily hold simultaneous IM sessions with multiple people!
- Eliminates long distance phone charges. Use of the IM over the Internet can eliminate costly long distance charges.
- Reduces the amount of email sent and received throughout the day. Many people want an answer to a simple question quickly. IM provides this capability to facilitate quick and easy communication.
- Ability to determine who is online and ready for a message. The ability to set a presence indicator is a standard feature of IM applications. You can easily see whether someone is available to chat with you.
- Gives you another method to stay in contact with your customers and improve their shopping or support experience on your web site. The benefits are unlimited when you integrate IM with your existing web site or blog. The IM tool can be used to assist in sales on e-commerce sites. It can be used to answer support questions and even to push content (URLs or web pages) to the customer.
If your business is already using Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) You can embed Messenger IM controls directly on your site. This will allow potential customers on the Web to reach you in Messenger by showing your Messenger status on your web site, blog, or social networking profile (Very Cool)
The IM Control runs in your web browser and lets your site visitors message you without installing Messenger first. Windows Live IM controls support IE6, IE7, and FireFox 2.0 on Windows and FireFox 2.0 on Mac OS with support for 32 languages.
I have embedded the code over at my other blog. http://www.jasdhaliwal.com. Feel free to IM me when I’m online.
To embed Windows Live Messenger controls on your own web site or blog, follow the instructions below:
1.Go to http://settings.messenger.live.com/applications/websettings.aspx. Sign in with your Windows Live ID, or create a Live ID if you don’t already have one
2. Turn on your Web settings to show your presence and receive IM from the Web. (Note that if you turn on Web settings, anybody on the Web can see your presence and send you IM messages.
3. Pick a way to show your presence.
4. Copy the HTML from the page and post it on your Web site.
5. When a visitor comes to your page, they can click on “Begin a conversation” to start sending you IM.
- Note! The IM Control lets anybody on the Web to IM you. If somebody you don’t know sends you a message, you will see a warning like below in Messenger. The IM Control lets people you don’t know reach you. If you don’t want people you don’t know to send you messages, then don’t allow messages such as this one. If you want to always enable new users to IM you from the IM Control, then allow messages from unknown senders.
Caveats:
Children and family safety setting users cannot turn on the settings for the IM Control
Technorati Tags: Blogs, Windows Live Messenger
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