It's 1995 all over again, but this time it's Live

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I had such a sense of déjà vu today with all the announcements. And I wasn't the only one to notice.

It took me back to December 7, 1995 (Pearl Harbour Day) when BillG headed up a special briefing (called "Internet Strategy Day") telling the world that Microsoft was getting on the internet by adding Internet capabilities to all its products. Hello Web 1.0.

Well, fast forward almost 10 years and on Lane Cove Tunnel Collapse day, we have BillG and Ray advocating all things Web 2.0.

From all the stuff I have read so far, a post by Dare's really nails it for me:

From a practical perspective, when I think about Windows Live I think about three things:

  1. User-centric web applications with rich user interfaces: You can expect more applications with rich, dynamic, user interfaces such as has been shown in the Mail beta and on https://www.live.com. For the geeks out there this means that you'll be seeing a lot more AJAX applications coming out of us and a focus on software that puts the user in control of their online experience.

  2. Smart desktop applications that improve the Windows user experience: The MSN division has slowly become Microsoft's consumer software division. From desktop search to instant messaging, a number of key applications that were once thought of as bits that ship with the operating system are now being shipped on a more frequent basis by MSN. With Windows Live, this reality is being acknowledged and embraced. Expect to see more beneficial integration between consumer applications coming from Microsoft and our web properties such as the integration between MSN Messenger & MSN Spaces.

  3. The Web as a platform: https://msdn.microsoft.com/msn was just the beginning, expect a lot more. Coincidentally I just finished giving a presentation to a few hundred of my co-workers from across the company on MSN Windows Live services as a Web platform. This is definitely an area I will be spending a lot of my time on in the following months.

[via 25hoursaday - Windows Live ]

So, it's a bunch of rich web apps which expose and consume web services, rich desktop apps which consume web services and the web as a platform for web services. Sounds a lot like the delivery of web services to me. Hmmm, that's what we've been evangelising for the last 5 years.  But now, the whole business is aligned. Good to see. And RSS is the glue? who would have thunk it?

Some other interesting blog posts here [via Who da'Punk aka mini-msft]:

All I can say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[ Currently Playing : Armatage Shanks - Green Day - Insomniac (02:17) ]