Tag Archives: computing

Microsoft’s Presence Initative

I attended VON 2006, a trade show focused on VoIP from an enterprise perspective. I have an upcoming article or two regarding the show, which I will post on the site, but for now I wanted to comment on Microsoft’s presence initiative.

For those unfamiliar to “presence,” it is one of the latest buzzwords in tech. Basically, presence is a sophisticated version of “Away” or “Available” as used/found in IM clients. It has some fantastic potential, but remains something mostly in the works and used to attract VC.

At VON, a Microsoft rep provided a half-hour presentation on their presence, IM, and database iniativies, all of which seemed to take aim at Google, AIM, Yahoo!, and consumer-level services. As per usual, Microsoft speaks a grand game but probably will not deliver on their promises (it is not alone; Motorola’s “Seamless Mobility” initiative and Yahoo!’s music and IPTV personalization plans have been significant disappointments).

At the core of Microsoft’s efforts is a subscription-based model for contacts. You have your online identity (e.g., IM screenname) and you allow people to subscribe at different levels, such as friends, family, coworkers, and hobby partners. At any time, they can unsubscribe or, and this is what was emphasized, you can unsubcribe users (more precisely, re-subscribe them to different categories, including lower status ones). It was repeatedly emphasized that if you decided you did not like someone, you could move that person out of your inner circle outward toward less personal/connected circles.

While there was some cool components to Microsoft and its 13 billion strong database of online identities (nervous?), the notion that people would feel free to downgrade people’s relationship status is misguided. People are and have always been concerned about hurting others feelings, and this includes downgrading relationships. Whether it is not breaking up with someone or putting up with a former-friend’s behavior in the Externet or being torn over how to remove people from your blogroll on the Internet, people do not feel comfortable pushing people away.

If people dilute the value of their relationships, then the relationship-centric subscription model Microsoft is pursuing becomes significantly less valuable. After all, information designed for a specific group of friends will become moderated so that the undesired people do not find out about ongoings, etc. As a result, we can expect Microsoft’s initative to lead to another layer of well-intentioned but poorly-implemented/designed Internet novelty.

Goodbye Outlook, Hello Apple’s i* PIM Suite

As I noted earlier, I have added a PowerBook to my computer lineup. I enjoy using Mac OS X (10.4), and find it to rarely be frustrating, unless we’re talking about keyboard shortcuts, and usually pleasant. In fact, pleasant is an excellent word to describe the experience; it’s neither thrilling nor bad.

But this post is about my decision to leave Microsoft Outlook and turn to Apple’s PIM suite, which includes iCal, Address Book, and Mail. Reasons for this switch include:

  • Increased use of my laptop and decreased use of my desktop, which makes having PIM data on laptop desireable
  • (Alleged) Ease of synchronizing my Motorola RAZR v3 with Mac OS X, iCal, and AddressBook
  • The use of open standards by the Apple PIM suite versus proprietary formats of Microsoft Outlook.

The Plan
Because I had heard switching out of Outlook could be difficult and because I did not know well Apple’s software worked, I decided a good plan was to do a series of test switches. I would move small amounts of information from Outlook’s Mail, Calendar, and Contacts sections to Apple’s Mail, iCal, and Address Book. I would also test syncing with my phone and PDA, a Handspring Visor Deluxe. If the transfers worked smoothly and if I liked the software, then I would make the switch. Otherwise, I would continue using Outlook and/or look for alternative solutions, including Microsoft’s Entourage.

In thinking, talking, and doing research about this process, I realized that the resources for such a switch are inadequate. Although I did not do an enormous amount of research, only enough to pull off the switch, I found that there was no central resource to guide a user through the process and the resources that were geared for each specific part of Outlook were poorly written, usually providing little background or explanation. I decided, therefore, that outlining my experience might be helpful to others, as well as demonstrate the difficulty of leaving Outlook.
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The Google (and GIM and GMail)

Given the attention Google receives, including from techies, investors, and media-types, it is surprising to see how little attention and analysis there has been regarding Google’s integration of Google Talk (or GIM) with GMail.

In general, Google uses sophisticated models and data-mining techniques to deliver more relevant advertising to users. Increasingly, however, the company is microscoping those techniques down to a user-specific level. The bait to tie advertising to a specific user (e.g., me), rather than a general type of user (e.g., people who perform a search for “glass + composer + ‘tour dates'”), was/is GMail. To use the service, people log in and have a specific account. In its initial form, e-mails were scanned and relevant advertising provided.

But that crude method, which was and to some degree remains the standard method, only provides a one-dimensional (i.e., e-mail) information/revenue stream. Steadily, Google has increased the number of services/revenue streams that improve/adjust when a user is logged into what was his or her GMail account and is now more generally referred to as a Google account. These includes News.Google, Base.Google, Images.Google, Groups.Google, and (Search.)Google.

While the Google (nee GMail) account was, and remains, the bait for attracting users to create trackable/information-creating accounts, GIM’s incorporation into GMail–which is done adequately, although not impressively, well–is the hook that keeps users logged in, trackable, and able to be advertised to in a personal (rather than customizable or typed) manner. That’s because GIM requires you to be logged in constantly and because there are people who only access their e-mail account when checking for new messages (as opposed to running it continuously and being notified when there is e-mail). The combination of the two is a significant barrier to Google’s efforts to collect user-specific data, but a barrier that is overcome because of GIM’s always-logged-in character. Important to remember is that once a user remains logged in the other personalizable Google services are activated, thereby generating not just the GIM and GMail information/revenue streams, but also a number of others (e.g., News.Google). That one GIM/GMail door opens up many worlds of new information gathering and advertising potential.

In fact, GIM’s integration with GMail may be one of the most important new products/developments the company has rolled out, and yet it met with little discussion and fanfare from the tech and investment community.