Microsoft issued a Windows heads up for a suite of Windows Live products slated to be available sometime in August, including a MySpace competitor.Microsoft issued yet another Windows heads up on Wednesday in a briefing with PC Magazine. This one is for a suite of Windows Live products slated to be available sometime in August. The suite includes Windows Live Toolbar, which actually became available this week, Windows Live Safety Updates, and Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft's version of MySpace.
Microsoft reps say the company has a vision that Windows Live will work seamlessly with Internet Explorer 7, which will work seamlessly with Windows Vista, but no one knows exactly when any of them will really be available. Microsoft is only able to give overviews of what they will be like and general ideas of when they will be ready, with the exception of Windows Live Toolbar, which is available now at http://toolbar.live.com/.
The Toolbar is Microsoft's dig at the Google Toolbar, and was released this week in English-language markets. It has customized buttons just like Google's but also has what Microsoft calls "Smart Menus" where users can highlight text on any page and get mapping, stock, and weather information. The toolbar also stores users' query histories to enable fast recollection of something previously searched.
Due to Microsoft's acquisition of Onfolio, the toolbar also allows users to collect and organize content, read RSS feeds, and share content in e-mails, blogs, and documents.
Windows Live Safety Updates includes OneCare Safety Scanner, which was previously available in beta as "Windows Live Safety Center," and OneCare Advisor, which is already available with the Toolbar. The Safety Scanner has free on-demand PC scanning for removing viruses and unused files, but users have to sign up for OneCare in order to get it. The Advisor provides phishing filter protection and free on-demand PC safety scans.
Windows Live Spaces is Microsoft's effort to get involved in social networking. The company figured that they have 12 billion contacts, they might as well build a networking site, integrating their mail and messenger clients to connect them. The site has a focus on networking within your own contacts using blogs and photo sharing.
"Our approach is different from the Wild Wild West model that others have followed to this point," said Moz Hussain, group product manager for Windows Live. "Our social networking will instead be built around your trusted circle of contacts or those contacts of others you trust."
The site will allow users to learn about each other a bit faster than with MySpace, in that they don't have to visit a page and wait for video and music to load up just to decide if they want to know a given person. Hovering over a photo gives automatic profile information and users can decide from there if they want to visit someone's page.
On Spaces, users can also share PC games, although only a select few games will be available in the immediate future.
Hussain and Larry Grothaus, lead product manager for Windows Live, were unable to give a release date for the new applications, but they estimate they will be ready within the next few weeks.
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