{"id":3225,"date":"2010-09-28T15:55:02","date_gmt":"2010-09-28T14:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/3225-why-is-microsoft-giving-away-web-traffic-and-abandoning-users.html"},"modified":"2010-09-28T15:55:02","modified_gmt":"2010-09-28T14:55:02","slug":"why-is-microsoft-giving-away-web-traffic-and-abandoning-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/3225-why-is-microsoft-giving-away-web-traffic-and-abandoning-users.html","title":{"rendered":"Why is Microsoft giving away web traffic and abandoning users?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am puzzled by Microsoft\u2019s decision to close Live Spaces<\/a> and send all its users to WordPress.com. Of course WordPress is a superior blogging platform; but Spaces made sense as an element within an integrated Live.com platform. According to Microsoft it has 7 million users and 30 million visitors; and if you accept that business on the web is all about traffic and monetizing traffic, then it strikes me as odd that Microsoft has no better idea of what to do with that traffic than to give it to someone else. <\/p>\n

It makes me wonder what exactly Microsoft is trying to do with its Live.com web property. You can make a generous interpretation, as Peter Bright does<\/a>, and say that the company is learning to focus and losing its \u201cnot invented here\u201d religion. Or you can argue that it exposes the lack of a coherent strategy for Microsoft\u2019s online services for consumers.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason may be that blogging itself has changed. The original concept of an online diary or \u201cweb log\u201d has fractured, with much of the trivia that might once have been blogged now being expressed on Facebook or Twitter. At the other end, blog engines like WordPress have evolved into capable content management systems. Many blogs are just convenient tools to author web sites.<\/p>\n

Spaces is also a personal CMS. When combined with other features of Live.com, it provides a way of authoring your own web site, with photos, lists, documents, music and video, gadgets and other modules. You can apply themes, select layouts, and even add custom HTML. Everything integrates with the Windows Live identity system. The blog is just one element in this.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Now, although you can move your blog to WordPress.com, much of this is going away. Themes, gadgets, guestbook and lists are not transferred. If you were using Spaces for in effect a personal web site, you will have to start again on WordPress.<\/p>\n

What this means is that WordPress, not Microsoft, now has the opportunity to show ads or market other services to these users. <\/p>\n

Other services including SkyDrive, which is an excellent online storage platform, and Hotmail for email, are continuing as before. Still, the wider question is this. If Microsoft is happy to abandon 7 million users and all the customisation effort they have put into creating a personal online space, why should I trust it for email, or online storage?<\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s Dharmesh Mehta does his best to explain the decision here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

When we looked at Spaces, and what we had done with Spaces, and the more we thought about where do we want this to go, where do we think blogging evolves to, what\u2019s important about that, you look at WordPress.com, and they\u2019re building that. They\u2019re doing a great job. And there really isn\u2019t much value in us trying to compete with that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This seems weak to me. Mehta is even less convincing when it comes to Live ID:<\/p>\n

\n

Windows Live ID is not really a means unto itself. There are times when it\u2019s important for us to be able to associate an identity with someone. But there\u2019s many things that we do where you don\u2019t need a Windows Live ID \u2014 Photo Gallery, if you\u2019re just using it on your PC, you don\u2019t need a Windows Live ID at all. You can take our Mail app and connect it to Yahoo or Gmail or something like that. You don\u2019t need a Windows Live ID. So I wouldn\u2019t say that Windows Live ID is a goal, or something that we\u2019re trying to drive in and of itself. It\u2019s really more a means when we think it\u2019s valuable for someone to have an account.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, I thought the Live ID was a single sign-on for Microsoft\u2019s online services, and the basis of a network of friends and contacts. Perhaps Microsoft is now ceding that concept to Facebook or others? This does seem to be a move in that direction; and while it may be acceptance of something that was inevitable, it is a bad day for Microsoft\u2019s efforts to matter online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am puzzled by Microsoft\u2019s decision to close Live Spaces and send all its users to WordPress.com. Of course WordPress is a superior blogging platform; but Spaces made sense as an element within an integrated Live.com platform. According to Microsoft it has 7 million users and 30 million visitors; and if you accept that business … Continue reading Why is Microsoft giving away web traffic and abandoning users?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,55],"tags":[380,548,551,586,1036],"class_list":["post-3225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-microsoft","tag-facebook","tag-live-id","tag-live-spaces","tag-microsoft","tag-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}