New Rule: Microsoft Never Gets Credit Anymore
Omar Shahine, Dare Obasanjo, Reeves Little and Robert Scoble are right and right to be pissed that a new Google service is getting hundreds of times more buzz than when Microsoft did the same thing months ago.
Google is now letting you sign up to use Gmail for your domain. Basically, the idea is that you’d point your mail servers at Google, and you’d get to use Gmail and Gmail’s two gigs of storage for your company organization email. I say “the idea”, because Google has no current service open. You sign up, and Google will let you know.
Now, this was two days ago. I wrote on November 19 about Windows Live Custom Domains. Point your MX record at them, and you can use your domain name for anything with a Passport, including Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Live.com, Expo, and logging into anything with a Passport.
The blog world is abuzz with the news of the Gmail program, but how many people noticed or mentioned the Live program? Well, over three months, 397 blogs have linked to domains.live.com, according to Google Blog Search (Technorati proving useless, once again). In two days, 125 people have linked to google.com/hosted/Home. For a more accurate comparison, in the two days after I linked to it (and the first link appeared on November 7, so this isn’t accurate at all), 104 blog linked to it.
So, Live got less press, I would estimate about half the press Google did (keeping in mind we are really talking about a three-week slow build compared to Google’s two-day news explosion). So, what kind of coverage did Live get, compared to Google?
Live Custom Domains got links in those three weeks from me, Microsoft employees, Uneasy Silence (x), Blobservations (x), Steve Rubel’s del.icio.us links, Greg Hughes, Mark Jen, 14 Diggs, and plenty of blogs I’ll apologize for not recognizing. (oh, and the x indicates a negative review, pretty much of the “what for?” variety)
Gmail for Domains got links from Andy Beal, Nicholas Carr, Jake Jarvis, Paul Kedrosky, Weblogs Inc’s google blog, Weblogs’ social software blog, Lifehacker, Slashdot, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, Me, Ars Technica, WebProNews, and 2800 Diggs.
So, its clear that Microsoft plays second fiddle to Google in terms of news coverage. While popularity explains all of this phenomenon, I still consider it strange that when the largest webmail service on the planet (with over 200 million active accounts), working on a massive interface overhaul, launches a service designed to open up their system to everyone, they get shrugged off, while when Google does the same thing with their far, far less popular service, everybody considers it huge. Either it was a big deal when Microsoft did it first, or it isn’t a big deal at all.
So, I personally apologize for the rest of the blogosphere: as an entity, blogs don’t pay enough attention when Microsoft does something right, or even something interesting, and I’m sorry. I try to be better than that, reporting news on its merits, not its popularity. Sadly, that is never going to be the case for so many others, and for that reason, Microsoft is going to have to work twice as hard.
Let this smaller case be a lesson: If you want good coverage, engage the blogs and let them know when you do a good job. Don’t wait for us to check out your products to review them, and sure as hell don’t be stingy with review copies of software. You enjoy shooting yourself in the foot?
Microsoft let people down with their Hotmail accounts years ago. I think I used to have 10 megabytes of storage, but then it went down to 2. That’s okay, it’s free anyway, but you could have chosen not to set-up this service anyway (or not buy it, like MS did). In a while, we will all be forced to switch to Vista (not so much by MS, not directly that is). Plus, Microsoft does not listen at all. You can send them all you want, bug reports and more, and they’ll just ignore you. Then add some DRM, which is really giving me a enormous headache. All these little (and enormous) annoyances add up, you know.
I love Windows XP. This stuff is not making me happy, though - I paid for Windows OEM indirectly too, you know… And even Google listens to me better (well, they still are… wonder how long that will keep this way). I’m already investigating whether I can switch to Kubuntu because of all the annoyances I’m having right now (not with Windows though, but with other Microsoft stuff, like Office… And WMP. And the program with the horrible name; Windows Live Messenger. With probably more Windows Live viral nastiness to come).
Treat me well, and I will stay… Punch me in the face, and I’ll run away. I’m not against Microsoft, I’m just against some decisions they made. (Just like I’m against one decision Google made… Drop the DRM!)
Comment by Tim | February 12, 2006
Just one difference. Microsoft isn’t paying me a regular salary to blog, Google (AdSense) is. I’m sure that’s true of too many in the blogosphere. Fair? I put 40/hrs per week at my employer and 0/hrs per week at IBM. Again, IBM doesn’t pay me. The line between fair and unfair, includes compensation.
Comment by Randy Charles Morin | February 12, 2006
Difference in Coverage for Windows Live Custom Domains and Gmail Domains…
Nathan Weinberg discusses the difference in blogosphere coverage between the release of Windows Live Custom Domains and the release of Gmail with support for your own domain name.
So, its clear……
Trackback by MicrosoftBlog.com | February 12, 2006