After a couple of weeks of the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld commercials that were utterly confusing in the short versions that aired on TV, Microsoft has launched its new commercials today that take direct aim at Apple. 

"I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype," says Microsoft employee Sean Siller, who looks a whole lot like John Hodgman.  I personally like these ones way better than that other two commercials that aired.  I found the other commercials with Gates and Seinfeld were way too confusing in the short format, and made it seem like Microsoft was trying too hard.  The new commercials are a billion times better than the earlier commercials.  I love the
“bill@windows.com” bit in the video’s that show his email address.

Longoria “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype”

Microsoft “Not Alone” Commercial

Microsoft New “Stereotype” Commercial

As some of you may know, I decided to switch to Live Search for 1 Week from Google.  While I overall was impressed with Live Search since last using it nearly a year ago, there is still a long way to go to make Live Search a strong competitor to Google.  Below I outline my experience, and more than anything, my constructive feedback to Microsoft. Hopefully the Live Search team is reading!  I break my reasoning up into three categories as to why Google is still the best Search out there:  No Compelling Reason to Switch, Relevance and Newness,  User Interface Issues, Microformats and Webmaster Tools

No Compelling Reason To Switch

Let’s be honest, in order to get me to switch from Google, I need a really compelling reason to switch.  I already use gmail (miguelcarrasco@gmail.com) because Hotmail became ridiculous in terms of spam.  Google rocks when it comes to spam.  I also have a ton of web sites out there, and I use Google Webmaster Center to manage all the sites and stay on top of them from the “Google Bot’s” perspective.  I also use Google Reader (reader.google.com) for my RSS reader, and I use Google Desktop to search my desktop.  Let’s be honest, I love Microsoft, just read my blog… but I use all these products because they enable me to do my work faster.  I don’t use Google docs because those products slow me down vs Microsoft Office.

Anyway, so I use all these tools, in order to use Live Search, it’s a lot of work!  The same thing that has helped Microsoft push Internet Explorer, and other products in the past (switching to Firefox, Opera, WordPerfect is a lot of work), is hurting them in this case.  There is simply nothing significantly better than Google Search in Live Search.  Even watching presentations on Live Search, you can hear in the presenters voices the “We are getting better” and the “Soon we will be as good as Google in Search”.  I’m sorry but that doesn’t sell the product.

To change people’s habits, like Google did to Yahoo!, Microsoft must outperform and outshine Google!  So far, they haven’t done this.  Microsoft needs to innovate in search.  Why not allow people to vote sites up or down right in the search.  Why not allow people to comment on search results.  Why not track people’s comment and rating relevance by combining the search algorithms with the ranking and commenting system to give certain people more weight than others.  Why not tie all this together with people’s Live accounts.  Why not tie in the ability to bookmark sites you search and like, and have them appear in your MSN spaces or facebook profiles.  Ton’s of ideas that would make me go… “hmm neat feature, I’ll use it”.  Right now, what is the coolest feature in Live Search that Google doesn’t have?

Relevance and Newness

I don’t know what kind of steroids Google is using, but lately their search index updates nearly daily on some sites, and on some sites, they update a couple times a day!  The same search I do on Google, on Live Search produces “older” results.  Let’s take an example like “Silverlight Teched”.  I run this search on Google and I get:

Perfect!  Exactly what I was looking for!  I get Somasegar’s web log link to his TechEd 2008 Keynote on stage performance with Bill Gates.  I click the link, get the complete details of the keynote, and am pretty happy with what I’ve learned very quickly.

Now I go and do the search on Live Search and I get:

Um, ok, I wasn’t really looking for any of this at all.  I know there is a Microsoft TechEd site.  And I am clearly not looking for the “Click Here to Install Silverlight” which now appears on nearly every Microsoft site.  So now I go and click on the next link.  The next link is a link to a forum that talks to me about TechEd 2007.  Really old content.  Once again not what I was looking for.

Notice the Google search results link to web pages that were created yesterday.  After all, clearly I want information that is up to date.  I also want information, and not links to corporate sites.  I can clearly see  a few issues here in the Live Search Algorithm.  Some key points:

1. Google knows that when I type 2008, I’m talking about a date, and that I want something this year.  It knows I don’t want “Windows Server 2008”.
2. Google puts more weight on sites that have the search terms together on the page.
3. Microsoft is putting to much weight on the sites link juice, and not enough on the above two measurements.

User Interface Issues

While a lot of people see Google as  lacking design and user interface elements, they actually have user interface down to a science!  Let’s quickly summarize what I’m talking about because it’s getting late and I have to get to bed.

1. Live Search centers the search if your screen is large.  This is not good because I am used to looking on the left.  Google slams everything on the left.  Awesome, that’s where I look first.  So with Live Search, I’m usually left feeling “weird” right after I search, even before I see the results.
2. Google clearly separates what I searched, with the results.  Live search blends everything together, which also makes me feel weird, and unsure as to where to look.
3. Where is similar pages?  Google knows you might like the results, but want more of the same.

Below is a diagram of some of the issues I see with Live Search that makes me twitch when I use it and almost like a reflex, makes me try and go to Google.com to perform the same search.

Microformats and Webmaster Tools

Ok if there are any Microsofties reading this blog, or even Bill Gates himself, let me ask a question:  “What MADE Microsoft what it is today?”  The answer is, DEVELOPER TOOLS!  So here is my question.  Where are the developer tools for Live Search?  And by developer tools, I mean, what can webmasters use as tools to optimize their web pages for Live Search.  Google has some wicked tools, and I know Live has a few tools like Webmaster Center, but they pale in comparison to Google Webmaster Center.  It’s like comparing Notepad to Visual Studio. 

Microformats is also the future.  Defining pages in great detail.  Every element.  This posting is already long enough, but imagine if I would have searched Silverlight TechEd 2008 and up should have come up the latest blog entry, a video of the presentation, a powerpoint, maybe even the agenda, and directions to TechEd.  THAT would have got me excited.  See the more relevant information you can give to the user before he has to click on the link, the more valuable the results are.  Even if Live Search and Google gave me the same exact links, I would like the one that gives me more details about the links before I even click on them!

How can we do this?  I know Live Search is partnering with various providers to communicate with them a-la biztalk.  What’s your communication mechanism and language, and I will understand.  I personally hate that approach.  Instead, why not push a standard way of defining videos, web pages, blogs, news, etc. (microformats)?  Create standard ways to define context on the web!  People will jump all over it, and already have to be honest.

Conclusion?

I would love two weeks with the live search team.  That’s my conclusion.  lol.  I love Microsoft, and I wish they would get search right!  They have the people, the capability, the scale, everything they need.  They just need the image, drive, passion, and direction.  The reality is, the way things are going, they are going to catch up to where Google is now, but at the same time Google will make webmaster center better, analytics rock, desktop search better, adsense better, they will adopt microformats, and leave Live Search in the dust.

What is funny is Microsoft is rocking Adobe Flash with Silverlight by implementing the strategy they should be implementing with Google! Innovation Domination, and better developer tools!

The 2007 Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack lets you open, edit, and save files in the new file format used by the 2007 Office system. Even if you haven’t upgraded to the 2007 Microsoft Office system yet, you can enjoy some of the benefits of the new Open XML Format including:

• Smaller file sizes
• Improved file recovery
• Direct access to file contents such as charts and comments

The Compatibility Pack lets you exchange files easily between different Microsoft Office releases including Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Office 2000, and Microsoft Office XP.

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/compatibility

You can also download the Compatibility Pack directly from Microsoft here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

There are nine different tracks you can choose from in the conference including:

• Strategy and Business Models
  Marketing and Community
  Design and User Experience
  Fundamentals
  Development
  Focus on Mobile Web
  Focus on Web Operations
  Focus on Social Platforms
  Sponsored Sessions

What really sets this expo apart besides all the different tracks, is the level of interaction you can have with everyone at the event.  It also has vendors and companies from all different platforms, which makes this conference so appealing.

You can check out all the speakers, join the facebook group, join the crowdvine, and download the Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco Brochure.

Conference Speakers I Will Not Miss!

Marc Andreessen – A Conversation

Multi-millionaire software engineer and Silicon Valley “whiz kid” entrepreneur best known as co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation. He was the chair of Opsware, a software company he founded originally as Loudcloud, when it was acquired by Hewlett-Packard. He is also a cofounder of Ning, a company which provides a platform for social-networking websites.

Max Levchin – A Conversation

Max is the visionary behind Slide, the largest social software company in the world. He is also renowned as the co-founder of PayPal, an expert in combating online fraud and one of the hardest working entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Before starting Slide, he incubated several other start-ups, including Yelp, where he currently sits as Chairman of the Board. Max started PayPal in 1998, immediately after graduating from college, and sold it four years later to eBay for more than $1.5 billion at the age of 26. Originally from Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), Max moved to Chicago at the age of 16 and later received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Max sits on the board of several other companies and trains for triathlons when he’s not obsessing over Slide’s business.

Rob Bagby – Building a Microsoft RIA from the ground up

A Developer Evangelist for Microsoft. Rob works with customers, as well as delivers presentations at numerous regional and national conferences, to illustrate how to take advantage of Microsoft’s developer technologies to deliver performance and secure applications faster. Rob bases his discussions on over 10 years of consulting experience, along with a Masters Degree in International Business from Thunderbird.

Mitchell Baker – Opening the mobile Web

Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation and Chairman and former Chief Executive Officer of the Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source Mozilla Internet applications, including the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client. Trained as a lawyer, Baker coordinates business and policy issues and sits on both the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors and the Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors. In 2005, Time magazine included her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world and she has been affectionately given the title of “Chief Lizard Wrangler” at the Mozilla Corporation.

Dan Lyons aka Fake Steve Jobs

Dan Lyons is a senior editor at Forbes and the author of the The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. In the persona of Fake Steve he authored “Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs,” a novel. He has published two previous works of fiction, a novel and a collection of short stories. Dan joined Forbes in 1998 and before that wrote for various computer trade publications including CRN and VARBUSINESS. He’s been a journalist for 25 years and has a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Tim O’Reilly – O`Reilly Radar

Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O’Reilly Media also publishes online through the O’Reilly Network and hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, and the Web 2.0 Conference. Tim’s blog, the O’Reilly Radar “watches the alpha geeks” to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim is on the boards of MySQL, CollabNet, Safari Books Online, Wesabe, and ValuesOfN, and is a partner in O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.

John Allspaw

John has worked in systems operations for over ten years in biotech, government and online media. He started out tuning parallel clusters running vehicle crash simulations for the U.S. government, and then moved on to the Internet in 1997. He built the backing infrastructures at Salon.com, InfoWorld.com, Friendster.com and Flickr.com, where he currently manages the Operations Engineering group.

Ari Balogh – Yahoo! and Open Platforms

Aristotle “Ari” Balogh is currently Chief Technology Officer at Yahoo!. He is responsible for company-wide product development which includes optimizing resources, speeding innovation, and ensuring the quality of Yahoo!’s products and services. He is focused on establishing a common architecture and building blocks to drive development aligned with corporate strategy and on improving the overall effectiveness of Yahoo!’s engineering efforts. All of Yahoo!’s engineering functions, including technical operations, infrastructure, and internal IT support groups, report into Balogh.

Blaine Cook – Building the Real-time Web

Blaine Cook is the Architect at Twitter. He is currently building and maintaining Twitter’s Jabber-based real-time backend infrastructure that tracks and distributes millions of updates every day to users on the Web, instant messaging, and SMS.

I started my search by looking around eBay for a cheep Macintosh, but then I found this awesome site that sells used macs for dirt cheep.  I’m talking up to 75% off.  If you look through the selection they have, it’s pretty impressive!  I have always wanted to have a few Macintosh’s kicking around the office as well to do testing and some software development on, at these prices, I have to seriously consider getting a couple of them.

Anyway so I think I’m going to order a Macintosh from these guys, its only $299 and will look awesome in the baby room.  I might even get an extra one for the kitchen so that my wife can look up her recipes and what not.

Checkout the DV Warehouse Macintosh selection at: http://www.dvwarehouse.com/Used-Macs-c-53.html