Much has been talked about the new Windows Live. But is it worth your attention? It is common that Microsoft products & services garnered not very positive responds from blogsphere (you know why ).

I spent some time play around with it over the weekend. Sharing here for fun and critics

Sign Up@live – It accepts all email addresses. Hotmail or live account holder can sign in using their account. This is how the Windows Live home looks like.

Software bundles – Among the first that I tried once signed in. It consists of the following items.

• Windos Live Messenger
• WIndows Live Email – Email client, just like Outlook or LotusNotes. Didn’t go through, but I managed to download my gmail emails into it
• Windows Live Writer – Text editor, where you can post an entry to your blog
• Photo Gallery
• Family safery for Windows Live OneCare
• Toolbar

Hotmail – No need of any introduction, it is a web based email, in a more simplified look. Comes with 5GB space.

Personalized page This is just like  iGoogle or My Yahoo where you can personalize your Live pages.

Spaces – Don’t confuse space with Windows Live personalized page above. With Windows Live Space, you’re allocated a URL, just like a MySpace URL, where you can choose a lot of services/tools available ‘module’ here), share with your friend just like my experiment space.

http://zakifahmi.spaces.live.com/

Apart from the default option shown above, there is a lot more you can do here. Customize the look (themes, template, layout) add more modules.

• Windows Live Sky Drive – Of all the features offered, personally I admire this the most. Sky Drive allocates 5GB for each account. You can create folders, share it to your friend or even make it public.

• Friends – Just like any other services, this is where you find, invite and add friends. At present, it only has 2 options, get invited by friends or your messenger contacts.

• Photos – As the name says, this is where you can keep your photos. It is pretty slow to load photos here. I wish it has something like Flickr Uploader

Gallery

There are bunches of tools and gadgets here for your Vista, Messenger, internet browser toolbar, Space, personalized page. If you’re serious about getting your space or personalized space full with ‘useless’ gadgets and tools, this is where you should spend most of your time.

When I first opened ‘space’ and ‘personalized space’ menu, I paused awhile. Where is the gadget?? How can users make their spaces and personalized pages look crammed? The answer is here.

Once in awhile, I feel that it is the right move to put the gadgets here, and from here, put an option for users to drop these gadgets anywhere they want. It is like a ‘warehouse gadget’ for the whole Windows Live. I just wish that there is a link from ‘space’ or ‘personalized page’ linking to this, so first timer ‘gadget-lover’ users do not step out too soon when they realize there is not much gadget to offer.

Office Live – The lite version of Microsoft Office on the net. Allows you to upload documents from your system, and create new documents online.

Conclusion

I’m not a fan with  ‘all-in-one’ portal like this or even iGoogle. But the new WindowsLive offer much more than what I thought. With single registration (except hotmail), you’ll get a bunch of applications that I had mentioned above.

Microsoft is not doing very well on its online application suite, and by putting every piece of its applications in a single place like this, I feel that Microsoft has put more effort and is serious about building a community-based business on the web. But it’s too early to conclude if Microsoft will succeed. After all, Microsoft should build its relation with blogsphere communities, so that whatever launched, bloggers would impatiently and voluntarily review the product,  just like its chief competitor, Google.

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