How Web 2.0 Is Live 2.0?

When Microsoft launched Live 1.0, two years ago this month, the services approach was decidedly singular. The company laid out a strategy for services that would enhance the Windows experience but offered very little developer opportunity. Much has changed in 2007, particularly the last six months and post-Live 2.0 launch. The developer tools are rolling out big time.

There is something very Web 2.0 about the Live 2.0 developer approach. Microsoft long ago made some APIs available for some services, such as mapping, but nothing like what's happening now. Microsoft is clearly laying the foundation for third-party development but with a different hook than, say, Google.

The difference has to do with the competing platforms—advertising and search for Google and operating systems for Microsoft. Google APIs draw developers to its online platform, while Microsoft tries to pull developers to Windows. The point: Live 2.0's developer opportunity is as much about Windows as the Web. Microsoft also is courting other partners, not just developers.

What has Microsoft got out there for its partners?

Live Spaces Photo API
On Wednesday, Microsoft released an alpha version of the Live Spaces Photo API, with documentation and SDK. In a blog post, Angus Logan, technical product manager for the Windows Live platform, explained that the new Photo API "allows a user to delegate permissions for a third-party Web site to read or read/write on albums and photos stored within Windows Live Spaces via a server to server API."

The API, even in alpha, is a good move—although, in time to release, it lags way behind other services. Maybe, just maybe, Microsoft will make the API worth the wait. The security model is quite intriguing and quite possibly a differentiator. That said, who would really want to link to Spaces photos? Until a few months ago, Spaces reduced quality of uploaded photos—even from cell phones. Microsoft has finally updated photo handling, but not nearly enough to match many other services. It's time Microsoft started charging something for Spaces—a fuller featured version with more storage, higher-resolution photos and import capabilities from other services.

Logan also posted a PowerPoint presentation with additional explanation about the API. The PowerPoint posting is yet another example of Microsoft's increased transparency, at least with developers.

Some advice to Logan: Don't post a publicly available document in an obscure file format. The PowerPoint extension is .pptx, which is an Office 2007 file format. Considering how many more people use older versions of Office, .ppt would have made a helluva lot more sense. I'm shaking a pointed—naughty, naughty—finger at Logan's blog as I type this. (Update: Apparently he took the advice; more versions are available.)

Live Search Webmaster Center
Yesterday, Microsoft took the Live Search Webmaster Center out of closed beta. The site provides tools for optimizing Web sites for Live Search and there are other resources, including how-tos and a broader community.

With Google so dominant, who really wants to take the extra time to optimize for Live Search? The answer is yet another chicken-and-egg scenario. Which comes first? More sites optimized for Live Search driving more traffic to the search service or greater Live Search market share so that Webmasters would want to optimize their sites?

Simply put: Microsoft is still No. 3, and so shouldn't be ignored. And as a third-ranked search provider, the company has incentive to offer partners lots of useful information. Microsoft benefits itself by helping Webmasters better optimize search.

There is something about search-engine optimization that reminds me of both the DOS and browser wars (You know they're the scripts for Halo, right?). During the browser wars, Microsoft and Netscape fought over Web standards, with each company supporting HTML code in its browser the competing product didn't. Is search technology so different? Developers, Webmasters and other partners really buy into one search platform or another; the mechanisms, while similar, are different.

The differences are what remind me of the DOS wars. The competing DOS versions weren't all that different. Then Microsoft released Windows, essentially a graphical user interface optimized for MS-DOS, and it was game over for competing products. Google is in too many ways following the Microsoft 1990s playbook.

Last month's changes to Google's PageRank system were supposedly about improving search queries and preventing abuse. Maybe, but I see a much bigger benefit: Google's market share is great enough that it can change the platform—the search equivalent of adding Windows to DOS&. My prediction: Google is tweaking the model, with small changes that will increase the differences between its technology/service and competing offerings. Different isn't necessarily better. But different enough can easily be good enough to capture a market when a platform is already successful enough.

Google and Microsoft are engaged in a platform war that is a whole lot bigger than search.

Other Live Goodies
There is a surprising number of other Live developer resources. Some of them:

• Windows Live Quick Start is a site with Live resources for members of the Microsoft Partner Program.
• Windows Live Dev provides lots of Live tools, information and sample code for developers or Webmasters.
• Windows Live Quick Apps—sample source code for building Live services into Web sites.
• Live Search Interactive SDK, which is what the name implies.

I've overlooked plenty of other Live developer/Webmaster resources. The point: The number of resources available today is much larger than 12, even six, months ago.

Related Posts:

• Live 2.0: It's About Windows, Not Google, Microsoft Watch, Nov. 6, 2007
• Is OpenSocial the Microsoft Anti-social?, Microsoft Watch, Oct. 31, 2007
• Blodget Bludgeons Windows Live to Death, Microsoft Watch, Oct. 8, 2007
• Microsoft Searches for Signs of Live, Microsoft Watch, Sept. 27, 2007
• Search: What Microsoft Should Do Next, Microsoft Watch, Sept. 24, 2007
• Is Microsoft's Head Really in the Clouds?, Microsoft Watch, July 26, 2007
• Is Windows Live a Killer?, Microsoft Watch, July 26, 2007
• Google is All About Information, Microsoft Watch, July 17, 2007
• Which Comes First, Software or Services?, Microsoft Watch, July 9, 2007
• Why Google Succeeds, Part 2, Microsoft Watch, June 15, 2007
• Why Google Succeeds, Part 1, Microsoft Watch, June 15, 2007
• The Google Problem, Microsoft Watch, May 31, 2007
• The Google Quandary, Microsoft Watch, April 24, 2007
• Who Pays for Software Plus Services?, Microsoft Watch, March 15, 2007
• Wanted: Dead or Live, Microsoft Watch, March 2, 2007
• Why Google Matters to Microsoft, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 22, 2007
• Sorry, but Live Isn't Dead, Microsoft Watch, Dec. 12, 2006