Celebs Get a Life Live

I discovered the Live Celeb site through a banner ad on The New York Times Web site. Click-through landed me on a site offering links to home pages for Hilary Duff, Jesse McCartney and Molly Sims.

Each page is customizable by the end user, which has some control over what content is available and overall layout and appearance. The approach is highly consistent with Microsoft's longstanding Live strategy. MSN is Microsoft's programmed portal, where people go to get content that is served up to them. Live is more about self-programming, where the end user picks the content he or she would like to have. The Celeb Live pages are similar.

Unlike MySpace celebrity, movie or music pages, the Live Celeb pages are as much—or perhaps more—about promoting Live.com. End users see links for getting a Live home page or inviting friends to do likewise. The customization showcases what people could do with their own Live.com home page.

However, the customized pages lack community, which is inconsistent with Microsoft's "me-at-the-center" approach of Live services. Community is also the root success of sites such as Facebook or MySpace.

Microsoft's refreshing take on online services is existing relationships. The Web is just too big for all the blogs and other end-user-generated content. Who's going to read them? Most likely people with common interest, starting with family, friends and some co-workers. Microsoft has done well building its Live concept around concentric circles of relationship spanning from the individual.

None of the "me at the center" stuff comes through the celebrity pages, because their focus is so much about marketing. That's where Microsoft blurs Live and MSN, as celebrity favorites, such as clothes and music, lead to MSN or affiliates' products for sale.

On her Live Celeb page, Sims has designer favorites, which include a bathing suit from Wal-Mart—not exactly chic shopping—while McCartney hawks Fox Sports, which is a MSN affiliate. These celebrity sales pitchers would be more effective if Microsoft provided more means to connect with who they are. These aren't exactly fan sites, but they could be.

Duff's MySpace is way more interesting than her Live Celeb page, and the Fox folks are hawking plenty of Duff stuff. Microsoft could do more, too.

Perhaps the most interesting find on Duff's MySpace was the banner ad—for Windows Live Search—right above the search "powered by Google" box. Imagine that. Google paid $900 million to be the MySpace search provider, and for a whole lot less Microsoft gets primo placement for Live Search by way of a banner ad.

Related Posts:

• Live Messenger's Flash in the Ads, Microsoft Watch, April 2, 2007
• Live Search to Begin 'Incentive' Enterprise Trial, March 16, 2007
• Windows Live to Get First OEM Bundle, March 13, 2007
• Who Shot Windows Live?, Microsoft Watch, March 8, 2007
• Wanted: Dead or Live, Microsoft Watch, March 2, 2007
• What Is Microsoft's Services Platform?, Microsoft Watch, March 1, 2007
• Ray Ozzie Speaks Out, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 27, 2007
• Ray Ozzie's 20 Questions, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 26, 2007
• Google and Long Tail Computing, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 22, 2007
• Ouch! You've Been Live Branded, Microsoft Watch, Feb. 2, 2007
• Sorry, But Live Isn't Dead, Microsoft Watch, Dec. 12, 2006
• It's a Shame About Ray, Microsoft Watch, Dec. 8, 2006