Windows Live Crests the Wave 3

Chris Jones, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Windows Live Experience Program Management, blogged about the beta this morning. I downloaded the installer from a link posted at LiveSide before seeing Chris' post. I hope Microsoft released a combined 32-bit/64-bit installer. I keep forgetting that I'm using Vista 64-bit. Installation seemed to go OK.

Microsoft's broader goal is the right one—to "get to your information from any device and keep up with the people you care about, using a variety of services," Chris blogged. Because the process will take several years, "we decided to plan and release updates to Windows Live in waves. A wave generally spans anywhere from a few months to more than a year and is a coordinated release of Web-based services, PC software and mobile experiences."

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Microsoft launched the first wave in 2006 and refreshed about a year ago. Windows Live should be in 2008 about multiple devices, particularly mobiles.

My initial reaction will be brief, simply so I can take time using the software for more in-depth blogging. Like the earlier installer, the Wave 3 beta package includes Family Safety, Messenger, Photo Gallery, Toolbar and Writer. Movie Maker is now included. Welcome to the Windows Live family.

All programs are visually changed. There is more white space, although Messenger is more cluttered in one way and less so for accessing some commonly used functions. From a visual design and usability perspective, the white space is a refreshing change. There are reasons why well-designed magazines use so much white space. It is easier on the eye and makes the stuff that's important, whether editorial copy or advertisement, more obvious. Likewise, the extra white helps make features stand out in the various Live clients. Something else: For these services, white space is familiar, because of how much white users see while using a Web browser. Seemingly subtlety maybe, but the white is important, particularly for Windows Live Mail.

Windows Messenger is the most obviously changed of the products. Messenger feels more like it belongs in Windows Vista. The visual niceties, such as the rolling back of the right hand corner for customization, smell of Windows Presentation Foundation freshness. The pop-up menu of options over the buddy icon has similar feeling. But there is no freshness, sadly. I contacted Microsoft PR and was told that the new messenger is "not built on WPF."

I've harped on this subject before. How can Microsoft expect developers to tap into WPF, when the company fails to with its most visible Windows software? Messenger should be a showcase product for WPF development. Microsoft should make more use of WPF, not just Silverlight, in its own products. There's huge opportunity to simplify the UIs and improve customers' overall experience.

Microsoft may have done a whole bunch of things wrong with Windows Vista, but the stuff it got right has remarkable potential. WPF is best example; It isn't just about translucent windows but improving the design paradigm. More importantly, WPF can freshen up older applications—give them a new paint job, so to speak. End users also will discover new things about the software, maybe even features that already had been there but were overlooked.

Still, quieting my griping for a moment, Microsoft has advanced the Messenger UI. The screenshot gives a hint of what's changing. Here, rather than having to navigate through menus, the end user can make choices from a pop-up menu that appears when moving the mouse over the buddy icon. Vestiges of the old UI remain, quite possibly for the benefit of people used to the way things were, but I'm hoping more changes will come when the product is released.

I want to say something else about the new Messenger beta, specifically directed at FriendFeed and Twitter users: Microsoft has got something for you. There are program enhancements so subtle, yet so obvious, their introduction is epiphany. That's how I describe Messenger's "What's New" feed. The feed culls Messenger status messages and blog post information—"Johnny James added a new photo gallery"—and streams them to Messenger. It's like FriendFeed and Twitter, but less intrusive and yet also less obvious.

What's New is nascent, but it has great potential unifying some of Microsoft's disparate social networking services. The venue is appropriate. While IMing with your buddies, you see a stream of updates about what your other friends, family or coworkers are doing. I can just imagine the teen exchange when Tracey sees that Wendy and Frank are now an item while chatting with Janie. Oh the gossip.

The broader potential is tremendous, if Microsoft chooses to capitalize on it. What's New, or something like it, could inform what game Jack is playing on Xbox 360 right now, what song Mary is listening to in Zune 3.0 software or what TV shows Manny has scheduled to record today in Windows Media Center. I find a lot of this information to be tedious minutia, but there are whole lots more people who want to know what everybody's doing. I'm sure there is a social term for this kind of digital intimacy.

It's also the makings of a Microsoft lifestyle. All successful companies sell some kind of lifestyle. Microsoft needs to better unify the experience across multiple products and services into a single lifestyle. I see the makings, the potential, in my brief look at the Wave 3 Messenger beta and cursory look at its sibling product betas.

By the way, I've ditched Outlook and returned to Windows Live Mail. The beta fixed the mysterious problem that prevented the sending of e-mail.

Chris provided a download link for the Windows Live Wave 3 betas. Good luck. I've unsuccessfully tried to reach the site, making repeated attempts over about two hours.

[Please send your tips or rumors to watchtips at live.com].