What happened to the old fashioned way of creating a larger user base through actual improvement of the service or software? That’s how Microsoft did it in the past with Office, and it has dominated the market through being the best product.
Now it seems their prevailing tactic of increasing market share is by throwing money in the form of prizes at the problem. Microsoft Live Club entices users to use Windows Live Search through prizes, Live Search Cashback gives cash back for purchases and Windows Live for Mobile is running a summer giveaway for sending emails with the service. While I’m not complaining about the opportunity to win free swag like Zunes and such, this seems like a highly ineffective tactic. After playing games at Live Club, my impression of Live Search was not any better than before playing the games, because its service just was not as good. After all, when has Google ever run a “summer contest” for using Gmail mobile? Ultimately, I still end up using Live.com only for its definition search, because it is actually better than Google’s.
While the prizes are just a drop in the bucket, wouldn’t all that effort be better spent improving the service itself? Google seems to be able to constantly churn out fantastic updates to its services like Gmail and Docs, while Windows Live services such as Spaces, Favorites, and SkyDrive just seem to sit neglected with no apparent updates. I would much rather use Live Search if the effort spent redesigning the Club homepage was spent adding even the simplest new feature to Live Search itself.
That’s exactly the approach I wish Microsoft would stop going on. Live is pretty much neat already, but they need to fix it up better before anyone can say “I’ll Live search it” or “Do you have a Live Space” or anything like that. Gimmicks doesn’t make your services better, and if people don’t find a good reason to switch from what they’re currently using, then they won’t.
If Microsoft wants to jump in the market, they really need to go above the competition. Make more services, offer tons of features that’s hard to pass up, and do it in a nice interface, and flexible way. Fix up the branding blunder, integrate redundant services into each other, and improve the interface. Also, updates need to be more frequent, rather than once in a blue moon. It’s hard, but pays off more in the end when you actually have people wanting to use your services.
I feel like Microsoft really has something, but then they don’t fulfill it all the way, and it’s kinda sad.
Let’s hope they make good on this promise, especially since they’ve got Google crossed out.
Live services sure seem to work okay for me, if anything is lacking it is the marketting – replacing Google as the every day term in the media, and the term “Live Search It” just might be tough to get into normal speak.
I doubt anybody will ever be saying “Live Search It”, but Live definitely has the potential. Poor marketing is one of the reasons for its poor performance.