Today I decided to browse through Google Labs, as there seemed to be a dearth of new features emerging. As it turns out, Live Image Search’s scratchpad is not entirely new, as Google offers its notebook. Oddly, each of these services is only available for one type of search, notebook only works on text searches, and scratchpad only for images. One interesting Google lab development is alternate views for search results, such as filtering by time or location. Other experiments such as text suggestions, are standard fare on Yahoo! In comparison, Windows Live offers useful and innovative services, but most are lacking in the refinement exhibited by Google and Yahoo!’s offerings.

SkyDrive is the best file storage service because of its synchronization with Spaces and Hotmail, but it completely fails to deliver in the function category, with tedious file manipulation methods, the inability to move files and a lack of drag and drop functionality. Spaces has great synchronization with Live Contacts, but it too is not a particularly polished service.

In addition, the style of Windows Live is in a constant state of flux, with some pages use the old Blue Vapor theme and others are using the new glassy theme. Many of the services are filled with bugs and errors, despite being out of beta.  Google manages to continually add new features to their services while still maintaining full functionality, while the Live team can hardly fix existing bugs.

Windows Live has the potential to be great, but at the current pace of improvement it will never happen.