I am quite the Microsoft (MSFT) basher at times. The news that they are combining their ad and search teams isn’t exactly earth shaking.
I just wish they would learn one thing.
When you are trying to tap the consumer market, understand that you have to have fast, clean, and tight code.
Obviously there are exceptions, but keeping this in mind will help.
A great example of this is Microsoft’s Live.com mapping. It is a dog on a typical PC. Are they just way ahead of the curve? Maybe. The local.live.com maps are awesome. In case you aren’t aware, they don’t just have overhead shots from an satellite (as all other map services do), they offer angled pictures from 4 different directions from an airplane. The quality is terrific.
Enough with the praise. The app is a dog! I don’t use it in my day to day and because of that I will not migrate to live.com to discover the other services. You have to give me a reason to come back and then prove to me that your services are as good or better than your competition. They might be, but I wouldn’t know. I didn’t have the patience. And when I say me or I, I mean Mr. and Mrs. consumer.
Yahoo tends to strike a balance. There is Google (GOOG) at one end, Microsoft at the other, and Yahoo (YHOO) in the middle.
Who uses MS Live? Anyone? MSFT, you need to win us over with something basic, clean, and fast. After that you can give us the goods and we might just use them.