“Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We’ve done that. Hotmail customers have benefitted from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008.” – Microsoft statement on Google Buzz.
When one of the big guys launches a new product, competitors generally just sit it out and let the press do its thing. But Microsoft made a point of reaching out today with the quote above, criticizing Google Buzz as “another social network” and noting that Hotmail has aggregated Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and other services since 2008.
Of course Microsoft also owns a chunk of, and has a search deal with, Facebook. So they’re being threatened on a number of fronts. Still, just the fact that Microsoft is speaking on the record about Buzz shows that the guys in Redmond are a little worried. And they are not the only ones.
I think they call afford to speak out because this is such a train wreck, I have never been so unimpressed with a Google product.
totally agree bro…!!!
its a girl
like hell I am
girl? what is that?
All i want to know is what happened to Google Wave?? honestly if you want to status update twitter or facebook…if you wan email go to gmail…if facebook gets into the email biz which seems they will thats when gmail better start stepping it up…there back tracking to try to avoid the inevitable
The best part of Google Wave was the buzz it generated, specially since you had to deal with invites and the whole matter seemed very cloak-and-dagger.
Somebody mentioned this at a board meeting so the project manager approved going only with the buzz. Genius!
Some people still has no clue what google wave is.
It’s one of the most “expected” BIG-BANG of Google this year especially when its fully released. One of the reason why the Yahoo-Microsoft Tandem was once again stupefied and now scratching their heads.. “WOW GOOGLE BEAT US AGAIN?”
On the contrary here’s the reason why google wave is one of the best: http://bit.ly/google-wave-why-should-you-use-it
@Lisa, I defintely agree.
But as far as I am concerned Google Wave is in full release. I anyone needs and invite all you have to do is ask.
The last time a friend asked Google for an invite, they got one in a half hour.
http://wave.google.com
That says full release to me.
Well mine says Preview and I cannot even upload files – doesn’t seem like full release to me!
Don’t you remember? It’s going to revolutionise the way we communicate! It’s the end of email, sms, facebook, twitter, flickr… everything.
hmm… Hotmail, what is hotmail? never heard about it.
its only the worlds largest webmail service with about triple the amount of users on gmail
With 75% of the accounts being total crap or scrap accounts.
Same with Gmail – most spammers use Gmail accounts (amount of spam that comes FROM Gmail is incredible).
Is it? FYI it has more users than gmail
Hotmail is one of the first FREE Email Service on Internet……
I seem to remember a thing called Hotmail… isn’t that an AOL Dialup product? I think my grandpa still uses it…
Actually you are all wrong, the spam does not come from Gmail or Hotmail. The spam comes from spammers and their own servers. Put the blame where it belongs.
Gmail or Hotmail does not send spam. The from address is forged by the spammer.
This hotmail thing, I’m using it exclusively to receive spams. For actual emailing, I’m using Gmail.
fosho!
Agreed! It does not even have Facebook in it. Seriously…
I’m not busy Balmer.
And I need the ‘Buzz’ to make me busy, eh
want to add wave too..
Me too.
Most un-impressive Google Product…
Ah yes, let’s brag about hotmail.
LOL! Exactly my thoughts.
Microsoft should spend more of their time working out their spam filtering and less time “integrating” and maybe people would still use hotmail. Same goes for yahoo.
As a Hotmail user since 1995, I can honestly say I don’t currently receive a single piece of spam on the service. Their filters are superb at keeping my e-mail perfectly spam free.
Too many people spout crap about Hotmail that simply isn’t true.
hotmail account with no spam?? you should feel so lucky, never heard that happening… anyway even if I hadn’t any spam in hotmail the “integration” looks so cheap i wouldn’t use it…
Microsoft, should first fix their “BUG CITY” called Internet explorer. Instead of exploring the Internet its casuing explosions in the Internet. I have read a comment by a unknown Hacker, saying “IE is an invititation to hack”.
I dont use hotmail id other than for getting Bing Cashback. Tried some searches using Bing, after couple of searches, realized that, its a big mistake.
Try IE8 sometime. As a web developer by profession, IE8 gets established standards right (though still lacking on drafts (HTML5/CSS3)). If it wasn’t for the JS rendering speed, IE8 would be my default browser. For the moment, I use Chrome.
IE6 is an invitation to hack. Not IE7/IE8 due to DEP and Protected Mode/Sandboxing.
Unsubstantiated tirade anyone?
yeah! viva la hotmail! we’ve got push and imap. wait…
hahahaha well you can always use it with pop3, but why would you??!!… there is no argument Gmail is better.
yes, i still use hotmail.
Redmond has a lot of reasons to be worried.
microsoft should stick to building windows. although, i don’t believe facebook is threatened
Last thing I want is more social in my email.
Have fun folks, I’ll be in Outlook getting some work done.
Have a good time sorting spam, phishing and Pۖi$ growing pills
AuhauhAUHauhUHAUHau! FACT!
Microsoft is really feeling the ‘Buzz’.
First kill that bloody IE6 and then talk.
Outlook? Grandpa.
Look out! Grandpa.
Even my grandpa has ditch the bulky client Outlook.
Google buzz for Google Enterprise Apps is going to be a serious challenge for MS Outlook, Communicator etc. IMHO in the years to come.
wow just wow lol
such an insightful and interesting reply, please keep it up
it is called stunned silence.
It’s still retarded.
This is getting interesting!
My name it Momar I am the lead engineer who invented Buzz after that I patent my invention and sell it for millions dollar to Googlle it take a special person to understand Buzz and use I thing you guy just done know you still stick to your old way using Outlook.
Meh. I think MS is being short sighted. IMO, Google is thinking more long term, about competing with other social networks not just aggregating someone else’s content. They’re trying to go farther upstream than MS.
The question really is whether or not they are biting off more than they can chew here. MS is just making themselves look like small thinkers with that statement.
Yeah small thinkers who invested in FB. Name a product outside of search that Google leads in and that it didn’t acquire. Actually forget the acquisition bit, just name an offering outside of search that google leads in.
Just a few off the top my head:
Android – no (arguably not yet)
Chrome – no
Talk – no
Gmail – no
Picasa – no
YouTube – yes, but an acquisition
Knol – laughable
Orkut – joke
Dodgeball – what even happened to that?
i was just glad to be able to use Yahoo! Buzz to Buzz up the story.
Seriously, how hard is this?
The first aggregator to match what ping.fm does – syndicate and update to twitter, facebook, linkedin, flickr, and friend feed at the same time – WINS.
A team of overpaid developers can’t figure this out?
Hotmail? You gotta be kidding me!
Queue the negative knee-jerk reaction
Cue the spelling corrections.
Wait, I don’t see any typos.
Cue: An action or event that is a signal for somebody to do something; a prompt
Queue: an ordered list of tasks to be performed or messages to be transmitted; (British) a line of people or vehicles waiting for something
In this case, “cue” is the correct word.
Hotmail means using another email… And busy people don’t want another email
I stopped using Hotmail, the day (post gmail launch) they decided to gave 100 MB space to new customers and kept the old ones at 2 MB… so am buzzing
hotmail has unlimited storage
I just can’t seem to get hotmail working with my own domain name.
Try http://domains.live.com
Works for me.
yes they do NOW… after watching Gmail and Yahoo mail getting more users with their greater storage capacity
Is it me or Microsoft is envy about buzz?
it is you.
When are these clowns not slamming the competition? Imagine if they invested the same effort in tightening up their innovation process.
Yeah… They should treat their competition the way they get treated and not slam…. Oh wait…
They shouldn’t be worried. Buzz is a fine product that fulfills zero need.
Without trying it, I can see that the knee-jerk reaction is that there isn’t a need.
However, I spend a lot of time in Google Reader, reading newsfeeds. Within Google Reader I can email news items to my friends.
Next, I subscribe to my twitter feed using Google Reader… so, within Google Reader, I can read all of the tweets I want to follow.
Also, with Facebook, I have wall posts go to my email. I can reply to these emails and it will post a reply on Facebook. When someone replies to that, I get another email. An awesome feature Facebook implemented.
Twitter has an API. Facebook has its own API.
Then, there are other services. Some people I follow are on Twitter but not Facebook. Others are on Facebook but not Twitter. Still others are on something else entirely.
As you can see, this is a mess. I must either visit multiple sites to keep track of everything, or I need to be bombarded with tons of emails with every little comment, or I need scan through items in my feed reader without the ability to reply without visiting the external site.
With Google Buzz:
1) Replies do not show up as individual emails, but as an update to the existing message.
2) All activity can be managed within Gmail, which is where I already need to go to manage email, the oldest and most popular social networking tool.
3) I can use Gmail’s labels, filters, and search to organize my social-based data as easily as I am able to keep my email and chats organized.
4) If I share a news post within Google Reader, it automatically shows up in my Buzz feed.
5) Google Buzz’s API is based on open standards, making it that much easier for third parties to integrate into the service.
6) Google Buzz will be integrated with most other social media sites, allowing me to manage everything within a single interface.
7) Google Buzz can be location-centric. This lets me communicate with people locally almost instantly, without needing to actively seek others out.
Really, you could criticize Twitter when it first came out because they limited the size of posts and were “missing” a lot of features. It was the simplicity which made it popular. Facebook was just another MySpace, but Facebook became more popular because of the clean look and the “exclusive” feel. Now, MySpace is a joke and Facebook is the in-thing. Except, every time Facebook updates their interface, most people complain. Prime motivation to try something new.
Nonetheless, Google Buzz may flop. Anything new may flop… or it could take off… judging it by saying it isn’t needed or doesn’t solve a problem ignores the fact that somethings services which aren’t “needed” and don’t solve a problem still “catch on”, whether we like it or not. Even if Google Buzz flops, it might have succeeded in bringing more people to Gmail. Perhaps this is the primary motivation.
“However, I spend a lot of time in Google Reader, reading newsfeeds. Within Google Reader I can email news items to my friends.”
HOLY $HIT, UNHEARD OF!! Wait… I can do the same using the Windows Live Main client.
“As you can see, this is a mess. I must either visit multiple sites to keep track of everything, or I need to be bombarded with tons of emails with every little comment, or I need scan through items in my feed reader without the ability to reply without visiting the external site.”
It’d almost as if you need an aggregator… Have you tried hotmail? They could have solved this problem for you in 2008…
Microsoft has had this for a while….BUT everyone I know uses Gmail, not Hotmail.
If I wanted to have a social network with spam and mailing lists, I’ll log into my Hotmail account
that’s funny, all my unwanted email are at gmail. and i got like 10 account there.
no you don’t, you work at microsoft. hotmail is useless, I haven’t used it for about 7 years. seriously all comments from people who work at microsoft sound the same.. I used my android phone to look at buzzes in my area and pressed on one.. same slamming of google buzz with the exact same attitude… and no surprises where it came from.. microsofts offices. I guess when you work for a company like microsoft you begin to take on it’s personality.
If you haven’t used hotmail in 7 years, how do you know that it’s useless? It’s like saying ‘I stopped using Macs 7 years ago because they’re useless’. ‘Arguably’ 7 years ago they were, but now?
I haven’t used it as my mail email in some 7 years, I sign in every now and then, and what I find is mostly spam and a cheap looking interface. I still use my hotmail address for msn etc. but really gmail is much much better than hotmail in so many levels and I don’t see how anyone can say anything different.
u can’t facebook will always be #1, it pretty much has and will continue to destroy other social sites. its impossible to beat facebook period.
So wrong on so many levels… You do realize that Microsoft was considered unbeatable not so long ago… Stop being such a fanboy and enjoy products for what they are today.
——————————–
Tiananmen Square
Overthrow China
Free Tibet
There. That should get their attention.
I wouldn’t say it’s impossible to beat Facebook, just that nobody has done it yet. But nothing is impossible, and if someone builds a better social network, people will move away from FB just like they moved away from MySpace.
Wow, should Facebook just go ahead and buy Time Warner. I think that’s what online communities do that are unbeatable and always will be #1.
Facebook is not buying anybody, they do not have any money. Realize that for the last 6 years, Facebook has lost millions and millions of dollars every year.
To stay afloat they have taken on over half a billion in investment money. FriendFeed is the only acquisition they have or will make.
The only thing Facebook has to spend is their overvalued stock. That’s why Twitter turned them down when Facebook tried to buy them almost 2 years ago.
u can’t MYSPACE will always be #1, it pretty much has and will continue to destroy other social sites. its impossible to beat MYSPACE period.
(fixed for irony)
That’s what Myspace thought once upon a time. When you’re king of the hill, there’s only one place to go. Down! No one takes aim at the number two player.
Your ’snapshot’ link being http://www.pwned.com is hilariously applicable here…
Redmond should stop slamming, continue collaborating, and start building.
Somebody said Microsoft’s new name is …micro not so soft..look!
Lame^google
Microsoft is doing a “Hey look! Elvis!” Come on Microsoft impress us already… Step up to the plate and get back into the game. Or, is Google, Apple, and any other company with fresh ideas out of your league?
Good to hear hotmail still exists
Hotmail means hot potato.
What is Hotmail?
Microsoft proved their desperation by even commenting on this.
Tsk tsk, Michael. Printing quotes without attribution. What is this, Perez Hilton’s site?
It is an official statement you idiot, L2Read.
They actually kinda have a point.
whats hotmail? hot male?
Wow, a competitor who hasn’t innovated much of anything in half-a-decade doesn’t like the competitions new product…SHOCKER!
Project natal?
Nintendo Wii is the innovation. Natal is the embrace, extend… there’s a big difference.
i think you got it all wrong.
the wii extended the controller.
project natal banished the controller.
Does anyone still use hotmail? I have a friend that does. But they’re not from North America.
I do BUT it’s streaming to my gmail because of Windows Live Messenger -_-.
you know you can use messenger with any mail client, right?? it’s called windows live passport or something like that…
Is he from North Korea (just a wild guess)?
I do
PRoject Natal? Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!