For the last few months, I've put aside my Java ways and have dove headfirst into the ever expanding vastness of the Microsoft pool. At first, it was dark and unfathomable, overly verbose documentation and what appeared to be poorly connected components, but now, I'm starting to understand the Way. In doing so, I'm sort of still amazed Microsoft can't get it together, what with all the things they have going for them.

I've been a long time fan of Google Docs and still use Google services on a regular basis, but Microsoft now has Office Live (hello web based SharePoint Services) and a whole slew of "live" offerings (not even mentioning CRM live):
  • Windows Live Messenger - a major upgraded version (8.5) of msn messenger that has aspects of Skype or GTalk (audio, video), plus shared synchronizable folders between contacts
    • It's configurable, via a third party tool called A-Patch, a great way to remove ads, etc.
    • A beta of 9.0 has been leaked, too, which has multi-location sign in, per contact sounds, SPIM filters and more
  • SkyDrive Live - a beta of a storage service (Amazon S3?)
  • SharedView - another beta that does person-to-person shared desktops or apps, like LiveMeeting or WebEx, but personal

What's strange to me is that I hadn't heard of these things before and that to me means a few things: they either aren't pushing the integration of all these things enough (and they all seem to have hooks into each other) and there's no vision for it or the net they've cast is woven so wide, they're not catching anything.

It's exciting that not only are web-based products getting mature, but the approach to using and developing for them is maturing as well.

I'm expecting great things from both Microsoft and Google over the next year.