Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

Google. Microsoft.

The best of times. The worst of times.

Both companies recently rolled out upgrades to current services that went largely unnoticed. However, they give great insight into the direction of both organizations, and how they couldn’t be headed in more opposite directions.

Windows Live Instant Messenger
If you’re an avid user of Windows IM, you’re probably aware of the recent upgrade from the previous version. It sucks.

I’ve had my MSN IM account since 2001. At the time, it was great. I could chat with friends, get e-mail alerts from Hotmail – which was my e-mail of choice at the time – all from my desktop. I could personalize my experience, even letting friends in on the new White Stripes song I was enjoying. Life was good.

Over time, particularly with the advent of Google Talk, MSN messenger began losing its luster. I still used it, mind you, but the time commitment began to split in two.

However, with this latest “upgrade,” I may be off MSN forever.

After upgrading to Windows Live, I can’t sign-in via double-clicking the icon in my shortcuts. I get an error message, but troubleshooting doesn’t reveal any problems. Someone told me that logging in via accessing my programs directly would work. No good.

I removed the program and reinstalled it. Then it actually worked! However, after rebooting my computer, it was back to square one. Windows Live IM is a frustrating experience to say the least. Microsoft is quickly losing a long-time, loyal customer.

Google Reader
I love RSS. As a marketer, it’s a saving grace in light of the growing ineffectiveness of e-mail. As a user, easily accessing information I want to receive in one place is incredibly convenient.

I’m very appreciative of the constant traffic coming to Cheezhead, but when you could just sign up for the RSS feed, I have to wonder why?

I’ve been a loyal user of Bloglines for about 2 years. It’s an effective tool and works just fine, but I’m not sure there’s anything all that remarkable about it. I’ve been open to other options, but nothing all that sexy existed as a replacement.

Enter Google Reader.

Wow! I haven’t been this impressed about a Google consumer offering since Gmail. Users can organize blogs in ways that are nonexistent via Bloglines. For example, users can easily ’star,’ e-mail, share and tag blogs and posts they like. The system can effortlessly plug into your personalized homepage.

However, most exciting is the interface and how easily it fits into the current Gmail format. This makes it easier to see how Google is progressively making e-mail a centerpiece of how people use their non-search competencies. In fact, Webmasters are already beginning to create plug-ins to Gmail that allow for the creation of a Blogs category in with Inbox and the rest.

Interesting how e-mail might be just the thing that catapults RSS into the mainstream, by the way.

Windows Live Messenger. Google Reader.

Two new updates with familar story of how Google is Google and Microsoft is Microsoft.

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