November 2nd, 2005
When Google Suggest went live, people were awoken to the possibilities that came with breaking out of the synchronous limitations of HTTP. Of course all it really relies on is clever Javascript witchcraft and the use of XML and these means have been around for quite a long time, but Google have been instrumental in bringing these asynchronous web applications to the public; like with their web mail service Gmail. Yes, these applications even have their own buzzword: “ajax”.
Inevitably Microsoft have joined the band wagon with Windows Live. They have cleverly engineered the web portal idea to implement various ajax benefits such as dynamically loading content and page elements. Click on the link and try dragging around the pseudo-windows and have a go at loading web feeds on the fly. You’ll quickly see the benefits of asynchronous internet (yes–you don’t have to wait for the page to refresh!)
Windows Live looks very polished, people are making predictions about mass public interest in web feeds such as RSS and I’m sure this will act as a significant catalyst. To top this service off? Literally look at the top of Windows Live. There’s an MSN search bar. Yes, this is also a big move in fighting back Google.
November 3rd, 2005 at 8:37 am
I’m an ardent Google follower, and Windows Live doesn’t look half as clean as Google Personalized even without my bias. Of course, it does say it’s not yet Firefox supported. I honestly don’t think Microsoft will ever be able to take over the Internet in the same fields as Google has, but then I found both the MSN and Google toolbar annoying.
November 3rd, 2005 at 10:17 pm
I love google and I will always stick by it. Honestly, I don’t really unerstand the Window’s Live thing… it confuses me slightly. You have your fun and I’ll have Mine ^-^
November 4th, 2005 at 11:33 am
I don’t hold particular allegiances to companies, I just think credit where credit’s due.
Actually I don’t hold allegiances to a lot of other things.
November 5th, 2005 at 11:36 am
I don’t hold much trust in Google anymore, and even less for a company such as Microsoft. I think this might end up being an amusing thing to watch grow, however I don’t see it becoming all that great. It’s interesting to note how crap the site has been coded. I can’t get more than the search bar and the Windows XP logo in Konqueror. A few days ago I tried it in Konqueror and it rendered alright. Frankly, I can’t be bothered opening it in Firefox to see the changes.
Pascal.
PS. Apologies that I’ve been away. On Thursday afternoon I kind of munted my system:
# rm -r * /ubuntu
I’m in the process of recovering data and installing (and configuring) Suse 10.0. I ought to be active again by late Sunday.
November 6th, 2005 at 7:22 pm
Oh no! Did you do it intentionally?!
Well it’s late Sunday now, so hopefully you’re back on track.
November 9th, 2005 at 7:04 am
Yea, back on track. I want to blog about it but my site is down…
And no, it was not intentional, well not deleting my Suse and /home partition. I only wanted to delete my Ubuntu install (/ubuntu is the mount point for Ubuntu under my Suse box). I screwed up with the asterisk…