Microsoft's Identity Crisis

Windows Live ID (originally named .NET Passport; briefly Microsoft Passport Network) Confused?

Why can't Microsoft get things straight? The design of most of their services/products usually contain a glaring flaw - You can tell there was a room full of designers fighting for features and rather than narrowing the design down to the best features and making the design efficient, they opted to keep every feature in the final design. The end results are usually messy, confusing and frustrating, which brings me to Microsoft's approach to their unified login or attempt at one. First off, three things:

1. It has to be incredibly difficult for Microsoft to design products and services because they have to design for such a big audience. They can't leave a billion machines out of their plans going forward on anything.
2. When is Microsoft going to stop trying to make themselves the de facto standard for everything web rela.....no, just everything?
3. I'm considering most of this for the average user who buys a computer and is presented with the most obvious choices of services/applications that come loaded as the default on a Windows machine.
   

Ready for confusion? OK, follow me. Hotmail was created by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith in 1996. Microsoft buys the service in 1998 and integrates it into its line of MSN services - We have MSN Hotmail with @MSN.com and @hotmail suffixes. With either suffix, you can log in to Hotmail and MSN services and use the webmail service in addition to manage your accounts in Outlook Express and Outlook.

Jump forward - Microsoft decides that they need to make a unified login service for all of their services and this is where it gets really messy. They create the .NET Passport, which allows a user to log in to all of Microsoft's services as well as a host of other services that support .NET Passport. To get a .NET Passport, Microsoft requires a user to have one of the following logins:

1. An email address with a @MSN.com suffix, which also provides email
   
2. An email address with a @hotmail.com suffix, which also provides email
   
3. A login with a @passport.com suffix, which does not provide email
   
4. A login with an existing email address with any @blank.com suffix

Microsoft renames the service the Microsoft Passport Network for some reason.

Jump forward again - Windows Vista is out. Microsoft decides to rename two more things:

1. Outlook Express, the previous default Windows email application, becomes Windows Mail (Outlook in Microsoft Office is still called Outlook however).
   
2. The Microsoft Passport Network becomes Windows Live ID.
   

Microsoft opens Windows Live and Office Live officially. The suite of applications require a Windows Live ID, which adds the new default Windows Live ID login of @live.com email suffixes. Login is still available through @MSN.com, @hotmail.com, @passport.com, and @blank.com. With the launch comes a new webmail service. One would guess that the new name would be Windows Live Mail or just Windows Mail. It's named Windows Live Hotmail, which can now be checked through its own webmail service (available in new and old formats), Outlook Express on XP machines, Outlook and Windows Mail on Vista machines, and a new application available for both XP and Vista that is part of the Windows Live suite called Windows Live Mail. It does not replace or upgrade existing applications - Windows Live Mail is one of four default Microsoft email services that allow users to check one of three default Microsoft email accounts.



I really wish there was an easy way for Microsoft to clean this mess up and phase out their older services. Why do I even care - I use the Google suite of services that have one simple login. I think the Windows Live thing could be really cool if it functioned as a really clean web extension of your Windows computer. One login, one desktop mail client, one webmail service, which can easily replace a desktop client if it's robust enough (Gmail). Tie it in with a free Live Office service. This problem is widespread in all of Microsoft's designs and it will probably never be cleaned up until they decide to completely explode their current set of services/applications.