So yesterday, Microsoft unveiled a new plan to offer its cash cows--Windows and Office--as Web services to take advantage of the growing online advertising market. Both services will be ad-supported.
Observers wonder where MSN figures into this new vision. More on that in a minute.
Office Live is being positioned as a suite of online services for small businesses that includes Web-based
e-mail and software for collaborating with colleagues, vendors, and contacts online. With Windows Live, Microsoft will offer MSN services like its Messenger instant messaging, a new Web-mail service
called Kahuna, and Spaces, a product for creating blogs. The new services will be deployed from a personalized home page, www.live.com, and receive virus protection
through Windows Live Safety, a virus-scanning offering.
Now, you can assume that MSN's new adCenter will figure prominently into the new Web service plans. The adCenter service enables
advertisers to purchase ads on the MSN search engine and will also run ad sales supporting Windows Live, Office Live, and other Web services from Microsoft.
There was no talk yesterday, at least
in public anyway, of Microsoft's bid to acquire part of AOL. But suffice to say, it remains top-of-mind, at least for this here Minute and other online watchers. With yesterday's new Web services plan
and the new adCenter ramping up, we wonder where the MSN portal factors into this equation.
We don't think MSN is dead, just morphing into something else. Perhaps some of its services will segue
to Windows and Office Live. Will the Windows Live and Office Live brands replace MSN branding? It seems likely. One clear indication that MSN wouldn't continue along the same path came in September
when a reorganization combined MSN with the Windows group. Of course this follows a pattern of sorts: MSN was a key component of Microsoft's belated search strategy. The fact that MSN's ad sales unit
brings in a decent haul is just icing on the cake. Windows and Office remain cornerstones of the Microsoft business, and as long as that is the case, supporting players remain in their service.
Amid continued speculation about the future of AOL, MSN's next wave, Google's and others' land grabs, we asked a Microsoft source about MSN's next moves. We received a somewhat telling comment:
"Microsoft has invested in MSN for the benefit of the entire company. If we'd been investing to win for MSN for the past 10 years, we'd be stomping them all." Mmmm, that gives us pause.
Feeling
the heat in search and online advertising, Microsoft, now in middle age, is plotting its next moves. And you know what, it's not going anywhere. The thing is, with Microsoft, after a few tries, it
nearly always gets things right. The thing is, this time around, it's going to have to try harder.