Windows Live - Live The Confusion

So just who is in charge of branding for Live over at Microsoft these days? I have to say they're making one heck of a mess of things with the plethora of Live branding applied to what seems like a mashup of service and software applications. There's Live.com for Live Search, Windows Live (home.live.com) for Hotmail and other stuff, Windows Live SkyDrive (skydrive.live.com) for storing and sharing files, Windows Live Spaces (spaces.live.com) for sharing stuff on your Spaces page, Office Live Workspace for sharing files (workspace.office.live.com) which I think we already shared in Windows Live SkyDrive, and Live Mesh (mesh.com, and no "Windows" in the service name) for synchronizing files between computers and sharing file with others (okay, we've done file sharing three or four times now.)

Then on top of the Live online services, we have the Windows Live software applications; Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Photo Gallery (which requires SQL Server Compact installed, no thanks), Windows Live OneCare, and Windows Live Mail. I think I've covered all the Live branded offerings but I can't be sure.

Okay, are you as confused as I am? Maybe you can straighten this out because it seems like there's a lot of Microsoft sites and applications duplicating the same features for email, file storage and sharing. And some Live things are Windows Live products, while others are branded just Live. Sometimes Live means they live on the Internet, but there's also Live applications. Live but not always Windows Live. Network services but there's Live software applications too. I think I'm repeating myself. My only guess for how this all came about is there must some Live committee inside Microsoft who watched the movie Brazil to develop the Live branding strategy.

Here's the deal: I'll wash the car of the first person who can explain the Live branding such that it makes sense (to me) and doesn't sound as confusing as the political pundits trying to explain whether elected delegates or super delegates elect the democratic candidate and whether Howard Dean has anything to do with the process or not. Good luck.

P.S. I'm launching a new start up business that will let you combine the free 5GB's available from each of these services onto one online virtual storage drive. When you need more storage space, just sign up for these services under a new email address and add the additional free storage to your account. You'll never have to buy a hard disk again! :)

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