Flogging the Blog

MSN Spaces reaction: "'This isn't for them,' said Blake Irving, MSN corporate vice president.
'Those are folks that are going to be using existing services. ... But
to actually produce something that everyone can use, where they can't get themselves into trouble [technically], but can have almost the same amount of power -- not the same amount of flexibility, but the same amount of publishing power -- is a coup for users. Users are going to go crazy for this kind of thing.'"

How much more needs to be said? Just as Microsoft said that people that actually want browsers that support Cascading Style Sheets and Web Standards are not their customers, now they are saying that only techno-illiterates are wanted for blogging. How much demand do they think there is in a demographic that includes people who have to glance at a pictographic quick reference chart to turn on their computer?

Someone needs to revisit their business plan and set their sites a little higher. Aparently Microsoft is all out of visionaries.

Is it just me, or does Microsoft lately seem to always be coming to the party late and poorly dressed? This MSN Space(d) idea is poorly conceived and only half-heartedly implimented.

With its late entry into blogging, web-based search engines and its apparent abandonment of Internet Explorer, it sees that Microsoft feels, like Alexander, that there are no more worlds to conquer and has just given up any real innovation.

While it will always have some techno-serfs, I can't see its empire lasting if it doesn't continue to expand with real innovation instead of this second-rate "me-too" development.