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Ever since the announcement of the Microsoft Live services a couple of years ago, the elements of that concept — many of them Web-based versions of existing products — have been arriving bit by bit, program by program, with beta versions well in advance of finished products. This is not Microsoft's usual style at all.
From a company that thinks nothing of spending a billion dollars to launch a core product, this piecemeal approach has made the arrival of Windows Live services appear like an afterthought. Looking at the concept in all its glory, however, makes the outlines clearer. And the outlines are big.
The latest element is Windows Live SkyDrive, just out of beta, and like most of the other parts of Microsoft's Live offerings it seems like a ho-hum affair: online storage. What's so new about that? Not much in an online culture that likes to jump all over the big things and yawns mightily to show its haughty superiority to the small ones. But like other parts of the Live strategy, SkyDrive is much more meaningful in context.
SkyDrive is offering 5 gigabytes of space online, which is a lot, considering it is free and considering that the first beta version (pictured here) promised only 512 megabytes of space. Put that beside the other existing Live applications (a panoply of Web 2.0 services, including Hotmail, Mail, Photo Gallery, Calendar, Spaces, Writer, Messenger, Events, Toolbar, OneCare Family Safety and Search and about 40 subsidiary services), six unreleased services, three suspended ones and five mobile ones, and it becomes a massive move online for a company that has a history of sticking to products installed on desktop computers.
This list does not include Microsoft's Office Live suite, officially released on Tuesday, a Live Barcode system, Live translation, Live shopping guides, Xbox Live multiplayer gaming and Games for Windows Live services. And Microsoft is quick to boast that almost 500 million people around the world use a Live service in one form or another.
These services exist in "the cloud" — a word we will be hearing about more than we will want. It derives from diagrams engineers like to make, in which networked elements are pictured alongside each other, all connecting ultimately to the Internet, which is drawn as a cloud, from which wires shoot like lightning bolts. So because it is available online, on Microsoft's own servers, it is no longer software but a service, and using these services is called "computing in the cloud."
All this is clearly an undiplomatic response to similar products from Google, signalling a terrible product war to come. And it also says a lot about Microsoft's takeover designs on Yahoo, which has all the experience and tools necessary to wrap Live services in advertising.
For its part, SkyDrive is a surprisingly well designed service with a blessedly uncluttered appearance. Very easy to use, — too easy I dare say for some who prefer their computing challenging — it allows users to create public folders and password-protected private folders.
The concept here is sharing files — SkyDrive is a poor-man's version of Microsoft's own SharePoint server, which provides roughly the same features for corporate users. In SkyDrive, the owner of the files can allow others to see them, with three levels of access — private, only those in your Windows Live Contacts database and, finally, for anyone who drops by. You can further configure the files as read-only, or as editable by certain users. Not surprisingly, SkyDrive was originally called Live Folders.
This saves on carrying around flash drives, or storing files that are too big for e-mail. It is also an ideal answer to smaller business wanting to share certain documents with clients or employees.
Files can be uploaded in a drag-and drop manner or by locating them in the more traditional way from a list, and uploading them five at a time (maximum size for a single file is 50 megabytes). Microsoft gushes that this storage system will hold 1,000 songs in MP3 format, or 30,000 average Office-sized documents, or 30,000 digital photos at a resolution of 1,200 by 1,200 pixels.
To share them, you can create a new folder; the naming process includes the choice of granting access to anyone on the Internet or specific people, as does right-clicking on the file name. Finally, if you want to make sure a certain person looks into the folder, you can send an e-mail that will be automatically populated with a link to the folder. (One drawback here: It won't allow you to send a link to a lot of people. You have to send a separate e-mail or manually put recipients into the address fields. It's also awkward to copy that link to a contact on the instant-messaging client.)
Of course, SkyDrive is not alone. There are online storage services, among them FileCrunch, a peer-to-peer service that is free unless you want your files immediately, at which point you pay $15 a year; Pando, which offers a free personal account but charges $4.95 a month for 3 gigabyte files or $19.95 for 5 GB; Tubes, an online file-synchronization service for free for accounts up to 1 GB, while a premium version costs $4.99 per month; and YouSendIt, which is free for 100 MB files adding up to 1GB, after which a series of fees kicks in.
There is one thing about Skydrive that might disturb some of the more suspicious among us. Like all Microsoft Live services, it requires signing up for a Microsoft Live account, even if you only want to look at someone else's storage.
Basically a reworking of the old Passport service, the Live account (it's free, and it just means getting a new e-mail address and a password) unifies access to all its Live online services, which makes it look a little coercive by being so all-encompassing. Since Microsoft never seems to sufficiently reassure anyone that it isn't trying to rope you into something nefarious — perhaps it's getting bored trying to defend itself — a Windows Live account will undoubtedly rub some people the wrong way.
At the moment, perhaps it's best to believe that Microsoft won't be reading your private papers because it can't afford any ensuing scandal. Looked at that way, the comparatively quiet arrival of SkyDrive may just be a case of Microsoft introducing its Live products soothingly, a few at a time.
In the meantime, SkyDrive is well worth the effort to get to know it.
