I was using Windows Live Messenger and I spotted a star, which I decided to click. This took me to Windows Live Favorites , which is basically an online bookmark manager.
Windows Live Favourites allows you to add bookmarks, tag them, place them into folders and to search through them. The site uses a lot of AJAX, and is easily (and AJAXly!) searchable.
You can share bookmarks, though this is done only with integrating with Windows Live Spaces. It’d be useful to share without this, as otherwise IMO it makes the site merely a bookmark manager over a social bookmarking site!
You can import bookmarks from Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Internet Explorer or del.icio.us. del.icio.us import is not complete, and it only imports my last 5 bookmarks. I imagine it grabs the RSS feed, instead of using the API. An interesting feature of this is that you can only do a del.icio.us import in Internet Explorer, as in Firefox it only gives you the option to do a Mozilla import. The Mozilla/Netscape import is done through a Bookmark.html fine. You can also export bookmarks.
The site lacks one other key feature: RSS. The site doesn’t output RSS, which leads me further to believe that this is a bookmark manager. Another annoyance is the lack of a bookmarklet, as it requires bookmarks to be added manually.
One feature I have forgot to mention is that you can star links. I don’t see a point to this, though I think you can organise them so the starred entries are displayed first.
Another minor thing I like is how you can resize the sidebar (though you can’t reposition it). The sidebar contains the tag list and/or folder list.
This is an interesting attempt by Microsoft, though I truly hope this, and much of the Windows Live series, isn’t the finished product. The import needs to be perfected, especially the sharing and import aspects. When it is perfected though, I hope it is integrated into Windows Internet Explorer.
Tags: windows live, del.icio.us, bookmarks, bookmarking, bookmark, windows, microsoft, web2.0, web 2.0, ajax, web 2, web2, web
I’d rather use anything else. Windows Live Mail is a copy of Gmail and it doesn’t do a good job of it all comapred to Gmail, don’t expect anything worth something from Microsoft today, they are way down in my books after they couldn’t install my bloody keyboard because it lost the bloody driver somehow. Windows…geeze.
Microsoft has lost its leading edge. They are playing catchup with all their products of late. They’re the WalMart of the techworld, without the low prices. And, just as I still buy from Wal-Mart, even though I don’t like them, I still buy from MS, even though I don’t like them. That’s a sad commentary about ME.
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