April 24th, 2008
Will Mesh take the Web from open source?
The launch of Microsoft’s Live Mesh has a lot of people asking what this means for key competitors like Google or Adobe.
But what does it mean for open source? After all:
- Use of Live Mesh is tied to a Windows ID.
- A “Mesh Bar” on Windows Explorer controls file sharing between devices.
- While competitors are mainly interested in syncing files (which is as old as LapLink) Live Mesh is integrating other services, like chat and news, into its shared experience.
New chief software architect Ray Ozzie (Elvis has left the building) has big plans for Mesh, seeing it as “orchestrating” the merger of mobile, Web, and desktop worlds.
Once Microsoft is finished orchestrating its own users, pulling them into a Microsoft-centric Web, will there be anything left for the rest of us?
In his memo about Mesh, Ozzie writes:
It’s strategic that we invest broadly in solutions and partnerships that advance our position in current and future generations of content, community, commerce, and search, and also in an advertising platform that’s attractive to advertisers, publishers and developers.
Why does that make me feel like Sigourney Weaver right before the Alien showed up?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 04/24/08
