The other shoe drops: second Microsoft ad is about connecting

In the second Seinfeld ad for Microsoft, which is much longer and funnier than the first ad, there's an entire sitcom's worth of in-jokes and misunderstandings. I'll let Dvorak theorize about what the leather giraffe means, but suffice it to say, Microsoft is trying to tell us something. I still think it means they want us to laugh at their success as they transition from a staid monolith into a company that meets us where we're at. And where are we at? We're all on the Web, of course.

I'm not sure how this will play out, but I do have some ideas on how Microsoft can transition from their staunchly held single-user-on-a-desktop approach (even though the ad claims that Bill Gates connected a billion people) to something a lot more social. Some of these are immediate fixes, and some are more long-term.

1. Fix the basic mechanics of Live.com. This may be a Herculean effort, I'm not sure. Here's what I do know. It takes way too long to do something simple. For example, if I want to publish my schedule for the week, I have too many options. I can use Outlook (but I need to install a "connector" beta first) but that shared calendar requires that people who use it have an MSN or Hotmail account. When I search for "Microsoft Online Calendar" I get a bunch of goofy options related to Outlook again and something called Office Online, which doesn't seem to have anything to do with Office or being online, at least in terms of an online schedule. I finally realized I can use Live Mail to post a public calendar and share the link, but it should be a lot more obvious. There should be one obvious calendar sharing option.

2. Moving quickly with an online version of Word is a double-edged sword. It could kill the desktop sales. It reminds me of what happened when Osborne Computer came out with a laptop and then announced that they had a successor coming. Would you buy Office for the desktop if you knew there was an online version that was just as good and maybe even free? And yet - Microsoft craves the user base at Yahoo for online interactions and stickiness, because of the ad revenue, so they need to offer a truly compelling online word processor to draw those users. And, enterprise users will keep buying Word 2007 if, ironically, Microsoft leaves things like security and data reliability out of the online picture for now. Also, if they make Word Online a beta first, the enterprise will probably shun it.

3. Where is Microsoft in social networking? Why did they just invest in FaceBook instead of competing with them? There should be an amazing single destination site for showing off your photos and blogs. They are too fragmented now, with Spaces and MSN and all of these other disjointed tools. It's time to unify, and I don't mean on one URL. I mean: one place where I can post a blog, share my schedule, chat, share photos, post my status -- not separate tools for that. The ad seems to be saying, laugh at us now but we're on a mission to understand Web services, but a good place to start is with the fact that people like to go to one obvious portal like FaceBook or Bebo - it's sort of a "meet me at FaceBook" concept. People don't say, "meet me at Spaces when you blog then at Live Calendar to know what you're doing" because it's just too confusing and too hard. "Gen Q" likes simple answers and they are immediately incredulous about complexity.

4. We need a big powerful company to build the OS of the Web. No, not another browser - I mean next-gen infrastructure. An app for FaceBook should work on MySpace, but it doesn't - the Web is too siloed today, but it doesn't have to be. We need Microsoft to solve this problem because I don't think Google -- in all their infinite power -- has the resources to do it. Part of "fixing" the Web has to do with security, part of it has to do with broadband, part of it has to do with data de-uplication, part of it has to do with usability. (Of course, if Microsoft does build an OS that lets you use an app anywhere on any browser on any computer, and they really do become like the electric grid of the Web, they may need to be split up. Maybe there is a local Microsoft for every state that operates independently?)

5. The hardest transition of all will be in following the Google model of truly open platforms. Look at Android and how open it is. The code is all freely available, and handset makers like HTC and Nokia, and carriers such as T-Mobile, have already jumped on the bandwagon. Google encourages people to go wild with Android apps. Compare this to Windows Mobile 7, which is a super-secret project. I'm a journalist who is often under NDA and I don't even know anything about it. Why is that?

Thoughts about the Gates-Seinfeld ads

Preston Gralla:

• Gates-Seinfeld 2.0: longer, pointless, uncut
• Is Microsoft's Seinfeld spot the worst TV ad ever?

John Brandon:

• The other shoe drops: second Microsoft ad is about connecting
• The brilliance of shoes: What the new Microsoft ad really means

IT Blogwatch:

• EXTRA: Seinfeld spots vs. Apple ads

Eric Lai:

• Before Seinfeld and Microsoft, other celebrity computer commercials

Seth Weintraub:

• Ten reasons why the Seinfeld-Microsoft partnership doesn't work