Microsoft’s Real Problem: Facebook is the New Outlook, and- not Listening to Generation Y

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/13/microsofts-real-problem-facebook-is-the-new-outlook-and-other-ways-that-remond-is-not-listening-to-generation-y/

by ridertech • 18 years ago

4 9 18 years ago

techcrunch.com

ScottWhigham• 18 years ago

Give me a &*^%ing break

Goronmon• 18 years ago

I'm not sure I get the comparison between Outlook and Facebook. I see Facebook as a service teenagers and young adults use to keep in touch. I see Outlook and as an e-mail and organizer mainly for business users. From that perspective I'm not sure how exactly Facebook is affecting the use of Outlook at all.

Am I missing something?

nostrademons2• 18 years ago

What're the problems that Outlook solves?

- Email: communicating with people

- Email attachments: sharing files

- Address Book: storing contact info for friends, coworkers, and acquaintances

- Calendar: keeping track of events you've promised to attend

- RSS feeds: keeping up on news that you're interested in

What're the problems that FaceBook solves?

- Messages, Wall, Notes, & Chat: communicating with people

- Photo & video sharing: sharing files

- Profiles: storing contact info for friends, classmates, and acquaintances

- Events: keeping track of events you've promised to attend

- Newsfeed & shared links: keeping up on news that you're interested in

That's why Microsoft is scared. ;-) The market is different, but the tasks are exactly the same - and as FaceBook users get older, they become the market that previously used Outlook.

gnaritas• 18 years ago

More likely, as Facebook users get older, they'll grow out of Facebook and realize it's just a silly website.

prospero2• 18 years ago

Are you seriously suggesting that as "Generation Y" grows up, they'll start using Facebook in a business context? Facebook's great for light, non-detailed interaction, but the idea that I'm going to hash out the details of my day-to-day work over Facebook, Twitter, or any other social website is asinine.

I think you could easily argue that Gmail and Google Calendar is nipping at the heels of Outlook, and that over time, that's going to be a substantial threat to Microsoft. But Facebook is a completely different beast, meant to facilitate a completely different type of communication.

The people who write this sort of nonsense have a fundamental misunderstanding of work/play balance. This may be because they're caught up in the hype, or maybe they don't have a social circle outside their work, I don't know. What I do know is that when I'm emailing a coworker, I don't want to be distracted by their social network, nor do I want to know all the details of my friends' work lives. There is a meaningful dichotomy there, and it's going to remain one.

Microsoft’s Real Problem: Facebook is the New Outlook, and- not Listening to Generation Y

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