Category: Websites

Microsoft Live ID system fails again…

Customer Service / Microsoft / Technology / Websites

About a year and a half ago, I wanted to transfer my XBox achievements and credits to my primary Microsoft Live ID account. Sadly, I was told that it was impossible. About a year after my frustration with the XBox Live ID issue, I decided to spend more time using my Microsoft Zune player. When I first got it (about about two years earlier,) I was required to sign in with a Microsoft Live ID to track my music purchases and plays. But now, I wasn’t using that …

Zune on Facebook

Microsoft / Software / Technology / Websites

In January 2010, I spent far too much time trying to find the "Official" Zune Facebook fan page. There were three Fan pages, two of which had almost 30,000 fans. However, I wanted to be join the official Microsoft owned/run/sponsored Fan page. Sadly, there was no way to tell which of the three was created by Microsoft. I had been a fan of the two larger fan pages, but they had pretty much stagnated at 25-30k fans for many months. So, while I was working at Microsoft, I …

Google’s ‘Sidewiki’ feature…

Blogging / Customer Service / Microsoft / Software / Technology / Websites

Back in the mid-1990’s when I was working on the MSN Engineering team at Microsoft, one of the projects we started to work on was a tool that would allow people to post comments about web pages "on" the webpage. That is, it was a feature in Internet Explorer very similar to the "Comment" feature in Microsoft Word. As with far too many Microsoft products, they started it, then shelved it. I was really excited about it back then because of the great potential for true customer service …

Why doesn’t YouTube have a charge-for-play model?

Technology / Websites

I’ve been saying for quite a while that YouTube should have a “charge-for-play” model, where they get a cut of each transaction… just like PayPal or eBay or Amazon or any number of other companies… Yes, I know they are working on the advertising model, but it would be so easy for them to put together a package for content creators who want to SELL their videos to consumers. There are plenty of content creators out there who would LOVE to have a charge model via YouTube. No, …

Change your password – Microsoft Passport / Live ID / Hotmail breach…

Technology / Websites

Around October 1, 2009, about 10,000 Microsoft Passport / Live ID / Hotmail username/passwords were posted to the web by a hacker who got the information from "phishing" emails. "Phishing" is a VERY low-tech way of getting people’s usernames and passwords – they ask you for it. Yeah – seriously. When you get an email from your bank or hotmail account (or just about any site that uses a username/password) that asks you to confirm your username and password via email, you can be SURE it is a …

Hiding those (sometimes) annoying “news” items on Facebook…

Technology / Websites

I’ll admit it – I’m a 100% Facebook addict. Well, okay, not 100% – but with regard to the overall system and features, I’m totally there. However, there are a few things that drive (or drove) me crazy. Well, I’m not against anyone who loves the cutesie little games and quizzes, but there are several I just don’t want to see anymore. And when you’ve got a friend who do you like – but can’t stand their posts or social agenda (you know who you are) – rather …

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