Microsoft Mesh: Another Live failure

Is it fair to call Microsoft Mesh (pronounced “microsoft mess”) a failure, already? For a Web 2.0 startup, no. For the richest and arguably the best software company, yes. Nobody from Microsoft that emailed me about the last post had any argument with that opinion – Microsoft has no leadership up top. If they did, one of them should say:

We are the best. Lets act that way too, and then lets prove it.

Instead we got halfassed experiments even a Web 2.0 company would be ashamed of. And the techies are getting it too, outside of the Microsofts own cheerleading base, there is nothing out there. Remember when Gmail launched, as a pittiful minimalistic webmail?  People were bidding up to $20 for an invite on eBay. Microsoft Mesh?

Thats 0 interest.

Now, here is the big picture: The entire Web 2.0 world is built online with its only limitation to mass adoption being offline use. That world that Microsoft has a 90% or more domination over. So why is Microsoft being run like a disorganized bunch of government employees all jumping over one anothers projects with all dreams and no roadmaps… instead of stable useful software that just inches its dominant desktop solutions to some simple web collaboration? Because it would sell fewer Microsoft servers? Compete with Grove/Sharepoint teams agenda?

No. Microsoft wants to battle Web 2.0 on its own, spend $33 a share for Yahoo, ignore its loyal user base. That is either bad leadership or the leaders are idiots. Either way, they need to be fired.

And if there is any question on the above, why is this request coming to Microsoft from the outside? Why do your loyal users have to tell you what is needed and how long are you prepared to ignore us? You know what happens when you ignore the needs of people that pay you, right?

So please, will the real Steve Ballmer please stand up and throw a chair at this halfassed loop your company is stuck in?