Microsoft animates FlickrYouTubeDotMac -enstein

'Will be loved by millions'

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 12th November 2007 21:29 GMT

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Microsoft is preparing some sort of photo and video sharing web 2.0 monster. Naturally, it will be called Windows Live Something or Other. And the Ballmerites are sure it "will be loved by millions."

Over the weekend, Microsoft-obsessed blogger Mark Liron let us know that the Redmond giant is looking for a product manager who can take aim at Flickr, YouTube, and Apple's .Mac.

"Come make Windows Live the best place to share your digital memories!," reads a job ad recently posted to the MS web site. "Heard of Flickr? YouTube? How about. Mac? This role will work across the new Windows Live division with teams like Spaces, SkyDrive, Messenger and Hotmail to construct a winning strategy for Microsoft in photo and video sharing." Clearly, Windows Live Photo Gallery and Soapbox are not winning strategies, so an all new tool is on the way.

This is hardly surprising. It's what Microsoft does best: Throw lots of money at a market already dominated by someone else. But the job ad is very entertaining: "This role involves leading the team to design the strategy then build and implement a winning solution that will be loved by millions of customers."

Sadly, the ad has now been taken down. It seems that Microsoft has belatedly realized that posting this sort of job application to job will alert the world to its plans. ®

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