Windows Live

The difference between Google and Microsoft as I see it, apart from both trying to dominate the world, is when Google release a Beta product, it does actually work.

I visited Windows Live (live.com) today, via /..

What is Windows Live?
Your online world gets better when everything works simply and effortlessly together. That's the basic idea behind Windows Live. So the things you care about - your friends, the latest information, your e-mails, powerful search, your PC files, everything – comes together in one place. This is a brand new Internet experience designed to put you in control. And this is just the beginning – you'll see many more new services in the coming months.

If that means anything to you! You can read their Press Release which better explains this new service, along with the full Live Ideas suite. Depending on which web browser you use however, you may get a different page: Firefox displays a page listing the suite complete with broken images, while in IE you're redirected to this page, complete with a broken 'Try Windows Live now!' link.

I tried a quick test search at Live.com and clicked to view the next page of results, which returned a server error. Since they're misapplying AJAX to perform a "live" search, ie. displaying the results without reloading the page, they're not allowing for bookmarking of results and are also breaking the browser's Back button. Clicking back from the error, the page returned to the default state and I had to repeat the search.

I still heart Mozilla though

Firefox 1.5 was released this morning. One of my favourite additions is the new 'Report Broken Web Site' wizard (in the Help menu) to report web sites that aren't fully compatible with Firefox, for whatever reason - something already present in Safari and Opera. I experienced some issues using it this morning but had better success a while ago. Take that, MSN Music and Musica Digital!

Keep an eye on Spreadfirefox.com for something new to come.

UPDATE: If you're using Firefox, you have to try this config edit referred to as bfcache (Back-Forward Cache). What a difference it makes!