Windows Live UI Identity Crisis

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A few days after I talked about the Windows Live Spaces URL Confusion, the guys at LiveSide.net talked about a related issue. Apparently, their issue stemmed from a post on Windows Live Wire announcing that Windows Live Home has been officially released.

Their complaint? The lack of consistency and cohesive identity for Windows Live. They make an excellent point about the main landing pages for the various Windows Live services:

All of these pages are slightly different and even the pages that look close are different. For instance, while Windows Live (www.live.com) and Windows Live Home (home.live.com) both have the Windows “Orb”, the menu that is displayed is very different on each page. However, there are even subtle differences between Windows Live Home (home.live.com) and Windows Live Spaces (home.services.spaces.live.com), particularly with the Live Search integration.

While it looks like the Windows Live identity is very fractured at the moment, I think what we are seeing is the result of a migration to the new Wave 2 style user interface that is displayed by Windows Live Home. I would be surprised if all of the Windows Live services are sporting the new Wave 2 UI (or even a 2.5 version with all the remaining inconsistencies cleaned up) by the end of the year.

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