MSN Spaces and Choice

Encouraged by some positive thoughts on MSN Spaces from my colleague (don’t worry, he took them to task regarding the content ownership question here), I set up my own space (it’s here, but there’s nothing in it) and gave it a quick look-see. Unfortunately, I came away profoundly disappointed.

It’s not the lack of the ability to customize the templates – I don’t believe the intended audience is liable to know much CSS. Nor is it the profanity censorship, which while misguided in my view, is relatively harmless (as long as that’s all it censors). It’s not even the aforementioned IP ownership questions, which while onerous are usually more of a hot button for my colleague than myself.

Instead it’s the platform support. I don’t like the Passport integration, or the fact that playlist creation only supports Windows Media Player, but I can understand them from a technical perspective. No, it’s the inability to look beyond what many now recognize as a stagnant browser platform, IE.

In Firefox, my authoring experience is marginal, but worse I simply am lacking the ability to edit basic information, like my own profile. Given Google’s ability to deliver a rich application like Gmail across-platform, Microsoft can no longer convince me that they can only support the profile widget in IE. I just can’t buy it. Given that, I’m forced to conclude that Microsoft has actively decided to restrict me to their platform.

A year or two ago, this might not have been so upsetting, but given the meteoric rise of Firefox within many of the same constituencies that Microsoft will be courting with this offering (teens, etc), this seems to me to be a bad choice.

More importantly for Microsoft, I see this as an opportunity lost. Imagine the blogosphere’s reaction if Microsoft – against all expectations – provided an offering that played nicely with Firefox or iTunes. Imagine the incredulousness of a massive community of technical influencers who’d be able to tell their friends, family, or clients that no, this new offering from Microsoft was really different, they’ve really turned over a new leaf. Imagine a world where BoingBoing was championing a new Microsoft, that had cast aside the shackles of integrated innovation and offered customers a choice – even if it wasn’t Microsoft.

Instead, the reaction has been predictable. It’s disappointing to me – knowing the smart, dedicated people they have – but worse, another missed chance to rehabilitate its image. Sooner or later, Google may force Microsoft to learn the Raikes lesson.

Choice, you see, is a funny thing – like the vote. Provide people with the right to choose, and they often won’t elect to use it. But try and take away that right, and sooner or later the mobs show up at your door.