Microsoft’s Live Earth Disaster

The disaster that was Live Earth has been well-covered. But for a graphic example of how Microsoft still fail to understand the 21^st century take a look at their Live Earth web site.

It’s bland and faceless, crammed with information and colours but no clear path of navigation. Weirdly, all the ads are the first thing you really notice, especially those for Chevrolet. Given the perfect chance to change perception about their less-than-green credentials, does Chevy take the chance? Of course not. Then there are the banners and video ads for Zune, the Microsoft music player. Message to Mr. Gates: this is not the place to flog your product. We all know it’s a commercial failure and this smacks of desperation and cynicism – not traits to associate with saving the planet.

My interest in being here is because the innovative ‘80s band Yellow Magic Orchestra reformed for one of the Japanese concerts. But I can’t see a video of their performance. Someone had it up on YouTube pretty quick, but MSN forced its removal. Aren’t we trying to spread the word here? About saving the planet? Instead we have a mindset that’s still thinking about rights fees and “ownership”. Which is bizarre and stupid when it’s impossible to see the video on the MSN site.

I can watch Madonna and the bits THEY want me to watch, but there's no freedom of choice, no assumption that, maybe, Japanese people will log in. And no, I don't want to watch a video of Leo Di Caprio telling me how to get green. It’s like network TV before we had the freedom of 200 channels and a Sky + box. They don’t seem to understand that in today’s world you spread the word by opening up the toybox. You let people imbed videos in their profile pages and share videos on YouTube. You create mindshare by pushing, not pulling.

It’s funny to watch the computing establishment colliding with the new world. There’s a generation gap in understanding that’s quite breathtaking. Rumours abound that Microsoft wants to pay $6billion to buy Facebook. So they can get back in the game. But Ballmer and his crew would want to play with it. Like Fox has with MySpace, making it more controlled, limited in its options, full of corporate deals. Which is why Facebook is the fast growing environment it is. Because it’s none of those things – it gives us the tools and puts choice in our hands.

If the Live Earth site is the best Microsoft can do it's no wonder they’re slipping away into the La Brea tar pits.