Dylan Greene dot com

This is why I like Scoble and his blog:

• He works for Microsoft.
• He openly admits Microsoft doesn't do everything right.
• He calls for change.

Here's a quote from today:

MicrosoftMonitor asks us to "pull back Longhorn evangelism" and "revamp our XP marketing and evangelism."

I have taken that to heart. Whenever I fly I interview customers who still are using Windows 2000 or 98. I want to know why they haven't upgraded. I'm talking about Longhorn far less now too.

So far the answer I'm getting is "we're stuck with what our company gives us." But, when pressed, most of these people couldn't name three new features in XP that don't exist in 2000 or 98.

I wish we'd come out with a new TV and magazine campaign that'd focus on "the joy of software." And point out specifically new features in our currently-shipping software.

It's interesting. My coworkers and I talk about our advertising a lot. I haven't found ANYONE who likes the latest Office ads. Admittedly my sample size is small, but let's show off our software! Search folders in the latest Outlook, for instance, are REALLY AWESOME yet we don't tell anyone about them.

Most people don't know what ClearType is either.

Joe and Michael are right to keep pressure on us to market our current products better.

This is also why I like blogs - we complain, they listen. It's fine and dandy to complain about Microsoft software to your office buddies and IT staff, but that isn't going to fix the problem. Posting your complaints online means somebody at Microsoft will see it, especially with people like Scoble quoting other people complaints. Even if somebody at Microsoft isn't reading your blog entires, there are others out there reading, and your complaints will be linked to and talked about on other blogs.

The end of it is that the more people that blog, the more likely good complaints will be seen by the people that can make the difference, and that means better software and less headaches for you, me, and everybody else who uses Microsoft software either by choice or requirement.