This week Microsoft is planning to unveil Windows Live Suite. According to a story in The New York Times, Microsoft's new Windows Live software suite includes an updated electronic mail program (Windows Live Mall), a photo-sharing application (Windows Live Photo Gallery), a writing tool designed for people who keep Web logs (Windows Live Writer), Windows Live Messenger 8.5, and a computer security program (Windows Live OneCare Family Safety).

The new service is an indication that Microsoft plans to compete head-on against Google and others, and not only in the search-engine business where it is at a significant disadvantage. Instead, Microsoft will try to outmaneuver its challengers by becoming the dominant digital curator of all a user's information, whether it is stored on a PC, a mobile device or on the Internet, industry executives and analysts said.

The Windows Live service will be found Windows Live.  The software release will offer PC users the option of downloading a set of the services with a single Unified Installer program, or as separate components.

Windows Live services also underscore Microsoft's desire to become the manager for a user's data wherever it is located. Although they will not be included in the initial test release, the company's recently announced SkyDrive online data storage service and its FolderShare service are being folded into Windows Live. SkyDrive currently gives test users 500 megabytes of free Internet storage, while FolderShare makes it possible to synchronize between multiple computers - including Apple's Macintosh computers.

Silverlight, a new system for displaying multimedia content via a Web browser that competes with Adobe's Flash media player, will not be included in the first release of Windows Live, but would be added in the future.

Source: NY Times

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