“Downloaded MSFT security essentials. It says Chrome is a risk”

This was my first Tweet to be Favorited (and by top tier comedian @JimCoughlin nonetheless) so I remember it…

On September 28th, Essentials did indeed begin flagging Chrome as unsafe, and removing it from PCs!  Read about it in Wired.

Background:

It was a simple joke, based on MSFT’s history of abuse of Windows power. Security Essentials is a highly recommended FREE program for protecting your PC  (it happens to make redundant Norton and McAfee’s offerings*).

With the power to remove viruses and malware, it was easy to see how MSFT might “define dangerous down” to include software from competitors like Google, which makes the Chrome browser. Remember, MSFT set out to destroy Netscape Navigator back in the 90s, which is why to this day it has to recommend alternatives to Internet Explorer for European PC users.

But my Tweet was just a bad joke. I didn’t think MSFT would purposely remove competition. Nor do I think it acted in bad faith with Security Essentials. There was a basis for mistaking Chrome for malware… and the corrections have been made on both sides.

* more irony: MSFT destroyed Navigator by giving away IE. Now MSFT is giving away Security Essentials, putting Norton Anti-Virus in peril.. but the government could care  . less.

Microsoft has a darn good calendar program, whichever name it uses (Hotmail, Live, Windows…). MS is also making strides in Search with the pretty Bing, and has made email searchable.

But for some reason, there is no Search in Hotmail Calendar.

Microsoft understands this, and is able to offer Windows Live Mail, which syncs Email and Contacts and Calendar from the desktop with the Hotmail / ‘Live’ web programs. Google understands this, to the extent of mobile devices and the web (by the way, it licenses the sync technology from MS). But on the desktop, Google only offers..er, Google Desktop. It requires ‘Google Gears’ if you want to access certain apps off-line. In either case, the apps (Calendar, Mail) run through the browser. The apps are ‘read-only’ when off-line: you cannot create a new message or event. Strange.

Google’s offering is the result of a way of thinking that seemed plausible 2 years ago (before Apps and Adobe AIR took off), but now seems silly: that the web means the browser. And it thinks a user accesses a desktop version only when off-line, rather than the other benefits of specialization and richness. Being online does not only mean browsers, but, web browsing does mean being online in people’s mind. People hate using a browser off-line. It’s counter-intuitive. Sure, there’s a lot one can do in a browser as Firefox shows. And there’s a lot more that can be done, as the Chrome OS will no doubt prove. But today, in Dec. 2009, I just want to access my Gmail on the desktop. The best way to do that is with Windows Live mail program (which supports Gmail). But the best overall experience for mail / contacts / calendar syncing is with Windows Live (Hotmail) itself. So I am switching to Live.

Maybe soon Google will at least support an Adobe AIR developer who can make a sweet Google AIR app. Is there anyone out there?

For the new ads, it paid for the rights to use the Brad Pitt film “Se7en.”

“Remember Seven with Brad Pitt? Pretty awesome movie, huh? Well, you’ll love our new Operating System with the same name.”

OR … related news

Crazed Brad Pitt fans have noted that in 1995 Microsoft released Windows 95 and the movie “Seven” came out. Now MS is releasing “Seven.” Where is the new Brad Pitt film “95?” We demand a new Brad Pitt movie,”95!!”