Dylan Greene dot com

David Coursey wrote an article on ZDNet titled what Microsoft needs to do in 2004 with his list of what he thinks Microsoft needs to do in 2004. I agree with most of his points, but I have my own list. What do you think Microsoft should do?

I just have one goal for Microsoft: Spend more bucks on public education. Here's a small rundown of how that goal must be achieved:

1) Marketing: This upcoming year a two candidates are going to spend a couple hundred million dollars trying to convince us to vote for them. They'll list issues they believe in, goals they hope to achieve, and information about their background, and why they are better than the other candidate. You will learn about them for their ads so that you can make a more informed decision. Today, what do you learn from a Microsoft ad? You learn nothing about the new features. You learn nothing about why it is better than the competition or previous version of the same product. You learn nothing about why you should want it. Microsoft's software is not cheap for a single-income family nor for a Fortune 500 company that would have to upgrade 10,000 desktops. And this is one of the reasons people don't like Microsoft: They feel that they are forced to use their software and don't see the benefits. Microsoft needs to spend money on educating the us as to why we should want their software.

2) Windows Update: Your computer crashes all the time. Do you know how to fix it? Since you are reading this site, maybe you do, but most people don't. I'd even guess that majority of Windows users, both home and corporate, have never used Windows Update. Never! There's so much important stuff up there, but it's treated like the Flu shot - "yeah, I could do that, but it takes up my valuable time and it could make my things even worse. Anyway, everything seems fine now, so what's the big deal?" I blame two things here: Windows Update, as simple as it is, is still too hard to use and too littered with confusing terms and crazy KB0335333-type numbers that only drive your Aunt Sue away from it, never to come back. Even when you visit the site for the first time you get the ActiveX Security warning, a warning now synominous with adware and spyware programs such as Gator. Microsoft needs to rebuild Windows Update to make it a transparent feature of Windows integrated into the operating system and sell inexpensive upgrade CD's at all the places you'd often see free AOL CD's, such as 7-11, Target, record stores, and anywhere else.

3) Point of Sales: When you buy Frito-Lays potato chips from your local grocery store, you will almost always find them to be in stock, set out nicely, clean, and stocked with related condoments such as salsa in less than arms-reach away. When you buy Microsoft products, especially their mice, keyboards, and XBOX games and hardware at stores like Best Buy, you will find a mess. My XBOX experience at almost any Best Buy: Games are everywhere, out of order. Various Playstation and Gamecube games are mixed in. New games are nowhere in sight. Some games are only by the XBOX demo machine. Popular games like Halo are never in stock. For grandparents buying XBOX games for their grandchildren there is no list of popular or new games for them to use as a guide. The demo machine often has broken controllers, or a bad XBOX disk, and never the game advertised on the side of the demo machine or even a new game people want to see. XBOX hardware is all a mess. The purpose of items such as Live or the "Advanced" A/V pack are not spelled out for casual gamers that don't read gaming magazine reviews to find out such items are required for Internet play or Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Microsoft needs to have representatives responsible for certain stores and make sure those stores are always in stock, have new and popular games out that are easy find, and spend time on weekends and holidays at the XBOX section of every popular store to answer questions such as "do I need a memory card?", "What is Live?", and "Are there XBOX games that my granddaughter would like?"

4) Microsoft.com: Microsoft's web site is clean, easy to navigate, and good information. But finding that information is nearly impossible. Try to figure out what version of Windows you should host your web site on: 2000, XP, XP Professional, XP Home, 2003 Standard, 2003 Server, etc.... See if it says anywhere that you don't need Windows XP to use Office XP. Try to find out what features are in Windows XP Professional that Mac OS X doesn't have. Try to find out why Powerpoint 2003 is better than Powerpoint 98. Microsoft.com content all reads and looks like the same lack-of-helpful information found on the back of the box any Windows box. Find screenshots of a product you aren't sure is right for you, find a list of games that don't work in the new operating system you are thinking about upgrading to. Find video demos of new features, or a list of features that you could email your boss or husband when you want to justify spending money on upgrading. Microsoft's Knowledge Base is probably the most helpful tool on the site (along with Windows Update and MSDN, which has some of the best online programming docs but is a pain to navigate with the refreshing-fames UI), but Microsoft practically hides it with the strange "Knowlede Base" name - how about calling it FreeHelp.com? I happen to know the owner of the domain if you'd like to buy it. The site has many other problems. Download URLs are long "FamilyID" numbers (example) and the download page is a generic looking page with no relationto the content it belogs with. Microsoft needs to give Microsoft.com a usability make-over with a focus on solving user's questions.

Well these are just a few of my ideas... Do you have others?