Microsoft Responds to Comments on Vine Societal Networking
About a week ago, Microsoft announced to the world that it is entering Beta testing phase with Microsoft Vine, a Twitter-like notification system that the Redmond software developer likes to think of as a societal networking platform, not a social networking one. It seems that numerous comments have been made about Microsoft Vine and consequently the Vine development team has come out to answer some of them.
One of the comments made about Vine is that the notification system will work with PCs only. This is not the case, as the Vine development team explains: “It is true that during Beta the full and best experience will require a PC (they are still pretty popular…) but the service does allow you to Send/Receive Alerts to People you care about from any SMS device or Email client. Consumers need a PC to get registered and setup but if you don't have access to one at work, home or school you can use your Mobile device or email client on a Mac or browser etc. to get informed or to reach out for help from your contacts, without a PC.”
When Vine exists Beta, the development team plans to add “what people need in order to stay connected with one another”, and this includes Mobile apps, Facebook, a browser-based client, regular phone services, pagers, GPS devices, and anything else that has a positive impact on how users communicate.
One other comment regarding Vine is that it has been developed in order to compete with social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. According to the Vine development team, this is not the case: Microsoft Vine was conceived and built from the beginning to allow people to continue using their favorite social network while allowing others to have a consolidated view of the people they care about the most. This isn’t new or even that novel an idea; it has been done by several startups and technology companies….”social network aggregators”. We just aim to take it one step further – to include all people using all the tools available. We want to include every person and allow them to participate through whatever technology they choose - email, text, voice, Instant Messaging, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or whatever people want to use next.”
The last thing you should compare Vine to is Twitter (on steroids); Vine is meant to simply aid you in staying in touch with the people you care about as well as keep track of the places that mean something to you, and ask for and receive help when the situation calls for it. Vine is not meant to replace Twitter, Facebook, or any other social network.
One of the comments made about Vine is that the notification system will work with PCs only. This is not the case, as the Vine development team explains: “It is true that during Beta the full and best experience will require a PC (they are still pretty popular…) but the service does allow you to Send/Receive Alerts to People you care about from any SMS device or Email client. Consumers need a PC to get registered and setup but if you don't have access to one at work, home or school you can use your Mobile device or email client on a Mac or browser etc. to get informed or to reach out for help from your contacts, without a PC.”
When Vine exists Beta, the development team plans to add “what people need in order to stay connected with one another”, and this includes Mobile apps, Facebook, a browser-based client, regular phone services, pagers, GPS devices, and anything else that has a positive impact on how users communicate.
One other comment regarding Vine is that it has been developed in order to compete with social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. According to the Vine development team, this is not the case: Microsoft Vine was conceived and built from the beginning to allow people to continue using their favorite social network while allowing others to have a consolidated view of the people they care about the most. This isn’t new or even that novel an idea; it has been done by several startups and technology companies….”social network aggregators”. We just aim to take it one step further – to include all people using all the tools available. We want to include every person and allow them to participate through whatever technology they choose - email, text, voice, Instant Messaging, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or whatever people want to use next.”
The last thing you should compare Vine to is Twitter (on steroids); Vine is meant to simply aid you in staying in touch with the people you care about as well as keep track of the places that mean something to you, and ask for and receive help when the situation calls for it. Vine is not meant to replace Twitter, Facebook, or any other social network.
