Niall Kennedy has a blog post entitled Creating a feed syndication platform at Microsoft where he writes
Starting next week I will join Microsoft's Windows Live division to create a
new product team around syndication technologies such as RSS and Atom. I will
help build a feed syndication platform leveraged by Microsoft products and
developers all around the world. I am excited to construct a team and product
from scratch focused on scalability and connecting syndication clients and their
users wherever they may exist: desktop, mobile, media center, gaming console,
widget, gadget, and more.
Live.com is the new default home page for
users of the Internet Explorer
7 and the Windows Vista
operating system. Live.com will be the first feed syndication experience for
hundreds of millions of users who would love to add more content to their page,
connect with friends, and take control of the flow of information in ways geeks
have for years. I do not believe we have even begun to tap into the power of
feeds as a platform and the possibilities that exist if we mine this data,
connect users, and add new layers of personalization and social sharing. These
are just some of the reasons I am excited to build something new and continue to
change how the world can access new information as it happens
I spoke to Niall on the phone last week and I'm glad to see that he accepted our offer. When I was first hired to work in MSN Windows Live I was told I'd be working on three things; a blogging platform for MSN Spaces,
a brand new social networking platform and an RSS platform. I've done
the first two and was looking forward to working on the third but
something has come up which will consume my attention for the near
future. I promised the my management and the partner teams who were
interested in this platform that I'd make sure we got the right person
to work on this project. When I found out Niall was leaving Technorati
it seemed like a match made in heaven. I recommended him for the job
and talked to him on the phone about working at Microsoft. The people
who will be working with him thought he was great and the rest has been
history.
One of the questions Niall asked me last week was why I worked at
Microsoft given I've written blog posts critical of the company. The
answer to that question came easily for me, I told him that Microsoft
is the one place I know I can build the kind of software and end-to-end
experience I'd like. Nowhere else is there the the same breadth of
software applications which can be brought together to give end users a
unified experience. Where else can a punk like me build a social
networking platform that is not only utilized by the most popular
blogging platform in China but also in the world's most popular instant
messaging application? And that's just the beginning. There is a lot of
opportunity to build really impactful software at Windows Live. When
I'm critical of Microsoft it's because I want us to be better company
for people like me not because I don't like it here. Unfortunately,
lots of people can't tell the difference. ;)
By the way, we are hiring. If you are interested in developer, test
or program management positions building the biggest
social computing platform on the planet then send your resume to
dareo@msft.com (swap msft.com with microsoft.com).