Microsoft Offers Glimpse Of Live Mesh Technology

Microsoft has been developing products that work with the Internet for more than a dozen years now, but the software giant has never seemed quite able to break away from its PC-centric past. That break may be finally happening with the debut of Live Mesh, Microsoft's software-plus-services platform that leverages the Web to link users with people, information, applications and devices.

The Live Mesh technology preview, which Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie and General Manager Amit Mital announced Tuesday, lets users automatically synchronize information and content on one PC or device with the Internet and other PCs and devices. The system, which uses a combination of client software and Web services, makes it easier for people to share content and access remote devices and applications.

Ozzie first hinted at the Live Mesh project at last month's Microsoft MIX '08 conference and Mital disclosed more details this week in a blog on Microsoft's Web site.

"Devices are how we interact in this new 'Web connected' world and we use a variety of them, including PCs, laptops, media devices, phones, digital picture frames, game consoles, music players and the list grows at every [Consumer Electronics Show]," Mital wrote in his blog. "However, as we discover, adopt and use more of these digital devices, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep the people, information and applications we depend on in sync."

The Live Mesh platform provides a number of core services, including storage, membership, sync, peer-to-peer communication and newsfeed, accessed through the Live Mesh API. The system uses the same API for client devices and "the cloud" and includes an extendable data model that developers can customize for specific applications. Mital said Microsoft will provide more details and a software development kit in the near future.

Mital calls the current iteration of Live Mesh, available at www.mesh.com, a limited technology preview and says Microsoft is seeking feedback on the technology. For the moment the user interface is available only in English and the service is being hosted in the company's U.S. data center. The preview initially supports only Windows Vista and XP machines with support for Macintosh computers and other devices to follow.