LiveSide, an independent news and information site focusing on Windows Live, is well known for being first with the best and most exclusive dirt on Microsoft’s online initiatives. Started in January 2006, two months after Windows Live was first announced, LiveSide features interviews with Microsoft product team members and all the latest news on Windows Live and the Windows Live Platform, Bing, Silverlight, Azure, Windows Phone, and all the fun stuff!

LiveSide was founded by Chris Overd, Harrison Hoffman, and Matthew Weyer, all former Windows Live MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals), and joined by Kip Kniskern shortly after launch. Along with current MVP Scott Lovegrove, Cornelia Koopmans, John Hsu, and contributions from our dev guys, the LiveSide team is well versed in all things Windows Live. In February of 2006, Microsoft Watch called LiveSide’s writers “sneaky geniuses”, and it became our unofficial motto. While we don’t always please Microsoft PR, LiveSide is considered, both inside Microsoft and beyond, to be the authority on Windows Live.

A note on advertising: LiveSide currently runs ads from the FM Network and from Google AdSense. They bring in enough to pay the bills, help to defray the costs of the conferences we attend, and save a bit for a rainy day. We don’t do this for the money, and never have. LiveSide is an enthusiasts’ blog, and not a business venture (oh good, we certainly couldn’t live off this!).

Our Manifesto

While no one’s perfect, we try to stick to a set of guidelines:

1. We blog for fun: we blog only because we enjoy sharing our knowledge with our readers.
2. We blog with an independent voice: there are enough official Windows Live blogs out there already, why read another one that has passed through Microsoft’s PR department?
3. We try to post first: sure it’s not always possible to have the best stories first, but we believe that constantly recycling news wastes your time as well as ours. Besides, being first is the fun part (see #1).
4. We do not break NDA: despite whatever impression you get from our posts. Ruffling some PR feathers, now that’s another story.
5. We won’t give release dates: but we’ll try to be as specific as possible. Dealing with web services means an update can be delayed very easily.
6. We will make mistakes: this is a fact of life. We make every effort to ensure our information is correct at the time of posting (see #3) but we don’t work for Microsoft.
7. We will blog anything and everything: including the super-secret project you are working on. That said, we take great care to make sure that anything we do post is in the public interest, and does not give Microsoft’s competitors an unfair advantage. It’s a hard balancing act.
8. We expect Softies to blog: especially if the existence of your pre-beta product is already known. If you don’t blog your product, expect us to do it for you. But if you do, we will try to actively support your team’s blog.

LiveSide is…

What We Use…