...and Wave provides the tools to guarantee the keys.
See article below
Visionary Ideas: Keys Are The Future
While many investors and venture capitalists talk platforms, invest millions in promising software startups, the truth may be that it's all for nothing.
The battle isn't software any more, it's access. Or what I call "keys."
The millions of lines of code that comprise Windows or even AOL's own platform are not needed.
The most important piece of code is you and your permissions, your "keys."
Keys in the log-in sense. Your e-mail address and a database that goes with it: purchases, Web trails and clicks from applications to Web sites.
That's the real battle of Microsoft versus AOL. Trying to change daily habits, introduce new ones and track them in real time.
You may have noticed Microsoft's Passport log-in gaining more steam. Suddenly your Hotmail account is one door into Passport. Or any other Microsoft log-in.
Meanwhile, AOL's been pushing the “Screen Name” concept on AOL and AOL.com.
Or Yahoo's log-in for its array of services. Ditto for Amazon as it moves to try to be a service for retailers rather than a retailer itself.
In effect, we believe they are trying to create “meta-accounts” that open up services and commerce streams.
In the way that e-mail created a universal "find me" inbox, these meta log-ins try to create an "I'm here" awareness that Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo (among the larger technology companies) seek to exploit.
The digital you.
When you tap into these megalopolis mazes the log-in makes you unique in ways that browsing does not.
The advantage in this battle may ultimately go to Microsoft, which with its many "front doors" (Word, Excel, Explorer, Outlook, Windows, Office, MSN) is able to enlist you in its log-in service at any number of entrances.
Every other line of code, every other Weblink, image, video, audio, product and service will be secondary to the log-in. The real battle in tech today is in getting all of us signed in -- which, with automatic sign in, becomes the gateway to all forms of commerce and communications in the future.
Keys. |
