This is number 1001 in the list of Windows Live Writer posts….so I won’t do a detailed review, you get that in the other 1000. Just a few thoughts:
Windows Live is all about the Web, isn’t it? So when I first saw the headline yesterday, I though Microsoft released an online editor, a’la Zoho Writer or Google’s Writely. That would have been news. But yet another offline blogging client? Unless it’s significantly better than the existing solutions … a big yawn. A few specific comments:
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“Windows Live changes the way you write your blog” says one of the reviews. Oh, really? Bloggers already have Ecto, Blogjet, Qumana, Zoundry, w.Bloggar … etc. Adding a me-too product does not change anything.
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It looks nice though. Setup was easy. Almost. It failed to download the standard template associated with my blog, so right away there goes the “WYSIWYG in your blog’s style” – about the only differentiator this thingie would have.
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It doesn’t do tags. I repeat: no Technorati (or other) tagging. Oh, perhaps that’s what they mean by “changing the way you blog”? Sorry, having tried Blogjet, Qumana, Zoundry ..etc I grew picky, and no longer accept half-solutions. Bloggers do tags. An editor without tagging is not a Blog Editor. It’s that simple.
Finally, why a separate product again? Has it occurred to anyone that blogging is NOT a separate activity from anything else: it’s all about writing content, that ends up published in a particular form. A large part of blogging is reading, notetakeing… see where I am heading? Microsoft already has a pretty good (albeit expensive) overall notetaker, OneNote. Why not just blog-enable OneNote and release it free? That would have been a pretty good move.
Of course that still leaves us with a few other Microsoft editors: Word and Wordpad. Here’s where this should be heading: 90% of Word users don’t need the sophisticated features, so let them have a decent, relatively simple editor/notetaker (Writer/Wordpad/OneNote combined) for free, while anyone else who needs fancy editing can buy Word.
Watch my word: the market is heading that direction, whether Microsoft recognizes it or not. And if they don’t, the folks behind Zoho Writer and Writely certainly do.
Other critical reviews in the sea of praise: Paul Kedrosky, Rick Segal(ex-MSFT), Jeff Nolan.
Update (8/14): The Tag4Writer and Flickr4Writer plug-ins by Tim make Writer a lot more useable 
Phil Wainewright at ZDNet also missed tagging; more importantly his conclusion is the same as mine: Writer may evolve into being the overall notetaker/editor. The second part of that conclusion is that the world as a whole does not need Word; it becomes the specialty editor for 10-15% of users at a premium price.
Update (8/16): With the Tag4Writer pluging Writer is now a decent solution and I am testing it. Rick Segal points out Writer leaves turd in your blog… and in your feed. This Technorati search currently finds 1654 instances of “turd”.
Windows Live Writer Review
Still in Beta, the new blogging tool from Microsoft, Windows Live Writer was released a couple days ago on their blog. Since they claim to have WordPress support, I thought I’d give it a try and let you know if it lives up to expectations.
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A lot of people share the similar comments. I was writing a post which is quite similar to yours and has opinions voiced by Rick Segal and Jeff Nolan as well. But I’ll withold that now, it isnt worth it writing the same content again. But I’ll say this:
Windows Live Writer does its job (except tagging) but it doesn’t give anything more that what other blog editors do. Windows Local Live Maps integration is one thing i haven’t seen many editors give.
However for people who don’t use tags (and there are tons of people who don’t use them) WLW is a good editor. It does what its supposed to really well and looks “pretty”. There are several editors which don’t really standout in terms of looks. So this maybe a key factor in the switch.
I love ecto, however it isn’t free for windows 🙁
Just as I was surfing techmeme I found this: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2006/08/13/13265.aspx
Tim has written a flickr and technorati plugin for WLW. Very useful now!
Yes, this will be great – when he releases it.
Hey Zoli, in reference to the comment about the Technorati tags, this is something that has already been addressed, using the SDK. A plugin has already been developed to insert Technorati tags into your posts and will be released shortly.
Windows Live Writer Tracing Bloggers?
Like I’ve said before, I’m (almost) eating my previous words, and recognize that Windows Live Writer is a pretty good tool. There are two more things I forgot to mention in the previous post: Writer still leaves turd in your blog….