Microsoft To Challenge Flickr, Among Other Web Media Outfits, With New Service

Hey everybody, Microsoft’s putting together a Flickr competitor!

Yes, it’s true. Haven’t you heard? Shocking it is that the world has so far failed to take notice of this revelation. Much notice, anyway. As reported in CNET’s Webware publication – and not many news outlets elsewhere – Redmond has let known its intentions (via a job posting, no less) to make itself a much more viable competitor in the realm of online media; in particular, the segment of photography.

And video. Can’t forget video. That’s part of the plan, too. It’s gonna be something of an all-in-one hub for digital goodies. Sort of a Flickr-YouTube mishmash, if you will. Only cooler still. Sounds tasty, eh?

No, you’re right, it doesn’t sound all that impressive. And “cooler”? Come on, you’re saying, be real. You and I both know where I pulled that little buzzer from. Ain’t no way in heck Microsoft can churn out something both teens and twentysomethings - all clearly very much attached to their pocket-sized camera phones these days – will flock to. Willingly at least. (Despite the considerable inroads both Apple and the creators of Linux derivatives have made as of late in terms of carving greater shares of the market for themselves, Papas Gates and Ballmer have still got the vast majority of computing folk safely inside that oh-so-tight monopolistic bind of theirs. Hey, you know how it goes. Strong habits and unfair marking practices die hard.)

But anywho, getting back to Microsoft’s online media plans. Perhaps the reason for the lack of enthusiasm in the critical space is, well, simply that Microsoft doesn’t really capture the imagination where fun is concerned. (Apart from the Xbox, of course.) It’s a far reach to think the software giant as anything of an outstanding denizen of the media world.

Because it’s…not.

It’s not known for any award-winning still image or video editing solutions. It’s not known for any uber-popular Web services of similar ilk. Its strengths are in spreadsheets. And word processing. And presentations. (Although it must be said, the guys at Infinite Loop now have a leg up on Redmond in that respect, what with their super-slick Keynote application.) And lots of other boring suit-and-tie, nine-to-five businessy stuff.

And, heck, we can’t fault Microsoft for that. Look at the company’s revenue stream, for goodness sake. It’s king of the software space. That fact is simply indisputable. They don’t need to focus on fun stuff. (Again, the Xbox is a significant exception.)

Except that they do need to focus on fun stuff. Now, anyway. And looking forward. Because the Web’s a-changin’. Instead of being a haven for readers and IRC-channel-loving geeks, it’s now a place everyone goes. Like normal people. Mom and dad. Your paper-newspaper-reading uncle. Your farmboy stepbrother. The people that would normally be seen spending their evenings with TV dinners in front of – what else? – TVs. They’re going online. And they want to do stuff. Fun stuff. Like share photos long-distance with family members. Family members who themselves also recently picked up PCs and purchased broadband connections for themselves, to do – you guessed it! – fun stuff, too.

Microsoft is aware of this shift. And it likes that it’s happening very much. Because it means more sales of its OS and things. But it also could mean that it misses out big on the online media revolution.

Which just started, by the way. Sure, photo hosts have been around for a long while, and YouTube’s been serving up user-made video clips for years, but there’s still a great deal of growth waiting to happen in the Web media biz, for sure, and Microsoft would be a great big monopolizin’ fool to miss the boat on this lucrative trend.

So it’s trying not to. Whether it succeeds…is anyone’s guess, really. But it’s not going to sit on the sidelines. Too much moolah’s at stake. (Microsoft is mega-rich, but no deny it wouldn’t mind getting mega-richer. Besides, it’s in its blood to compete. I mean control. I mean compete!)

Of course, its likelihood of coming out a winner on the Web, in any particular way, is slim, considering that it is consistently “behind the times” and playing catch-up. And as I’m sure you’ll agree, Yahoo! (owner of Flickr) and Google (owner of YouTube) won’t play such poor strategy as to relinquish their respective holds on segments of the digital media market. So I think it’ll be quite interesting to see what Microsoft makes of itself in the coming months as far as cool and fun developments go.

What do you think Microsoft’s role in the realm of online media will be in 2008? Offer your comments below!