I was listening to a podcast this morning and these guys were talking about some Microsoft services under the label Windows Live.

It was a bit confusing and that was admitted by one of the presenters who is a bit of a Microsoft watcher. Thought I’d do a bit of research into this Windows Live stuff and I found that there are 48 of these snappily titled Windows Live services. For instance there is Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail Mobile and Windows Live Mail. Then there is Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live OneCare Family Safety and Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner. Who names this stuff?

In addition to the 48 services there are also 5 more for mobile services and 2 for developers. And just in case I haven’t got you mashed yet there is also a branch called Microsoft Live services. An example of one of these services is Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth. Another one of these Microsoft Live variants is called Windows Live Photozoom.

So you have a branch of the Live services called Microsoft Live then the service name, so as to distinguish them from the Windows Live services. To ensure that there is some confusion you call one of these Windows Live Photozoom. Go figure.

There are also a couple of other beasts called Windows Live 2.0 and Windows Live Butterfly (Well they couldn’t call it Windows Dead Butterfly, could they? Ed). Has this company got too much money or is nobody in charge?