Windows Live ID’s and Gamertags - What's going on, and what we're doing.

[SamuelRSmith]

Why can't they just have Windows Live IDs/Gamertags as the same thing? Just have "Live IDs".

The whole thing should just be rebranded so that "Windows Live Messenger" becomes "Live Messenger" and "Xbox Live" and "Games for Windows" becomes "Live *insert word like "games" here".

And have further cross-features, as well. You should be able to see people's achievements in Live Messenger, for example, and the Avatars platform should be incorporated into all Live services.

Live IDs should also be able to grant you access to non-Microsoft sites. Logging into Live should also be logging you into thousands of sites. Like, it it were to work with VGC, for example, if you received a PM from VGC whilst you were logged in to Live on another service (perhaps another website, or even another device like a Zune or 360), you would be able to read and respond to that PM on that device.

Using Xbox Live Silver and Gold would become "Live" and "LivePlus", but LivePlus also adds other features across the board like access to the premium content on Live Messenger, and greater storage space on Live Mail.

Windows 7 could also allow you to log into a LivePlus account if you're not on your own machine, and you'll could be able to access all of your files like in a cloud computing space.

The whole idea of Live could be so much more if Microsoft incorporates it further into its products.

/rant.