Although I choose to welcome complexity in the detriment of straightforward solutions, the way Microsoft is handling the Live brand umbrella has failed to appeal to me. And in fact, Microsoft is close to saturating the levels of confusion generated by the way it is joggling with the Live brand and the products associated with it.

The latest news in this aspect, via LiveSide is related to the Windows Live Shopping and Windows Live Wifi. Both will no longer be... Live and will transition to MSN. These changes come in the wake of the rebranding of Windows Live Mail as Windows Live Hotmail, a measure associated by Microsoft with customer perception and feedback in relation to Hotmail and Live Mail.

The bottom line is that Live is an amalgam. A cocktail of services, applications and solutions that cover the desktop and the Internet. In this sense, the Wifi Suite, not a public download, will be rebranded under the MSN WiFi Center and the MSN WiFi Hotspots, although at the start of 2006 Microsoft's plans for WiFi were strictly related to Live.

Additionally, the Redmond Company will discontinue Windows Live Shopping that up until now was functioning in parallel with MSN Shopping. While Live Shopping will be shut down, online buyers will be redirected to MSN Shopping. According to Microsoft, Windows Live Shopping Beta - which never exited the beta stage - was designed as a technology showcase, and all the content will be available on MSN Shopping.

There is a point, not a thin line, more like something that has been pushed close to the absurd, when complexity becomes synonymous with a source for confusion. Welcome to the Microsoft Live Confusion!