But Microsoft promises it will be back soon enough

Oct 27, 2011 08:40 GMT  ·  By

Just a day after codename “Social Analytics” made its debut, the new Microsoft Cloud service hosted under SQL Azure Labs, the software giant took down the data related to Windows 8.

While still in experimental stage, the Microsoft Codename “Social Analytics” Lab enabled early adopters to explore social data via its browsing application.

Since the service is still in its early stages of development, the Redmond company supplied testers with just two topics for “Social Analytics” data: Windows 8 and Bill Gates.

I signed up to test drive codename “Social Analytics” yesterday, and promptly received an email from Microsoft, inviting me to browse real-time Social Analytics data.

“We recommend familiarizing yourself with Social Analytics data via our web-based Engagement Client, which shows a real-time stream of social media content about Windows 8,” the email revealed, and went on to detail just how I could access the Engagement Client, providing me with an invitation code.

Obviously, I was curious about exploring social data related to Windows 8, especially after the recent release of the Developer Preview, just as much as I wanted to see what Social Analytics was capable of.

But no such luck. Another email followed the initial message, informing me that the data was no longer available.

“Thank you for signing up for Microsoft Codename “Social Analytics”. Due to high demand, we are taking the Windows 8 “Social Analytics” data offline temporarily for maintenance,” the software giant said.

In the meantime, if you’d like access to the Bill Gates “Social Analytics” data, please reply to this email and we will send you an invitation code. We appreciate your interest in “Social Analytics” and will send you e-mail as soon as the Windows 8 “Social Analytics” data is back online.”

I for one am going to wait for the Windows 8 “Social Analytics” data to be back online, because why would anyone want Bill Gates data, unless he said something about Steve Jobs, right?