More clues on Microsoft's Live Mesh product

Microsoft is planning to detail a new product under development called Live Mesh, which appears to be a way to manage user data in the "cloud" across multiple devices.

Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet spotted the talk, entitled Get Mesh!, which will be put on by Microsoft's Live Mesh general manager Amit Mital at the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco later this month.

Foley said the first beta of the product is due later in April and that it will act as a way to synchronize files across a network, or mesh, of devices:

Right now, the best way to understand where Microsoft is going with mesh is via what it's doing with Windows Live FolderShare. FolderShare, which is based on technology Microsoft acquired when it bought FolderShare from ByteTaxi in 2005, is designed to allow users to keep their files in sync across their computers, share folders with associates and access files from any computer (or, ultimately, device).

We know creating an application platform to manage the "mesh" of devices is one of projects that Microsoft is working on. At the Mix '08 conference in March, chief software architect Ray Ozzie said:

Just imagine the possibilities of unified application management across the device mesh, centralized, Web-based deployment of device-based applications. Imagine an app platform that's cognizant of all of your devices. Now, as it so happens, we've had a team at Microsoft working on this specific scenario for some time, starting with the PC and focused on the question of how we might make life so much easier for individuals if we just brought together all your PCs into a seamless mesh, for users, for developers, using the Web as a hub.

The folks at LiveSide.Net spoke to George Moore, General Manager of Windows Live Platform Service, at Mix to get their take on what Live Mesh is all about.

Utilizing elements of AtomPub, Feedsync, the Microsoft Sync Framework, and SSDS, Live Mesh will sync information across computers and devices, and store information in the cloud, accessible from the Web. It will resolve conflicts with collaborative syncing, and allow for inviting others to collaborate on mesh folders stored in the cloud. A client installed on local devices will produce "Live Mesh folders," wrapping them in a way that they can be easily synchronized. Live Mesh will allow remote access to devices in "the mesh," not only allowing for access to files and folders, but applications as well.