TV recommendations gadget

This article points out some interesting information about some new interfunctionality between live and Vista.  The first thing that I thought was useful that was mentioned, was the ability to drag gadgets off of live.com and place them onto your Vista desktop.  Reminds me to some degree of embedding a website into your desktop  (active desktop style) but I'd expect the Vista implementation to be much more robust.

There is another mention of a gadget that will recommend TV shows.  The potential here with Windows Media Center integration is where the discussed features get really interesting.  Imagine being able to watch a few shows, rate them, and then get a suggestion of 10 more shows you like.  Or, imagine ratining a few shows, then being able to tell your MCE "just record me the highest rated shows like this" and you will then get a nice catalog of shows that are catered to your tastes, delivered to your desktop while you're away.  Then, if you have a portable media center, you will be able to synchronize, and then pick and choose from the shows you liked while you commute (if you are a bus rider like me).

I've heard a lot of speculation (externally to Microsoft) that Vista will not deliver enough exciting features to entice all users to upgrade.  The closer we get to the release, the more I feel that there will be compelling features and improvements that justify the upgrade to Vista.  We'll have to see how things change with the next few CTP.

Anyways, lots of cool things happening with live.com (and start.com).  Read the article for more juicy tidbits on a few of Microsoft's "next big things".