Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

The difference between Google and Microsoft is simple. Google does things. Microsoft just talks about doing things.

There is endless chatter from the various corners of Microsoft about how well they are progressing on every little thing, which generally consists of copying something that somebody has already done and telling us how much better it is.

The latest item is Microsoft QnA, a question and answer service just like those already provided by Yahoo! and Google:

As you may have heard, we have been working away on a question and answer service for Windows Live Search. Yesterday a few pages for the beta signup were posted by accident so we decided to get the word out formally and open up the beta invite page at http://ideas.live.com today. You can get a lot more detail on the QnA team blog at http://spaces.msn.com/liveqna, but here is a quick summary of why we're so excited about this service.

This new Windows Live Search offering will help consumers simply find what they need, from a large community of helpful and knowledgeable people. This allows consumers to tap into the power of the online community by facilitating a melting pot of human knowledge that isn't easily accessible or available on the Internet today

Frankly I'm not excited because services like this already exist. But I am amazed at the noise generated when Microsoft tells us about something that might be done sometime that will obviously be better than anything that already exists.

Stop talking about it and just do it already.