As if the world needed another Facebook, Microsoft has announced the next generation of Windows Live, which integrates almost every social media service you can think of and its dog in an orgy of APIs all just getting along. The notable exceptions are MySpace and, yes, Facebook.

Kara Swisher at All Things Digital coins a new verb: “You might call its the ‘Facebooking’ of Windows Live, which the brand name for Microsoft’s communications and other related online services aimed at consumers, especially because the much-anticipated changes also includes a new profile and a ‘What’s New’ feed. So, if imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg should feel beloved by Microsoft, since both are direct borrows of two of the social networking site’s most prominent features.”

Reviewing the array of social media tools now at Windows Live users’ fingertips, even Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is a teensy bit envious: “The result is an impressive personal productivity suite that makes me almost wish I wasn’t solely a Mac user.”

Anthony Ha at VentureBeat wonders if Windows Live will become the Vista of social networks, saying: “I’m skeptical that Windows Live can get serious play as a social network against MySpace and Facebook this late in the game. Sure, all the new features are nice, and linking the Live services together makes for a more compelling social network than Windows Live Spaces alone. (I’d barely even heard of Spaces before this, and I don’t know anyone who uses it.) But I don’t see anything here to make anyone switch over from the big existing networks, or to tempt them to add yet another social network account — isn’t that the problem Microsoft is supposed to be addressing? And given Microsoft’s strategic investment in Facebook last year, I’m not sure if it wants to taking Facebook on directly.”

Commenting on the product positioning issues this resolves, Rafat Ali at paidContent says: “Meanwhile, I am still confused among Live.com, Home.live.com, WindowsLive.com, Windows Live Spaces, MSN Web Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, MSN Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail, etc etc. Maybe I am missing something…oh wait, all of them are now one giant social network…that’s easy. I get it.”

Who’s first in line for the Facebook phone?
Staying with Facebook, one of today’s top stories is that of the INQ1, the device which the UK mobile network 3 is launching as a social networking tool that also happens to make phone calls.

Stan Schroeder at Mashable asks: “Is this a revolutionary device? No. It’s pure marketing: the iPhone can probably do everything INQ1 can and possibly more. But it shows that social networking has become the buzzword in marketing circles and that we can expect practically every device connected to the net from now on to be touted as “social networking enabled”. Good news for Facebook, MySpace, and the rest; bad news for everyone who didn’t anticipate how big social networking will one day become.”

Google publishes SEO starter guide
Google has gained some notoriety for its tight-lipped approach to search engine optimisation, leaving developers, designers and latter-day SEO professionals to figure out best practise for boosting one’s Google juice through the science of trial and error.

So it’s quite surprising to see Brandon Falls of Google’s Search Quality Team posting about the search behemoth’s SEO Starter Guide, a 22-page PDF that Falls says: “… covers around a dozen common areas that webmasters might consider optimizing. We felt that these areas (like improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more) would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of all sizes and types.”

Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer remarks: “When Google’s (GOOG) stock dips below $300, we guess anything’s possible. Like an official Google SEO primer. (Full of basic stuff most Webmasters probably already knew, but helpful nonetheless.) … Coming soon: Apple PR’s (AAPL) official guide to leaking product rumors.”