This is really cool: a new web-based engine for tracking product bugs and feedback for Microsoft products. It will eventually replace BetaPlace (and not a moment too soon IMHO). You and I can now report bugs, not to mention being able to find existing bugs and “vote” for them to raise their priority/visibility. This doesn’t have any direct impact on Exchange, yet, but it’s safe to bet that when Exchange Edge Services hits beta that this will be the feedback mechanism for it.
The really interesting part of this project (code-named “Ladybug”) is that bugs reported by users are automatically loaded into Microsoft’s internal product development bug tracking engine, where engineers can directly see them just like other bugs (e.g. those generated by internal tests, early adopter deployments, and so on). The sync isn’t two-way, so Ladybug users don’t get to see bugs filed by internal users. However, this brings Microsoft solidly ahead of a number of their competitors (including Apple’s lame RADAR database), and it should provide a welcome channel for feedback on product wishes and deficiencies. You can see a demo of the new product in action here, or you can just try it yourself.
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