You say SkyDrive, I say LiveDrive

Windows Live branding has been nothing to write home about. It turns out even the Live codenames have been a source of confusion.

Case in point: Windows Live Folder Share and Windows Live Folders (the service which may or may not ultimatly be branded as Windows Live SkyDrive).

Microsoft execs -- including Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie himself -- led folks astray a while back by using the LiveDrive codename to refer to a "cloud storage service." In fact, that service was code-named SkyDrive.

However, LiveDrive is still an active Microsoft codename, as the LiveSide.net guys verified this week. My bet? LiveDrive is the codename for Folder Share, the client-side component of Microsoft's shared-folder service.)

Maybe all this will become clearer when Microsoft takes the wraps off Windows Live Version 2 this fall. And maybe we'll get to see that nifty new Live.com page, which seems ready to morph into a full-fledged Live services portal ....

Update on August 9: More on SkyDrive vs. LiveDrive. And what do you know: There's the new Live.com home page!