i am not a techie… but I am reasonably competent at using technology. But long ago, I learnt to apply the “David Baker Test“.   I was working in-house doing marketing and was trying to get 14 operational departments to write a chapter of the business plan – in the same format.  Not as easy as it sounds.

David Baker was my acid test.  He was a fantastic deal-maker but didn’t really do paperwork much.  If I could get him to understand what I was seeking, and he delivered it, I had succeeded.  He represented the lowest common denominator.

Doc Searles’ blog post on Microsoft’s Live.com maps feature, fails to pass the David Baker Test…. in a major way.  He explains it here

It’s amazing to me that Microsoft doesn’t make live.com search any easier. Take the maps side of live.com. It beats the crap out of Google Maps in at least one hugely helpful area: “bird’s eye” views — from four different directions……Maps, and Geo in General, is one place where Microsoft could open up and leapfrog Google in features and usability. Hey, why not?

And here’s the killer…

[Later…] I’m looking for a way to show the birds-eye view to another person here at the Berkman Center, and I’m failing to find it. So are they. And they’re using a Windows workstation, even. So we’ve got maps.live.com flunking not just the Obviouness Test, but the Easiness Test too.

And the David Baker Test too, clearly!