2 weeks Ago By Simon Sharwood
If you've lost track of what Microsoft's calling its AI assistant this week, Microsoft MVP Loryan Strant has created just the resource you need: a site called Let me correct that for you ! The site was born out of his frustration at seeing members of the Microsoft community write product names incorrectly. Often. Microsoft famously rebrands stuff at quite a clip and isn't always consistent.
In the case of Copilot, it started life as "Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365" before it was rebranded as "Microsoft 365 Copilot." Neither should be confused with the consumer version of Copilot, named "Microsoft Copilot." Norr with "Bing Chat" – another name used for what became Copilot.
Whatever it's called, Strant laments the fact some assume the name uses CamelCase – as is the case with other Microsoft products that have a P in the middle, like "SharePoint" and "PowerPoint." Or certain P-less names like OneDrive, OneNote, and PowerShell. Speaking of SharePoint, his site points out that in the context of that product Microsoft defines a "team" as a type of site template.
Which creates confusion when those who aren't across SharePoint's vagaries say something like "It's in the team site" and the listener assumes that's a reference to Microsoft Teams – users of which often refer to spaces with their workmates as a "team site." The confusion can go the other way, too: someone might say "It's in the Team site" and the speaker assumes the listener assumes it's a reference to Microsoft SharePoint, and not Teams. "Entra ID" also earned an entry, largely on account of the fact it's only a year since Microsoft dumped the name "Azure AD" to distinguish it from Active Directory as deployed alongside Windows Server.
Microsoft had no problem with the similar name for a decade or more before making the change – just as Azure AD was getting a bad rep for security problems. Strant sees the old name still in use, as well as mistakes such as "Entraid" or "EntraId." He's also touched on terms like "on-premise," which he thinks is based on a false premise.
"Premise" means a conclusion or supporting argument, and "premises" refers to a piece of land. If you want your hardware "on premise," he suggests you move it "On-Premises." Strant told us he created the site to help others create quality, error-free content.
Also because he finds content that contains errors irritating, and as a neurodiverse person knows others share his reaction. He also just thinks it's hard to keep up with Microsoft's many changes. The Register put it to him that Microsoft needs a brand consistency czar.
Strant thinks that's a fine idea. Indeed, he's already created a GitHub repo that tracks typos and incorrect logos found in Microsoft 365 services. The site is also a product of the fact that Strant's had some time on his hands between jobs, and used that period to create another site – m365roadmap.
com/ – that offers lovely visualizations and ways to search Microsoft's plans for its signature SaaS. ®.
