Microsoft and Yahoo appear to have cleared one hurdle in getting their search outsourcing deal approved, according to a report.
The European Commission plans to approve the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo to install Microsoft as the exclusive provider of search technology on Yahoo's network of sites, according to Reuters. It's not that surprising, since Microsoft and Yahoo's combined share on a global basis is minuscule, but is still an important formality for the deal.
Microsoft declined to comment on the report. A representative from Yahoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Speculation is mounting that Microsoft will show off the Windows Mobile 7 operating system at a wireless industry conference in Barcelona next week. Customers have waited through a series of delays and setbacks, but if those predictions turn out to be true, it could help to generate some renewed excitement over the waning mobile platform.
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The Windows Mobile 7 platform is rumored to have an interface based in large part on the Zune HD which has received a fair amount of praise. There are also rumors that Microsoft is forking its business mobile platform and its consumer offering with the addition of a platform based more on social networking and aimed at a teen audience.
Microsoft has a major investment in its Live strategy, with a lot of time, money and resources going into multiple projects. One of those is Live Messenger, its instant messaging client that competes with AIM and a host of other IM clients. It's doing pretty well, Instant Messaging Planet reports.
Microsoft said this week that its Live Messenger instant messaging client has now reached some 300 million users.
However, in perhaps what's just as significant an announcement, Microsoft said those users are spread out among 76 nations and 48 languages worldwide.
Microsoft said on Thursday that it is planning an update to Windows 7 that will close a number of loopholes that counterfeiters had used to thwart the operating system's built-in antipiracy measures.
The Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7, which will be released later this month, closes more than 70 "activation hacks," according to Joe Williams, general manager of Microsoft's Genuine Windows unit, responsible for anti-counterfeiting measures. The update will also check with a server periodically to see if there are further hacks that need to be addressed, though Williams said no personally identifiable information about the user will be sent to the server.
Google isn't exactly shaking in its boots just yet, but Microsoft's Bing search engine is definitely gaining share, according to Web analytics firm comScore. Datamation takes a gander at the latest market share figures and explains what Microsoft's surgeand Yahoo's continued descentmeans for the search market going forward.
Microsoft's Bing search engine picked up more steam in January, but can the company keep it up?
According to Web analytics firm comScore, Microsoft's Bing broke through to 11 percent of U.S. searches last month.
Microsoft updated me on the whole Zune price-reduction news from yesterday. Just to recap: The Zune HD 16GB and Zune HD 32GB were both $20 off on the online Microsoft store, with the devices also receiving stiff discounts on other retailer sites such as Amazon.com. There was debate online about whether the discounts were a totally innocuous occurrence, or if it was a deliberate price reduction ahead of a tech refresh.
"The current prices for Zune HD on ZuneOriginals.net are available for a limited time," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote. "It also appears that some online retailers are offering additional promotions and price cuts on Zune HD devices. We have not lowered the ESRP for Zune HD."
On Monday, a US District Court in Seattle dismissed with prejudice a class action case originally brought by Los Angeles native Brian Johnson in the summer of 2006. Johnson's claim at the time was that, when Windows XP used Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) feature to validate his rights to use a newly purchased XP, Microsoft not only employed software not covered by the end-user license agreement, but used it to transmit his personal information to Microsoft against his wishes.
His allegation was that XP violated California's and Washington state's statutes regarding spyware -- separate software that transmits personally identifiable data back to a source.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is widely expected to personally unveil more of the company's Windows Phone plans, including at peek at Windows Phone 7, at the opening of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Monday.
According to a media alert on Microsoft's Web site, Ballmer will "discuss Windows phones."
The news marks the latest in what's become a closely watched waiting game, as industry watchers anticipate what's ahead in Microsoft's efforts to safeguard its position in mobile and better compete with Google Android, the Apple iPhone, and other rivals.
I suspect we've broached the topic of Microsoft innovation in Windows IT Pro UPDATE more than once in the past. But with some interesting recent revelations about how dysfunctional Microsoft can be internally, timed not coincidentally with the release of an Apple tablet device, the topic has a new urgency. Has Microsoft simply grown too big to lead the tech industry into the future as it has for so many years? Or can truly innovative ideas still spring from the software giant's convoluted and overly deep corporate hierarchy?
Windows 7 is great, and the reviews are off the charts. But let's be serious: It could never have happened without Vista first, and the guys responsible for that underrated product have been systematically driven out of the company.
Microsoft hopes to vamp up its HealthVault and other health services by making it easier for users to do everything from track their caloric intake to count their steps using their cell phones, according to researchers at a Microsoft forum on health care technology in Beijing.
Microsoft researchers are also busy investigating the potential of Xbox 360 units--which are cheaper than similar hospital equipment yet often just as powerful--to feed and filter information from electronic medical records onto in-room display screens for patients and caregivers, according to Desney Tan, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research, who spoke during the forum.