European Union regulators accepted Microsoft's pledge to give European consumers better access to rival Internet browser in Windows, ending a long antitrust dispute with the U.S. software maker.
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said millions of European consumers would benefit from being able to choose their browser and the decision would encourage web companies to innovate.
Microsoft will allow users to select from among 12 browsers including its own Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome on more than 100 million old and new PCs from mid-March.
Microsoft's six-month old search engine Bing has been performing admirably, says market research firm comScore, and it grew to a 10.3% share of the search market in November.
During the month of November, core US search volume grew by 17.8%, but only Google's and Microsoft's sites increased in share. Yahoo, Ask, and AOL, on the other hand, all declined.
Even though it has a strong marketing push behind it, Bing is helped significantly by its placement as the default search engine in the toolbars of new computers. TMT Analyst pointed out earlier this month that Microsoft's distribution deals with OEMs Dell, HP, and Lenovo significantly increase Bing's exposure, constituting around 50% of the consumer PC market.
Few can argue that the success of the iPhone hasn't had a sweeping impact on the mobile landscape. After all, how many devices out today now offer downloadable applications, touchscreens and app stores? As the power behind Windows Mobile, Microsoft has been in Apple's crosshairs since the iPhone debuted. But at long last, one company executive says Redmond will have its chance to "redress the balance." Codeguru takes a look at his comments.
A Microsoft executive reportedly told a U.K. audience that the next major revision of the company's smartphone software, Windows Mobile 7, will be out this time next year.
It's no secret that Windows Mobile has hit a rough patch as the iPhone and Android-based smartphones have take center stage. Recent statistics from AdMob shows that Windows Mobile market share of Web surfing was way down during the past 12 months--more than 70 percent year over year.
Any number of people postulate that Windows Mobile will be dead, some say as soon as 2011, unless Microsoft figures out a way to not only make the operating system better but to convince users that they should care.
Microsoft said on Monday afternoon that it's investigating allegations that a recently launched microblogging site in China lifts the code and interface of a start-up's rival service.
"Microsoft takes intellectual property seriously, and we are currently investigating these allegations," company spokesman Mark Murray said in a statement. "It may take some time due to the time zone differences with Beijing."
Earlier on Monday, Canada's Plurk went public with charges that Microsoft's Juku service "rips off" the look and feel of its microblogging service and also appears to use more than 80 percent of the same code, all without permission.
New search engine numbers from research company ComScore, as reported by eWEEK earlier this morning, suggest that things are on the rise for Microsoft, showing Bing holding 9.9 percent of the market in October, Google continuing its dominance with 65.4 percent and Yahoo seeing its share dip slightly to 18 percent.
Combine that with new data from Experian Hitwise for October, showing Bing at 9.57 percent of the market, and I think we have enough data points to suggest that Microsoft is doing something right. Certainly it must boost the egos of the Bing team, who had to face widespread predictions of their search engine's demise even before its June launch.
Microsoft is usually thought of as the Windows and Office software company, but it has many vertical businesses as well that don't get as much spotlight, but none the less quite a bit of effort from the software giant. Medical support software is one of them. The company has acquired several firms in that space and works with some of the largest health care firms in the world. Today it added another tool to its medical software toolbox.
Microsoft said Wednesday it will buy private health-care software firm Sentillion and integrate it with its Amalga line of health management software.
Microsoft raised eyebrows last month when it released a Windows 7 download tool that included improperly licensed open source code. But now, the software giant is making amends. CodeGuru has the story.
After first pulling a Windows 7 download tool that inadvertently contained improperly licensed open-source code from its online store a few weeks ago, Microsoft said Thursday it has fixed the problem.
The so-called Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool is back online and is now duly licensed under conditions required by the open source license.
In a move aimed at supporting future large memory capacity flash devices, Microsoft has started licensing its follow-up to the FAT file system to third parties, the company said Thursday.
Dubbed "exFAT" for "Extended File Allocation Table," the technology is designed to enable flash memory devices to handle orders of magnitude more memory than the previous file system, known as simply FAT. Microsoft also has a file system used by Windows called NTFS but that is reserved for hard disks.
"The old file systems are not up to standards," David Kaefer, general manager of intellectual property licensing at Microsoft, told InternetNews.com. "What we've seen is a change in what consumers need," he added.
Microsoft quietly announced Friday that it has purchased privately-held Opalis Software and will integrate its IT process automation products into the Microsoft System Center management suite.
Rumors have been circulating for several weeks that Opalis has been in Microsoft's sights.
Under the terms of the deal, Toronto-based Opalis will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft, according to a statement. The rest of the deal's particulars were not be disclosed.