Time Warner has chosen Google as the most suitable partner for its America Online Internet unit--but the game isn't over for jilted suitor Microsoft.
The Redmond, Wash., software giant plans to leverage its desktop market dominance to compete with Google on search and advertising, analysts said Wednesday.
After spending much of this year wooing AOL in an attempt to get its search business, Microsoft lost out to Google. Google and AOL announced Tuesday that Google will invest $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in AOL under a broad partnership that expands their existing search engine deal to include collaboration on advertising, instant messaging and video.
To successfully compete with Web 2.0 rivals, Microsoft must develop an ecosystem of partners that uses its Web-based Windows Live services to develop and market new applications, according to a new report by Summit Strategies Inc.
The report, published earlier this month and written by Summit President and Chief Research Officer Tom Kucharvy, posits that Microsoft must turn Windows Live into a Web-based platform that allows third parties to develop, build and sell applications, much like it did with the Windows operating system on the desktop.
Still wondering what to get that Microsoft enthusiast for the holidays? Microsoft's Windows Live team has an idea -- an invitation to a limited beta of Microsoft's next-generation instant-message client, Windows Live Messenger.
Microsoft is auctioning off invitations to the private beta release of the forthcoming client on eBay Inc.'s auction site, according to a posting on the Windows Live team's blog.
"Xbox 360 is not the only thing in short supply this holiday season," according to a posting on the Windows Live blog.
Microsoft released to testers Monday a build for both the Windows Vista client and for the Longhorn Server.
Both the Longhorn Server and Vista client build number is 5270, testers said. Microsoft made the bits for both Windows builds available simultaneously for testers to download from the Microsoft Connect tester Web site.
According to the ActiveWin.com Web site, Microsoft is making a number of different Windows SKUs available as part of the December drop.
Testers can download the Windows Vista client x86 and x64 builds; Windows Longhorn Server x86 and x64 builds; and the Windows Longhorn Server Code x86 and x64.
Though losing the high-profile America Online Inc. deal to Google Inc. is a major blow to Microsoft, the software company could still benefit from the union because customers may see it as a case of Google playing favorites, analysts said Tuesday.
Giving AOL expanded rights to banner advertising on Google could help Microsoft win more advertising business for its search service because it could rub existing Google customers the wrong way, they said.
Microsoft has created a Web services software package to make it easier for financial advisers to access customers' information.
Microsoft Advisor Platform lets investment planners and wealth managers use a service-oriented architecture to integrate back-office proprietary software systems and render the information through one portal.
The package is part of Microsoft's goal to improve the way financial advisers serve their customers, as the portfolios of wealth-management clients become increasingly sophisticated, the Redmond, Wash., company said in a statement.
Microsoft released its third community technology preview of Windows Vista on Monday, saying a feature-complete version would be available early next year.
The release was sent to the roster of Vista beta testers in the morning and was expected to be available on the Microsoft Developers Network and TechNet sites later today. CTPs are designed for use by the technical community, to help developers understand how their applications might be affected by changes and also to garner product feedback. About 500,000 people are eligible for the download.
Macedonia and Microsoft announced Monday several e-government Web sites have opened as part of a two-year-old partnership agreement to enhance IT in the Eastern European country.
One portal allows users to search for government information and services, and a second one helps small and medium-size businesses start e-commerce Web sites. The third site is an intranet portal for government officials to keep track of decisions at government sessions and queries between ministries and parliament, the government and Microsoft said.
TextWhale Communications said on Monday that it is partnering with Microsoft to combine Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration Server with Whale's Intelligent Application Gateway.
The deal, which is the first of its kind for Microsoft, will combine Whale's SSL VPN technology with Microsoft's IP Sec VPN, and put the ISA technology on a secure hardware appliance, according to interviews with executives from both companies.
Adding ISA Server to the Whale platform also makes it easier to integrate the appliance with Microsoft's Active Directory user directory and Exchange e-mail server, Schmidt said.
Time magazine has named Bill and Melinda Gates and rock star Bono its "Persons of the Year," citing their charitable work and activism aimed at reducing global poverty and improving world health.
The magazine said 2005 was a year of extraordinary charity in which people donated record amounts in response to extreme natural disasters, from the tsunami in South Asia to Hurricane Katrina.
"Natural disasters are terrible things, but there is a different kind of ongoing calamity in poverty and nobody is doing a better job in addressing it in different ways than Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono," said Jim Kelly, Time's managing editor.