Tuesday, November 17, 2009 4:57 PM/CST
New data from research company ComScore suggests that Bing's share of the online search market held steady in October, reinforcing similar data from Experian Hitwise. Meanwhile, Yahoo's market share degraded despite a massive ad campaign, leading one to wonder: Despite this summer's Microsoft-Yahoo deal over online search and advertising, does Microsoft really need Yahoo in order to present a viable alternative to Google?
Friday, November 13, 2009 4:37 PM/CST
Microsoft announced at the Monaco Media Forum in Monte Carlo that it would roll out branded desktop wallpapers and gadgets in conjunction with media partners ranging from Coca-Cola to Twentieth Century Fox. Although advertising is ubiquitous in modern society, PC users' perceptions of their devices as intensely personal objects may impede certain advertisers from occupying massive amounts of user-interface real estate.
Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:50 AM/CST
A Microsoft employee said in an interview with a British publication that the designers of Windows 7 drew inspiration from Apple's Mac OS X, throwing Microsoft into damage-control mode. In addition to dismissing the employee's comments as "inaccurate," Microsoft took pains in a blog post to insist that Windows 7 was wholly a product of Redmond's internal design processes.
Monday, November 09, 2009 12:27 PM/CST
Microsoft continued the "New Efficiency" theme, originally voiced by CEO Steve Ballmer, during the company's TechEd Europe conference. During the keynote address, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop suggested that Exchange Server 2010 would help businesses improve efficiency and increase productivity on the way to fueling growth. Microsoft also displayed a few whimsical videos during the conference that proved, well, rather eccentric.
Friday, November 06, 2009 4:57 PM/CST
Microsoft's much-rumored Courier tablet, slides and video of which leaked online this week, suggests that Redmond could be preparing a robust competitor in the tablet PC market. Scuttlebutt suggests that the Courier will run on Windows 7 and Microsoft-engineered hardware. Microsoft could potentially intend the Courier as a competitor to Apple's own (alleged) Tablet PC, which some analysts have predicted will roll out sometime in 2010.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:12 PM/CST
Microsoft executive Eric Ligman responded in a new Microsoft SMB Community Blog posting to criticism from the Windows community, after he suggested last week that using Windows 7 upgrade discs to install a full version of the operating system on a blank hard drive was ultimately an illegal "hack." Ligman's new missive suggests some commenters to the original post were making pre-determined conclusions about some of his words.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:04 PM/CST
Microsoft expanded its retail foray with the Oct. 29 opening of its store in Mission Viejo, Calif., in a mall that also contains an Apple Store. Despite the massive crowds that attended the opening, time will tell whether Microsoft's strategy of aggressively challenging Apple in the retail space will succeed.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 5:14 PM/CST
Microsoft's Technical Preview of Office Web Apps allows Windows Live subscribers to test out browser-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. While Word documents can only be viewed and downloaded, users can perform online edits to Excel and PowerPoint documents ... but only if those uploaded documents have certain file extensions.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 2:26 PM/CST
Microsoft has expanded the technical preview of its Office Web Apps, which allows Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents to be viewed and sometimes edited via the browser. However, users of older Office platforms may find some issues with the Excel Web App, which doesn't seem to allow certain Excel formats to be edited.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:20 AM/CST
Microsoft decided to pull out of sponsoring a Seth MacFarlane program that would have married "Family Guy"-style humor with Windows 7 branding, over concerns that jokes about deaf people and other topics would be too edgy for their intended audience. However, Microsoft will likely continue its branding relationship with Fox. MacFarlane, meanwhile, is looking for a new sponsor.
