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Microsoft offers worldwide support for Silverlight

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silverlight.pngMicrosoft Corp. announced significant momentum for Microsoft Silverlight resulting from new customers adopting Silverlight to deliver richer, more interactive media experiences on the web. Building on recent support from major content providers such as AOL and NBCOlympics.com on MSN, Microsoft announced new adoption of Silverlight by media and content companies worldwide, including Madison Square Garden (MSG) Interactive, Tencent, Abertis Telecom, Terra Networks Operations, SBSi, MNet and Yahoo! Japan.

With an average of 1.5 million daily downloads of the Silverlight plug-in, and growing, adoption of Silverlight around the world continues to accelerate momentum for compelling online media experiences for consumers. Media companies in particular – with an increasing emphasis on utilizing the Internet as a channel for content and new revenue streams – are taking the lead in delivering innovative new web experiences.

Originally posted on April 15, 2008 @ 2:38 pm

iStockphoto extends program of free images with Microsoft Office Online User Community

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iStockphoto will extend a year-old program that makes a collection of low-resolution images and illustrations available free of additional charge to Microsoft Office users through Microsoft Office Online. Based on the initial success of the program, iStockphoto will significantly increase the number of free images to the collection. In addition, the companies are looking to expand the program to new languages and countries in the coming year.

Microsoft Office Online offers how-to articles, tips, training courses, templates, clip art and media, downloads and other productivity-enhancing tools for all Microsoft Office programs. Users can access the clip art directly from office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/ or by navigating to the site from within Microsoft Office software. There they will find a diverse collection of images from iStockphoto and a number of other sources that can be searched and downloaded at no cost. With just a few clicks of the mouse, users can add punch and professionalism to documents and presentations.

Originally posted on March 17, 2008 @ 9:12 am

Google CEO claims Microhoo deal a big threat to the Internet world

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erich-schmidt.gifWell, what exactly do you think Google CEO Eric Schmidt will say when asked about Microsoft – Yahoo deal? A match made in heaven? No way! Of course he will paint a really gloomy picture craftily hidden in powerful words and compelling statistics.

Here’s an example quoted by Conde Nast Portfolio and posted at AHN.

“It’s an unstable condition. But the theoretical issue is the concentration of Microsoft’s resources and its history, combined with the very large share that it would have in certain applications – like instant messaging and email – that could be used essentially to break the internet and diminish choice.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the real reason why Google is helping Yahoo! It’s not for profit or any vested interests. I know it’s hard to believe but yes it’s really hard to believe! Microhoo deal is a big threat to Google, maybe not in search but in the mobile Internet. So, it’s very likely Google will do anything in its capacity to thwart that deal.

Originally posted on March 17, 2008 @ 11:23 am

Microsoft to acquire Rapt

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Microsoft Corp. is planning to acquire Rapt Inc., provider of advertising yield management solutions for digital media publishers. Rapt’s technology, along with its information and advisory services offerings, will become key components of the Atlas Publisher Suite, part of Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group. With the inclusion of Rapt, the Atlas Publisher Suite allows Microsoft to provide its customers with integrated asset and inventory management, forecasting, yield and sales management, and ad delivery and operations.

A key product that will emerge from the marriage of Rapt’s planning capabilities and Atlas’ campaign management capabilities is an integrated publisher sales workflow solution. This solution will improve upon the existing industry offerings for publishers’ sales teams when used with Rapt’s existing pricing analytics, inventory management and business intelligence products on top of Atlas’ ad serving platform.

Originally posted on March 14, 2008 @ 8:20 am

Internet Explorer 8 simply a minor upgrade

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internet-expolorer-8.gifWhen it comes to Web browsers, Microsoft is making some significant changes with the launch of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 yesterday. Unlike the previous versions, this one is intended for web designers and web developers to help ready their sites for the full version release.

After the early birds flocked and tried this beta version, the initial feedback is a bit disappointing. Yes, there are interesting new features like this WebSlices which enables users to subscribe to content directly within a webpage. But overall, these are all just minor upgrades to available features.

Much of the hype is on its improved compliance with Web standards, exactly what Microsoft desperately needs to win back the trust of the EU commission. Then again, this is already a standard feature in other browsers like Firefox.

Download Squad also pointed out not yet compatible with IE7 add-ons like Skype, Yahoo and Google toolbars because it is still in beta version.

Don’t worry there’ still time to make some adjustments and maybe develop relevant features many users dream about but not yet available on any browser. This is the only way Microsoft can regain its lost users.

Via PC World

Originally posted on March 6, 2008 @ 7:51 am