In a long-awaited pairing aimed at taking on Google, Yahoo will handle ad sales while Microsoft gets the real prize: data on who’s doing what online

Ever since Microsoft (MSFT) made its $45 billion bid for Yahoo (YHOO) in early 2008, it was clear the software giant was serious about taking on arch-rival Google (GOOG) in the lucrative Internet search business. And now, after years of talks with Yahoo, it seems Microsoft has achieved its goal. In a 10-year deal announced in the early hours of July 29, …

Just six years ago, the web was dominated by one browser: Internet Explorer, specifically Internet Explorer 6. Without Netscape to compete against it and the ability to bundle its browser with Windows XP, Microsoft experienced superior market share – up to 95% at the peak. Today though, we have far superior browsers like Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome, as well as Internet Explorer 8.
So why is 15 to 25 percent of the world’s browsing still done in a browser created in the digital Stone Age (aka 2001)? As a …

In what appears to be a last-minute effort to play catch-up, Microsoft and Verizon have put out a call for developers to code for their mobile platforms.
Verizon is planning a July 28 conference in San Jose, California, to attract software developers to its mobile platform. And Microsoft announced that on July 27, the company will start accepting mobile application submissions in advance of its launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 in the fall.
The companies appear to be responding to Apple, which announced this morning that its iPhone App Store, now …

This week’s Chrome OS announcement takes multiple shots at Windows

Even the headlines this week fed off that animus. Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb on Microsoft said one, Google Launching OS, Firing Torpedo Into Microsoft, went another.
The 655-word blog post that announced Chrome OS started it all, of course. But almost lost in the hoopla over that manifesto were the shots Google took at its rival, five taunts that jabbed at Windows’ most notable, and cliched, shortcomings.
Google says: “…the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era …

The fight for the netbook operating system just gained a new challenger in Google with the announcement of its Chrome Operating System. Although the Chrome OS is slated for various x86 computers, its initial target is netbooks, on which Google expects to see it running by the second half of 2010. Which begs the question: What’s so special about netbooks that they need their own operating system? And which of the current or planned OS environments is best suited for these devices?
Most operating system efforts in the netbook area …

The cost to make an iPod, Xbox, and other electronics has big bottom-line implications at Apple, Microsoft, and their peers. Some companies are willing to swallow losses on some gadgets—for instance, gaming consoles—in hopes that they’ll make up the difference, and then some, on sales of related gear, such as video game software. Other companies, including Apple, are able to sell many products for a healthy profit from the get-go.

Market research company iSuppli takes it upon itself to tear down popular gadgets to find out the price of the …

The problem with trying to compete with Google in search is that search isn’t broken: Most users find what they’re looking for quickly and have no idea whether one search engine is any more “relevant” than another.
Also, search is seriously habit-based. If you hear about some cool new whizzy search engine, you might try it once or twice (Ask, Wolfram Alpha, Bing). But once you discover that the results are pretty much the same as you would get using Google, you’ll quickly go back to your old habit of …

Larry Page should have been in a good mood. It was the fall of 2007, and Google’s cofounder was in the middle of a five-day tour of his company’s European operations in Zurich, London, Oxford, and Dublin. The trip had been fun, a chance to get a ground-floor look at Google’s ever-expanding empire. But this week had been particularly exciting, for reasons that had nothing to do with Europe; Google was planning a major investment in Facebook, the hottest new company in Silicon Valley.
Originally Google had considered acquiring Facebook—a …

Reports are now coming in that Microsoft, giant that it is from Redmond, has no need of its digital agency Razorfish. Of course Razorfish was part of an acquisition back in 2007 of company aQuantive. Seems that Microsoft got a package deal and now wants get rid of the extra item. Not that it needs the cash, but perhaps with the looming Windows 7 launch, MSFT is trying to shore up and build the reserves, right before a real outpouring of the coffers.
If Microsoft was willing to spend $80-100 …

AFTER an investigation that took more than a year, Microsoft has filed its first lawsuit over click fraud, where people manipulate clicks on a Web advertisement.
Microsoft filed the civil complaint on Monday in United States District Court in Seattle against Eric Lam, Gordon Lam and Melanie Suen, of Vancouver, British Columbia, along with several corporation names they were believed to have used, and several unnamed parties.
Microsoft is seeking at least $750,000 in damages. That might seem a small amount for a company that had sales of $13.7 billion last …

Opera United is out!  I didn’t stay up till 3:00 AM EST, but first thing this morning I did check out what it was all about, and I watched the brief video explaining what the fuzz & buzz was all about: File Sharing, Photo Sharing, Fridge (think of Facebook’s Wall), Lounge (chat). Media Player as in “Access your completer home music library from wherever you are” and Web Server, WOW!
I have not yet downloaded, installed and played around with Opera Unite; but if Opera can deliver on these promises from …

Microsoft’s plan to dump Internet Explorer (IE) from Windows 7 for the European market is a move to discredit antitrust regulators by tying its proposal to a failed enforcement effort from 2005, a noted antitrust expert said today.
“It’s sort of a puckish thing to do, when you think about it,” said William Page, co-author of The Microsoft Case: Antitrust, High Technology, and Consumer Welfare (University of Chicago Press, 2009). “Their solution is a little bit like Windows XP [and Vista] ‘N,’ which dramatizes that the EU essentially wants the …

Microsoft is poised to start giving away security software.

The company is reportedly trialling free anti-virus software internally and said the beta version would be released “soon”.
Called Morro, the software will tackle viruses but lack the broader range of utilities, such as parental locks, found in paid-for security suites.
Morro will be Microsoft’s second venture in the highly competitive security market.
Microsoft’s first attempt revolved around the Windows Live OneCare service that did not succeed in turning many customers away from rivals such as Symantec and McAfee. (Read more at: BBC)
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It’s easier than ever to pit Windows 7 and OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard head-to-head: They’re launching soon, both within a month of each other—and both are basically glorified service packs of the current OS.
In way, they’re opposites: Windows 7 uses the same core foundation as Vista while fixing issues and prettying up the outside, while Snow Leopard keeps most of the same spots while re-arranging how things work internally. But the mission is the same—to evolve their current OS—not change the whole game. And launching this fall, we …

IN seeking to make the new search engine Bing as much a part of the popular culture as “bada bing,” Bing Crosby or Stanley Bing, Microsoft is buying prominent placement for bing.com inside television shows and the online video hub Hulu.
The effort to weave advertising for Bing into content, known as branded entertainment, is intended to complement an elaborate traditional campaign, which began on Wednesday with commercials created by the JWT unit of WPP.
The Microsoft Corporation is estimated to be spending $80 million to $100 million on ads to …

Microsoft Corp’s chief software architect said on Thursday the profit margins on providing online services — broadly known as cloud computing — would likely yield a lower profit margin than the company’s existing software business.
“The margins on services are not like the margins on software, so it (cloud computing) will increase our profit and it will increase our revenue, but you won’t have that margin,” said Ray Ozzie on Thursday at a Silicon Valley technology event. (Read more at: Reuters)
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{Photography by Laffy4k}

Microsoft is hoping to set the stage for E3 by hosting the first press conference of the show, and while the company kept the majority of its presentation dedicated to games, it’s clear that Microsoft wants to turn your 360 into a full-fledged entertainment hub. Last.fm is coming to your console, free with your Gold Xbox Live Subscription. The console’s video service is being relaunched as Zune Video, and it will feature 1080p content that you don’t have to load—you just choose your video and watch. Facebook is coming …

Microsoft said on Monday it is buying the assets of Rosetta Biosoftware, a unit of Merck, as part of an effort to expand into the life sciences software arena.
The Rosetta technology will be used to add genetic and genomic data management abilities to Microsoft’s recently announced Amalga Life Sciences effort.
As part of the deal, Merck will now become an Amalga customer, Microsoft said, Merck will also “provide strategic input to Microsoft on the direction and evolution of new solutions incorporating Rosetta Biosoftware technologies.” (Read more at: CNET News)
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Microsoft has used attack ads to go after Apple, and now it has Google in its sights.
The software giant is set to launch an $80 million to $100 million campaign for Bing, the search engine it hopes will help it grab a bigger slice of the online ad market. That’s a big campaign — big compared with consumer-product launches ($50 million is considered a sizable budget for a national rollout) and very big when you consider that Google spent about $25 million on all its advertising last year, according …