WebProNews - Microsoft

"Time Spent Online" Report Puts Microsoft Way Ahead

Doug Caverly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:20:22 +0000

Despite all the gains other companies (Google, Facebook) have made, it's still Microsoft's world, according to new statistics from comScore. comScore found that, in terms of time spent on sites, the Redmond-based corporation continues to maintain a huge lead over its competitors.

People spent about 3.920 billion hours on Microsoft's sites in September, which equates to about 14.5 percent of the total time spent online. Meanwhile, people only spent about 2.512 hours on Google-owned sites, which works out to 9.3 percent of the total. And Google barely logged more growth than Microsoft (48 percent versus 44 percent).

Things looked even more depressing for Yahoo, as the chart below shows. The real surprise, though, relates to Facebook, the social network that doesn't "do" much of anything compared to three companies that offer search engines, email, maps, and all other sorts of stuff.

comScore determined that individuals spent about 5.1 percent of their online time on Facebook in September, and that represents an impressive 2.9 percent year-over-year increase. If Facebook can sustain this rate of growth, it might not be long before Yahoo's forced to eat its dust.

Oddly, Lycos sites experienced a lot of growth in the last year, too, so they may bear watching.

Related Articles:

> Google Top Search Engine In The Asia-Pacific Region

> U.K. Social Networking Accounts For 25% Of Display Ads

> Bing Gains Ground In August

Google Seeking Not To Cross The Creepy Line

Rich Ord — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:26:05 +0000

Google CEO Eric Schmidt while appearing on Fox Business made some interesting comments about Google's emergence as a huge Microsoft-like business power. I thought most interesting was Schmidt's statement about Google becoming like Microsoft, "Hopefully, we won't repeat the mistakes that Microsot made ten years ago that ultimately led to all these things that happened with them".

Schmidt elaborated:

"In our case we see ourselves as a disruptor, and a disruptor because we are using new technology to solve real consumer problems, that in some cases people didn't even realize could be solved. We are also a company that operates at scale using computers globally. And of course, we are in the information business and people have a lot of opinions on how information should be organized."

Fox Business' Neil Cavuto asked Schmidt in reference to Google's new Dashboard product how we really knew if Google deleted our personal data when we pressed delete via Dashboard. Schmidt's response:

"Because we say so and we would be sued (if we didn't)."

Cavuto joked: "It's like ... come in peace to serve man."

Watch the whole interview below:

Bing Partners With JiWire To Offer Users Free WiFi

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:12:13 +0000

Microsoft has plans to announce an advertising campaign with JiWire that will focus on enticing users to try out its search engine Bing in exchange for free WiFi where available.

The campaign is being supported by JiWire's mobile advertising network, which reaches about 20 million unique users monthly. The Bing campaign will run across WiFi hotpsots in airports and hotels nationwide.

"We're all creatures of habit, so giving away free Internet access in exchange for one search on Bing is a great way to change user behavior," David Blumenfeld, senior vice president of strategy and business development at JiWire told MediaPost.

The campaign launched in September at thousands of locations, has attracted between 30 percent and 40 percent of users to Bing, according to Blumenfeld.

So far the campaign has been a success for Microsoft. "The typical online engagement rates for ads range between .1% and .2%, so when you think of what we're seeing, it's off the charts," he says.

"Let's just say the campaign has performed well above average and Microsoft plans to continue the promotion."

JiWire runs an opt-in program called Ads for Access, which allows advertisers to offer users something in exchange for their time, such as watching a video or taking a survey.

Related Articles:

>"Time Spent Online" Report Puts Microsoft Way Ahead

>New Bing Commercial Inspired By The Shining

>Bing Gains Ground In August

Windows 7 Sales Outperform Vista Launch

Mike Sachoff — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:46:56 +0000

Initial sales of Microsoft's Windows 7 software outperformed those of Vista's first few days on the U.S. market, according to the latest analysis from The NPD Group.

Windows 7 software unit sales in the U.S. were 234 percent higher than Vista's first few days of sales. A combination of early discounts on pre-sales and a lack of promotional activity for the Ultimate version resulted in dollar sales that were 82 percent higher than Vista.

"Microsoft's program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD.

"In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles."

While boxed software sales were up compared to the Vista launch, PC hardware sales ran into more of a challenge. PC sales growth was higher than any week during the high volume back-to-school third quarter, but wasn't as strong as growth during the Vista launch.

PC sales growth during the Vista launch was stronger, increasing 68 percent over the prior year's sales and 170 percent over the week preceding the launch. Windows PC sales were down 6 percent compared to PC sales during the Vista launch week.

"A combination of factors impacted Windows 7 PC sales at the outset, but the trajectory of overall PC sales is very strong leading into the holiday season," said Baker.

"Vista had a slight advantage at launch, as January traditionally has a bigger sales footprint than October. The other hurdle Windows 7 faced was sales of PCs with older operating systems (XP and Vista) were high, making up 20 percent of sales during the Windows 7 launch, compared to just 6 percent of older operating sales during Vista's launch week."

Related Articles:

> What People Are Saying About Microsoft Windows 7

>Only In Japan: Burger King Offers A Windows 7 Whopper

>Microsoft Wants You To Bing Up Your Windows 7

Watch: Bing Goes the Bloodsucker Route

Chris Crum — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:24:54 +0000

Microsoft is either taking the holiday marketing approach or the Twilight/Vampire trend approach with its latest commercial. The title is Bing: Vampire Decision Engine.

The company uploaded the new commercial to its (Google-owned) YouTube channel. Accompanying the video is a short description:

"When you're looking for a restaurant that is family friendly, romantic, or maybe something with an otherworldly atmosphere, use Bing's reviews to stop searching and start deciding."

You also may be seeing this ad on a television near you.

What do you think of the latest Bing commercial? Is it good or does it "suck"? Ah Ah. (That was supposed to be the Count). Share your thoughts here.

Related Articles:

> Have You Seen Bing's Commercials Yet?

> Bing Commercials Infringe on Patent?

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How Does Bing Rank Tweets?

Chris Crum — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:40:29 +0000

As previously reported, Microsoft has made deals with both Facebook and Twitter, which will see Bing feature updates from both networks in real-time search efforts. To me, this says that social media just became an even bigger part of search engine marketing, particularly with Google also on board with Twitter and rumored to be talking to Facebook.

Bing has already made a beta version of its Twitter search available to users at bing.com/twitter. The most interesting aspect of Bing's Twitter search is that it offers something plain old Twitter Search (formerly Summize) doesn't. That is a relevancy factor (or at least an attempted relevancy factor).

Twitter Search only shows you results displayed chronologically, which has really always seemed to be the essence of real-time search to me anyway. But Bing has a "Best Match" option, which attempts to give certain tweets more weight than others.

How do you put relevancy on "real-time" results though? "Real-time" is based on time (obviously). The phrase even has the word "time" in it. A search for "WebProNews" on Bing's Twitter Search gives me different results for "most recent" and for "best match". I can't see that the "best match" results are any better than the "most recent" results, however.

The answer is: Bing weighs tweets by follower counts. "If someone has a lot of followers, his/her Tweet may get ranked higher," says Bing. "If a tweet is exactly the same as other Tweets, it will get ranked lower."

Sidenote: A commenter on this article made a point worth mentioning. What if a new Twitter user tweets about something highly relevant or important, but has not gotten many followers yet? That's something to think about.

This is of course the earliest stage for any kind of algorithm Bing may have in place for its Twitter search feature. The feature is still in beta after all. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft makes more details available for how it ranks tweets moving forward. This could be a whole new nut to crack for SEOs. Consider that Bing results will be taking over for Yahoo if the Microsoft-Yahoo deal goes through (plus there is still Google's Twitter results to worry about).

I'll go out on a limb here either way, and suggest that providing good content will be the way to go moving forward. That will bring in followers, and probably do better for your relevancy rankings in the future. That said, defining good content may be considered a little harder at 140 characters or less.

Related Articles:

> Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings

> Social Media Will Not Replace Search

> Microsoft and Google Score Deals with Twitter

> Don't Lose Yahoo Traffic By Not Optimizing for Bing

Is ranking in search engines for Twitter results going to be a priority for you? Discuss here.

Microsoft, Yahoo May Extend Partnership Outside The U.S.

Doug Caverly — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:40:26 +0000

Microsoft's CEO isn't getting ahead of himself; for the time being, Steve Ballmer's taking a "first things first" approach. However, he indicated today that if the proposed U.S.-only Microsoft-Yahoo search partnership goes through, an international agreement may follow.

According to Mayumi Negishi, Ballmer said at a news conference in Tokyo, "It's possible that we will extend that partnership (with Yahoo) outside the U.S. We will have to wait and see if we can get approval and consummate that partnership inside the U.S. first."

An international arrangement would make a great deal of sense for Microsoft and Yahoo. After all, Google's extremely popular in many places around the world, so any measures the two companies take to fight it in America would be appropriate elsewhere.

Also, even if Microsoft and Yahoo can't make any inroads on Google's market share, being more efficient in lots of countries is better than being more efficient in one if they can save money by working together.

So we'll see what happens in early 2010, assuming Microsoft and Yahoo are able to implement their U.S. deal as planned at that point. And we'll try to keep an eye on what the two companies have to say to international regulators in the meantime.

Related Articles:

> More Microsoft Layoffs On The Way

> Microsoft, Yahoo Miss Deadline Agreement

> Carl Icahn Quits Yahoo's Board Of Directors

Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings

Chris Crum — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:17:52 +0000

Disclaimer: This article was originally written before Google made its announcement, and has been updated to reflect that.

Google and Microsoft have both inked deals with Twitter and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to integrate Twitter and Facebook updates into Bing search results. Google will be adding tweets to search results.

Google's Marissa Mayer says, " We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."

Google's Announcement:

There is a good chance that Google will be making a similar deal with Facebook, but even if they don't, their deal with Twitter and Bing's deals with both make it all the more important for marketers to be found in real-time searches and Facebook/Twitter in general.

Do you spend anytime trying to be found in real-time searches? Discuss here.

A while back WebProNews compiled a list of five tips for getting found in real-time searches, which basically boils down to staying in the conversation for relevant topics that people are searching for. The tips were:

1. Use keywords
2. Talk about timely events
3. Have a lot of followers
4. Promote conversation
5. Include calls to engagement

I elaborated on each of these in the previous article. Social media is viral by nature, and real-time search is nothing more than putting things in chronological order. You have to keep people talking to stay relevant "right now."

That said, we don't know all the details about how Google and Bing will be integrating its Twitter and Facebook results into the rest of their results yet. Bing has made available a beta tool for people to mess around with for searching tweets with the search engine. "You can now search for what people are saying all over the web about breaking news topics, your favorite celebrity, hometown sports team, and anything else you use Twitter to stay on top of today," says Paul Yiu of Bing's Social Search team.

A spokesperson for Microsoft tells WebProNews, more specifically, the new Twitter developments in Bing include:

A real-time index of the Tweets that match your search queries in results. This feature makes it easier to follow what’s going on by reducing the amount of duplicates, spam, and adult content.

Giving you the option to rank tweets either by most recent or by “best match,” where we consider a Tweeter’s popularity, interestingness of the tweet, and other indicators of quality and trustworthiness.

Providing the top links shared on Twitter around your specific search query by showcasing a few of the most relevant tweets. Additionally, Bing automatically expands those small URLs (like bit.ly) to enable you to understand what people are tweeting about. Instead of showing standard search result captions, we select 2 top tweets to give users a glimpse of the sentiment around the shared link.

Bing already displays some Tweets for certain people results at the very top of the regular web search results page. That's a good place to appear. Here is a little info about how they rank tweets in their Twitter search.

Google announced a new Google labs project that injects social media into its own search results. This was also announced at the Web 2.0 Summit. Ben Parr with Mashable has the details from Mayer:

    - The bottom of search results will soon have social networking information from your friends, like their Flickr (Flickr) photos or their status updates. It’s a blended search integration, similar to seeing news or image results.

    - These are pulled from social networks connected to your Google Profile. The more that are connected, the more social information that will appear in search results.

    - They have also improved searching for images using social networks. Images become more relevant using social networking data.

    - It will launch in Google Labs in the next few weeks.

The deals with Microsoft and Google make social media marketing all the more important to marketing in general, and specifically search engine marketing. Where social media has generally fit into the SEO equation thus far, has been the promotion of content, which inspires links and conversation, which can in turn help search engine rankings.

Now, if status updates and tweets become directly integrated into search results in Universal Search-type fashion, it will be not only be about promotion and outside links, it will be about direct exposure right in the results, not unlike the importance of online video right now (as you're probably aware, videos are often displayed prominently on the first page of Google results).

Now, forgetting about Google for a moment, pretend that the deals with Microsoft are the only ones that happened. You may also recall that Microsoft has a certain deal in the works with Yahoo. This (if everything goes according to plan) will see Bing results taking over Yahoo's own. Yahoo may still be controlling the front-end of its search, but Bing will be controlling the back-end. Ranking for Bing will mean ranking for Yahoo.

So with Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook deals all in place for Bing, getting found in real-time searches may not only mean getting found in Twitter searches, Facebook searches, and such. It may also mean getting found in Bing searches and in Yahoo searches. That's pretty much the meat of the non-Google U.S. search market.

Now let's bring Google back into the equation. It has a deal with Twitter and may very well have one with Facebook before long. Kara Swisher who broke the news about Microsoft's deals says Google's been talking with both social networks. Still think real-time search and social media are not worth your time?

Do you think deals with Bing and Google will have a big impact on traffic from Twitter and Facebook? Share your thoughts.

More Microsoft Layoffs On The Way

Doug Caverly — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:07:36 +0000

Earlier this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hit a pessimistic note by saying that he expected to see IT spending growth, but not recovery. Now, it seems that Microsoft is about to prove it's still in recession mode, as rumors of imminent layoffs are circulating.

Todd Bishop wrote late last night (or early this morning, to those of us a few time zones east of Seattle and Redmond), "We're hearing from unofficial but reliable sources tonight that Microsoft is poised to make additional job cuts this week . . ."

As for the size of the cuts, Bishop then continued, "This latest round of layoffs is expected to be noticeably smaller than the first two -- numbering in the hundreds but totaling less than 1,000 overall."

Still, morale among Microsoft's employees isn't likely to get much of a boost as a result. Since many analysts believed that both the economy and the company were doing better these days (the Dow's risen 6.21 percent in the past three months, while Microsoft's stock has gained a whopping 18.05 percent), they may have expected the era of layoffs to be over.

Perhaps Google's Matt Cutts should extend to some Microsoft engineers the same job offers he lobbed in Yahoo's direction.

UPDATE: The elimination of 800 jobs has been confirmed.

Related Articles:

> Google Ranked World's Most Attractive Employer

> Yahoo Snags Microsoft Sales Exec

> Matt Cutts Extends Offer To Yahoo Engineers

Microsoft Unveils Big Redesign of MSN

Chris Crum — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:23:03 +0000

MSN.com gets about 85 million unique monthly visitors in the US alone, according to Compete. That's significantly more than AOL.com. So now that Microsoft has unveiled a redesign to it, it stands to reason that a lot of people are going to be affected by it. Microsoft calls the new design MSN's most significant home page redesign in over a decade.

"Now is the time to clean up the mess on the Web — people need less clutter and less hassle to find what matters most to them," said Erik Jorgensen, corporate vice president, Microsoft. "Microsoft is uniquely invested in search, media experiences and technical innovation. Combining these assets to deliver our new MSN home page is a tremendous win for customers and advertisers."

What do you think of the new design? Share your opinions here.

The new design pays significant focus to local, Bing, social networks, and news. Coinciding with the announcement of the redesign was the unveiling of MSN Local Edition. This is a section of MSN that gives you local news, weather, sports, movies and events, restaurants, gas, traffic, a directory, lottery numbers, etc.

The Bing integration with the new MSN is deeper. It's now used as the core search technology throughout the home page in areas like shopping, travel, and local. It is also used as a way to highlight hot topics, trends, and people.

There is a clean integration of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, as well as Microsoft's own Windows Live "What's New," which aggregates up to 50 web activities from various places like Yelp, Flickr, Pandora, etc.

"Customers told us they want the latest information from their favorite sources, their friends and the breadth of the Web — and the new MSN home page delivers via a fresh new look and new features," Jorgensen said. "Today is an important transformation for MSN, and it’s just the beginning."

There is also an emphasis on de-cluttering the home page. Microsoft says there are 50% fewer links than on the previous version. Here's what the whole thing looks like:

The design is not live on a wide scale yet. It will be rolling out gradually over the coming weeks. It is, however available as a preview here.

On a related note, Microsoft is finally launching MSN Music this week. The launch has been postponed since July.

Related Articles:

> MySpace, MSN Now Said To Be In Talks

> Microsoft Partners With Advance Internet On Local Ad Deal

> Bing Gets More Mobile Features in The US

Bing Gets More Mobile Features in The US

Chris Crum — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:54:24 +0000

Microsoft has launched some new features for the mobile version of the Bing search engine, which is available at m.bing.com. These include features related to the NFL and to travel.

The NFL feature lets the user type a team or player and see upcoming games, stats, and scores. If you use the feature while a game is being played, you can get real-time updates on the plays. The feature is only available in the U.S.

The second feature is for flight status. You can enter the airline and flight number and get the latest departure and landing times.

In addition to these, there is also a new feature that makes Bing work better with touch devices. "Great news for you touch phone owners in the U.S.: we have a new version of Bing just for high-resolution touch devices," says Justin Jed for Bing Mobile. "We optimized for touch navigation to make the most of your phone, and added a great new Movies feature. Search for Movies in your city, and you’ll see the movies playing nearby, showtimes, overviews, and even trailers and video clips."

To use the touch version, just go to m.bing.com from an iPhone, Zune HD, T-Mobile G-1, Verizon Imagio, or Samsung Omnia. Microsoft says that support for additional devices over the next couple of months.

Related Articles:

> Searching Bing By Voice from Your Phone

> Google Launches Custom Search For Smartphones

> Facebook Cooks Up New Site For Touchscreen Phones

Internet Explorer Losing Market Share in Europe

Chris Crum — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:25:31 +0000

Research from AT Internet Institute indicates that Microsoft is losing European market share in the web browser sector with Internet Explorer. The firm says IE is being seriously shaken up by rival browsers across the continent.

"Despite the release of its Version 8 in March of this year, Internet Explorer does not reverse the browser market trend in Europe, quite the contrary," says AT. "The leading browser continues to give ground to its competitors and in some countries has been overtaken by Mozilla."

Internet Explorer has decreased by nearly 3 points over the last six months. In September, on average 62% of visits to a site in a European country were made through IE. This is compared to 64.6% in March. Meanwhile, Safari gained a point, reaching 4.3% and Chrome's share doubled, reaching 2.8%.

Mozilla continued to rise going from 27.8% in March to 28.4% in September, while Opera remained stable at about 2.2%.

According to AT, IE experienced the largest decline in visit shares for sites in Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgari, and Austria.

It should be noted that AT's data is based on estimates from "a certain cross-section" of sites that meet certain criteria. "These criteria are very strict and their aim is to remove any websites which have an anecdotal audience, or a chaotic audience, or whose collected data suspects a dysfunction in the measure," the methodology says.

Firefox has surpassed the popularity of Internet Explorer and become the leading browser Hungary and Slovakia.

Microsoft Partners With OpenX On Ad Deal

Mike Sachoff — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:33:59 +0000

Microsoft has entered into a partnership with advertising start-up OpenX, focused on promoting each other's products to their respective customer base.

Under the terms of the multiyear agreement, OpenX will expand its distribution of its technology for delivering ads on websites. In addition, OpenX will promote Microsoft's Content Ads monetization products.

Microsoft will have a major distribution channel for its monetization products via OpenX's community of more than 150,000 websites that serve more than 300 billion ads per month. OpenX will gain access to a new base of potential customers through referrals from Microsoft. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We're pleased to build on the foundation we laid last year, and we're especially pleased that Microsoft has selected OpenX as a technology partner," said Tim Cadogan, chief executive officer, OpenX.

"We think our product suite is particularly well-suited to helping grow the businesses of those new publishers Microsoft will refer to us. Similarly, we think that Content Ads will provide an additional and important monetization option for existing OpenX publishers, while helping them increase their advertising revenue."

The Content Ads part of the agreement comes after a successful trial Microsoft and Open X began in August 2008, during which OpenX provided invitations to its publishers to test the product.

Related Articles:

>Microsoft Tipped As most Likely Ask.com Buyer

> New Bing Commercial Inspired By The Shining

> Bing Gets More Mobile Features In The US

Microsoft Tipped As Most Likely Ask.com Buyer

Doug Caverly — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:27:38 +0000

Since IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller indicated on Tuesday that he's willing to sell Ask.com, the question on many people's minds has been, "Who might buy it?" And at this point, the most likely answer seems to be "Microsoft."

Let's run down the possibilities within the search industry. There would be little point in Google buying Ask. After all, Google's market share dwarfs the 2 to 3 percent Ask currently controls, and the two companies already have an advertising deal in place.

Yahoo might get more out of buying Ask, since doing so would augment its search share by a noticeable amount and toss a monkey wrench at Google, but with the Microsoft search partnership sort of looming overhead, such a move would also seem a little pointless.

Finally, AOL, for its part, is about to lose access to Time Warner's checkbook.

Which leaves Microsoft, a favorite of analysts to whom Yinka Adegoke spoke. Microsoft's already demonstrated a willingness to buy search companies, and since the Yahoo acquisition failed, may have some money intended expressly for that purpose sitting around.

Then, you have to consider that a market share of 2 or 3 percent must look pretty respectable to a company that itself only has a share of 10 or 11 percent.

This speculation doesn't amount to an offer on Steve Ballmer's part, of course. It just looks like his company might be able to find a use for Ask if the price is right.

Related Articles:

> Microsoft, Yahoo Miss Deadline Agreement

> MySpace, MSN Now Said To Be In Talks

> Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More For Google/Bing Rankings

Google Ranked World's Most Attractive Employer

Doug Caverly — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:10:57 +0000

It's a good bet that mailmen (and/or mail servers) are still delivering huge numbers of applications and resumes to Google. A very large survey has confirmed that university students regard the search giant as the world's most attractive employer.

Universum contacted almost 120,000 students from Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the US regarding which companies they'd most like to work for. The result: Google won in both the business and engineering categories.

Not many of the other corporations we usually cover made either list; you'll find PricewaterhouseCoopers, Goldman Sachs, and Ernst & Young on the one side, and IBM, BMW, and Intel on the other. But Microsoft scored quite well, at least, coming in at number three on the business side of things and number two in terms of the engineering rankings.

So both Google and Microsoft will probably continue to employ people of the highest caliber for the foreseeable future. It just looks like Google might maintain a bit of an edge, perhaps getting kids who are in the top 0.5 percent of their class instead of the more pedestrian top 1.0 percent or so.

Hat tip goes to Barry Schwartz.

> Matt Cutts Extends Offer To Yahoo Engineers

> Google Aims To Make Finding Music Easier

> Google Launches Social Search Experiment

Microsoft, Yahoo Miss Agreement Deadline

Doug Caverly — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:37:59 +0000

The proposed Microsoft-Yahoo deal seems to have hit a small and oddly unspecified bump. The companies missed an October 27th deadline by which they hoped to have some details ironed out.

Yahoo admitted yesterday in an SEC filing, "The Letter Agreement specified that the parties would execute Definitive Agreements by October 27, 2009, but given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized. The parties are working diligently on finalizing the agreements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible."

The Microsoft-Yahoo partnership hasn't been derailed, then, and considering all the time and energy everyone's spent following these dealings, that's a bit of a relief. There's just the question of why this delay has occurred.

Microsoft and Yahoo might be holding some quiet discussions with regulators in order to make sure they get things right on the first try. Or maybe, considering that this is a ten-year deal, both sides' lawyers have just gotten a little overwhelmed with paperwork.

Anything more serious would probably merit a mention in the SEC filing.

So hang in there and we'll see what happens. Yahoo did not establish a new target date, by the way.

Related Articles:

> Carl Icahn Quits Yahoo's Board Of Directors

> Advertising Powerhouses Champion Microsoft-Yahoo Deal

> Justice Department Asks Microsoft, Yahoo For More Info

Coming Attraction: Netflix on your PS3

Jeremy Muncy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:53:27 +0000

This question is for all you PS3 owners out there: How would you like to watch a movie streamed directly from Netflix via your PS3? Well, starting next month... you'll be able to do just that.

Will you stream movies to your PS3 from Netflix? Let us know.

Yesterday Greg Peters, VP of product development at Netflix, updated the company blog where he talked about the partnership between Sony and Netflix...

"We’ve got good news for PS3 owners! Soon you will be able to instantly watch movies and TV episodes on your TV via your PS3. Today we announced that the PS3 is about to join the ever growing list of Netflix ready devices that allow streaming of movies and TV episodes whenever you want, as much as you want, all included in your unlimited Netflix subscription. The PS3 is a terrific Blu-ray and gaming platform that will get even better in November when we start streaming thousands of movies and TV episodes!"

According to the Playstation blog, there are nearly nine million PS3 owners and 11.1 million Netflix members, which seem to make the two quite a match.

It should be noted that Xbox 360 owners have had this capability for roughly the past four months, so I guess the question is... why is the PS3 so late to the Netflix party and will Wii owners ever get the service?

Do you think the Nintendo Wii will ever be able to stream Netflix? Tell us what you think.

Related Articles:

> Netflix Strikes Deal With Samsung

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Google and Bing Increase Share of Enterprise Search Traffic

Chris Crum — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:33:31 +0000

iCrossing has shared the findings from its Enterprise Natural Search Share Index. This is a look at natural search traffic to enterprise level sites, based on a large sample of Fortune 1000 companies across all major verticals.

Google's share of natural search traffic to enterprise-level sites in September increased to 76.68%. That is up from 74.7% last year and 75.89% in August. Bing's share also increased, reaching 8.21%. That is up from 6.46% a year ago (MSN) and 8.06% in August.

Yahoo's share decreased to 11.10%. A year ago it held 14.13% share, and in August it was at 11.83%. Also declining were AOL and Ask, who came in with 1.75% and 0.41% respectively. AOL declined year-over-year from 2.16%.

The results are perhaps not too surprising. The Web search market in general has been following a similar path. Compete data released last week showed that Google increased from 72.3% to 72.6% month-over-month, while Bing's share crawled up from 8.7% to 8.8%. Yahoo's share dropped from 15.8% in August to 14.7% in September.

As our own Doug Caverly noted, "Obviously, Microsoft's incentive to forge a partnership will shrink if Bing can steal searchers away from Yahoo. Yahoo might need to hold its own (or at least lose to Google, but not Bing) in order to make sure Microsoft doesn't think better of the arrangement before the 2010 target date."

Related Articles:

> Compete: Yahoo Stumbled In September

> Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings

> Microsoft and Google Score Deals with Twitter

MySpace, MSN Now Said To Be In Talks

Doug Caverly — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:42:40 +0000

Yesterday, the surprising news that Facebook and MySpace are negotiating a content-sharing partnership broke, yet that's not all the latter social network has on its plate. A fresh report indicates MySpace is also in talks with MSN over some sort of music deal.

MSN is interested in "using the social networking site's music service, MySpace Music, to help power music offerings on the giant portal," according to Kara Swisher. She then continued, "While sources at both companies cautioned the talks were still early, Microsoft (MSFT) - which has its own music site that it programs with original and partnered content - execs are interested in goosing it."

An arrangement that would give MSN users access to more music would be of obvious benefit to Microsoft. The exposure - and/or cash - that MySpace would receive from such a deal would no doubt help it, too.

Plus, it's not like either company has defined itself as some sort of lone wolf. Microsoft's reached out to Yahoo and Twitter in recent months, and MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta was quoted yesterday as saying, "Partnerships are going to be a big part of our strategy moving forward as a lot of value can be derived from them."

So stay tuned and see what happens. It may be that little "powered by MySpace" graphics will start popping up in quite a lot of places.

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Only In Japan: Burger King Offers A Windows 7 Whopper

Jeremy Muncy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:59:48 +0000

UPDATE: A video has surface on Youtube of someone attempting to eat the Windows 7 Whopper... watch at your own risk.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: If you listen close enough you can probably hear the arteries of hundreds of Japanese people clogging as Burger King has unveiled the Windows 7 Whopper.

What is a Windows 7 Whopper you ask?

What is your first reaction to the above image: Leave us a comment

Well, it’s just like the ordinary Whopper… only with 7 patties of meat and stands over 5 inches tall. As far as the price goes, the Windows 7 Whopper will set you back ¥777, which translates to about $8.55, which isn’t that bad when you think about the quantity meat you’re getting.

Only the first 30 customers per day can take advantage of the special ¥777 pricing, each patron after that will have to pay ¥1,450, which is about $17.10. For those interested, the promotion runs from 10/22 - 10/28.

Would you attempt to eat a Windows 7 Whopper? Let us know.

Microsoft Sees 14% Decline, But Remains Enthusiastic

Chris Crum — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:22:11 +0000

Microsoft reported its quarterly earnings today with a 14% decline in revenue from the same period a year ago. The company reported revenue of $12.92 billion for the quarter.

Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $4.48 billion, $3.57 billion and $0.40 per share, which represented declines of 25%, 18% and 17%, respectively, when compared with the same period last year.

The company noted that the reported financial results reflect the deferral of $1.47 billion of revenue, an impact of $0.12 of diluted earnings per share, relating to the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program and sales of Windows 7 to OEMs and retailers before general availability.

Adding back the deferred revenue, the company says, revenue totaled $14.39 billion, a 4% year-over-year decline, and EPS totaled $0.52 per share, an increase of 8% over the same period of the prior year.

"We are very pleased with our performance this quarter and particularly by the strong consumer demand for Windows," said CFO Chris Liddell. "We also maintained our cost discipline, which allowed us to drive strong earnings performance despite continued tough overall economic conditions."

The company will be looking for a much stronger report next time as the company just released Windows 7 to the public and its first retail store both this week, among other products.

"The worldwide launches of Windows 7, Exchange Server 2010 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are exciting milestones for Microsoft, our partners and customers," said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. "We are pleased by the early positive response we are receiving for these products."

Time will tell how Windows 7, the store, and the rest really fares for the company (and Bing for that matter). The company appears quite optimistic.

Microsoft Wants You To Bing Up Your Windows 7

Chris Crum — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:03:21 +0000

Microsoft unleashed Windows 7 onto the public today, and the company's Bing team has released some downloadable wallpaper things for the operating system. The themes are based on the images that the search engine uses on its homepage.

"A lot of people ask us for desktop versions of our images," says Stephanie Horstmanshof of Bing. "And now you (and your friends, and your family, and your casual acquaintances) can get them!"

Whether or not you are a fan of Bing as a search engine, there's no denying that there are some visually pleasing images that appear there. Here are some of the wallpaper options:

The themes are more than just wallpaper images though. The themes are a combination of pictures, colors, and sounds for the computer. They include desktop backgrounds, screen savers, window border colors, and sound schemes. Some include icons and mouse pointers.

Microsoft reminds users that they can also integrate Bing right into the operating system by:

1. Downloading the Bing OpenSearch description document.

2. Double-clicking the downloaded document to add the Bing "Search Connector" on your machine.

3. From Windows explorer use the Search Box, type the terms for which you want to search and get the power of Bing into Windows.

"You can perform Windows actions on the search results, such as Open, Send to, and so on," says the Bing API Team.

What People Are Saying About Microsoft Windows 7

Chris Crum — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:31:59 +0000

Machines with Microsoft's Windows 7 went on sale today. Unsurprisingly, it is one of the hottest topics on the web. Everybody's talking about it on Twitter. Everybody's searching for it. Microsoft and Windows queries are all over Google's Hot Trends list. Everybody wants to know more about Windows 7.

Well, let's look at what people are saying about it. Here's a sample from the Twitterverse:

For a little more meat on the subject, let's take a look at some recent videos uploaded to YouTube about Windows 7. First, here is CBS talking about the release:

Here is a review:

Here is a longer review:

Here is a comparison with Vista:

Windows 7 is now available on new PCs and is available as an upgrade on some old ones. Have you tried it yet? We'd love to know what you think about the operating system. Let us know.

Microsoft and Google Score Deals with Twitter

Chris Crum — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:29:16 +0000

Update: Bing has now made the announcments and Google has announced a deal with Twitter too. Google's Marissa Mayer writes:

...we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.

Original Article: Microsoft is expected to announce two separate deals today - one with Twitter and one with Facebook. From the sound of it, the deals would be similar in nature, both giving Bing access to index status updates from both social networks.

Kara Swisher at Boomtown says that both deals are confirmed and are expected to be announced this afternoon at the Web 2.0 summit. The deals are non-exclusive, however. And you know what that means.

Google has been reported to have been talking with both Twitter and Facebook too, and it would be no surprise to see deals made there as well.

But this is Microsoft's moment. But what will it mean as far as status updates from both Twitter and Facebook?

"Much of what is posted on Twitter is public by design, while Facebook’s users prefer the closed nature of the service to disperse a wide variety of personal information only to their friends and they want to control it," says Swisher. "Thus, sources said, not all Facebook updates will be included in the real-time feed to be searched by Bing, but only those its users choose to make available to the wider public. Facebook will apparently provide users with a numbers of new tools to do so."

According to Swisher, neither of Microsoft's deals will bear fruit for several weeks, and that would leave plenty of time for Google to sneak in with its own deals. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

As for the financial details of Microsoft's deals with Twitter and Facebook, these can only be speculated upon at this point.

Google Gets Serious About Marketing Apps

Chris Crum — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:25:25 +0000

Update: Google has expanded the campaign to additional countries: U.K., France, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore.

Original Article 08/03: So Microsoft wants to get serious about search? Google is showing its serious about something Microsoft is better known for. Yes, Google did announce Chrome OS recently, but now the company is promoting Google Apps in a big way, presumably with the intent of convincing businesses and consumers alike that they don't need Microsoft Office.

Google has kicked off a big advertising campaign based on the concept of "Going Google." This will even include some billboard ads in four major cities (San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Boston according to TechCrunch), and the billboards will display a different message each day for a month.

The Campaign is leading consumers to a site at Google.com/appsatwork, which says:

Each day, thousands of companies are going Google by switching to Google Apps -- a web-based suite of messaging and collaboration applications. It's all hosted by Google, and designed with security and reliability in mind, saving your company the frustrations and hassles of managing traditional IT solutions yourself. Find out how others have switched from Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes to Google Apps.

From there, visitors are directed to pages like this one, where businesses share their stories about using Google Apps. Interested parties can browse what people from different companies have to say based on product solution, industry type, and company size.

Another page highlights more specifically ways businesses are using Google Apps, and provides video demos of different products. Finally, there is a page for those who already use Google Apps to "spread the word." This includes media like embeddable videos and PDFs for internal marketing.

Advertising Powerhouses Champion Microsoft-Yahoo Deal

Doug Caverly — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:51:50 +0000

It would seem that everybody who's anybody in the advertising industry wants the Microsoft-Yahoo deal to go through. Today, the president and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, along with the heads of all four major ad holding companies, signed her name to a letter of support.

First, a little background info: The AAAA has an extremely impressive membership roster, with Arnold, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Digitas, and Saatchi & Saatchi on its side. Then there are the ad holding agencies - the Interpublic Group of Companies, the Omnicon Group, the Publicis Groupe, and WPP - to consider.

And in terms of the Microsoft-Yahoo debate, these organizations effectively went straight to the top.

Their letter was in fact an open one addressed to the U.S. Department of Justice. They stated, "We believe that Yahoo! and Microsoft's proposal to combine their technologies and search platforms is good for advertisers, marketing services agencies, website publishers and consumers. . . . These benefits are too important to wait for. As leading members of the advertising and marketing services industry, we urge the Department of Justice to bring its antitrust review to a speedy conclusion."

A Yahoo spokesperson told WebProNews in response, "Yahoo! welcomes the broad support this deal has received, and remains hopeful that the closing of this transaction can occur in early 2010."

Google And Microsoft Make Gains In The Search Market

Mike Sachoff — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:23:29 +0000

In September, Americans conducted 13.8 billion searches, with Google leading the way with 64.9 percent of the search market, a 0.3 percent increase from August, according to comScore's latest search engine rankings.

Yahoo ranked second with 18.8 percent of the search market, a slight decline of 0.5 percent from August. Microsoft grabbed 9.4 percent of the search share and experienced an increase of 0.1 percent. Both Ask and AOL remained flat month-over-month with 3.9 percent and 3.0 percent respectively.

Americans overall search activity was down 1 percent from August (which had one additional day compared to September). Google accounted for 9 billion searches, followed by Yahoo (2.6 billion), Microsoft (1.3 billion), Ask (541 million) and AOL (416 million).

The top properties where search activity is monitored by comScore , Google sites led the search market with 12.8 billion search queries, followed by Yahoo sites with 2.7 billion queries and Microsoft with nearly 1.4 billion searches. Facebook had the largest growth of the top ten expanded search properties with a 19 percent increase in query volume to 384 million searches.

Symantec Urges Windows Users to Patch Systems

Chris Crum — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:31:29 +0000

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday for this week has been the largest ever from the company. 13 security bulletins addressing 34 vulnerabilities were released. 22 of these vulnerabilities were considered critical. Microsoft has never addressed so many in a single month. The previous record, set in June, was only 31.

Included in the most recent Patch Tuesday, were patches for two vulnerabilities previously made public: one in Server Message Block Version 2 (SMBv2) and the other in Internet Information Services.

Security company Symantec has shared its views on this Patch Tuesday, which are quite positive. "We're pleased that Microsoft released a patch for the SMBv2 vulnerability," said Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager, Symantec Security Response. "The vulnerability was made public last month. We've yet to see a highly reliable exploit for it. Although we have seen limited attempts to exploit this vulnerability, we're glad to see this fixed before widespread attacks occur."

In addition, Microsoft also released the first security update for the release-to-manufacturing version of Windows 7. "The update that addresses vulnerabilities in Windows 7 relates to the Active Template Library issues Microsoft has been working on for a number of months now," said Greenbaum. "It essentially disables additional faulty ActiveX controls created using the library that have been distributed across Windows users’ machines."

Symantec says the vulnerabilities addressed in Internet Explorer and the GDI+ graphics library (what Windows uses to determine how to interact with certain graphics files that users encounter during everyday computer use) are serious too.

"The primary danger the GDI+ graphics library and Internet Explorer vulnerabilities pose is that these vulnerable components are present on the majority of Windows machines," said Greenbaum. "Many of the issues addressed today are fairly trivial to exploit. For example, via a drive-by-download style attack. In that case, all a computer user would have to do to become infected by an attack using one of these vulnerabilities is unsuspectingly visit a compromised Web site."

Needless to say, Symantec is strongly encouraging users to take advantage of these latest patches from Microsoft. They are also encouraging people in general, to regularly install vendor patches as soon as they are available, consider implementing an automated patch management solution, run all software with the least privileges required while maintaining functionality, and other basic security best practices.

Report: Paid Search Spend Up 10%

Chris Crum — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:25:05 +0000

SearchIgnite has released a report, which indicates that paid search spending in the United States was flat year-over-year in the third quarter, yet up 10% quarter-over-quarter. This comes largely from multi-channel retailers, who increased paid search spend by 40% in the quarter, according to the firm. This is despite flat conversion rates and average order value.

"This is the second consecutive quarter of sequential growth for paid search spend, indicating marketers' continued confidence in search marketing as an efficient component of their overall marketing mix," said Roger Barnette, President of SearchIgnite. "Multi-channel retailers in particular have continued to rely more heavily on paid search as a key driver of sales in a challenging economic environment."

According to the report, Bing saw the most pronounced growth in spend among the top three search engines, an increase of 15% year-over-year (presumably compared to Microsoft Live Search). Yahoo, on the other hand, was down 24% year-over-year.

The report also states the obvious, that there was no movement in search share, as far as rank, but year-over-year, Yahoo lost share to Google, while Bing showed "little" growth.

"Microsoft is headed in the right direction with Bing and attracting more advertiser dollars. That said, it’s an uphill battle against Google and there’s still a long way to go before Bing garners a significant amount of the search ad revenue pie," said Barnette.

More information about paid search spend for the quarter can be found in the report. SearchIgnite says it manages over $350 million in paid search annually.

Microsoft Throws Two Vets, Three Labs Behind Social Effort

Doug Caverly — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:58:47 +0000

If two heads are better than one, then bringing together two top veterans and three different labs may really accomplish something special. Microsoft's going to see what happens, anyway, as it announced the existence of the FUture Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs today.

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, was the main force behind the development, and Lili Cheng, who's worked for Microsoft since 1995, will be the general manager of FUSE Labs. The involvement of these two individuals suggests that Microsoft's hoping for some significant results.

As for the purpose of the new group, "FUSE Labs' team will explore new social, real-time and media-rich applications and services that add value to existing products, or could be released on their own," according to a corporate statement.

Also, if you're curious, Microsoft's Creative Systems Group, Rich Media Labs, and Startup Labs are the three entities that were merged to create FUSE Labs. FUSE Labs should include about 80 people, and they'll be based in both Redmond and Cambridge.

Otherwise, details are scarce. Microsoft, Ozzie, and Cheng didn't announce anything with regards to specific products or general release dates. But whether this ties to a potential deal with Twitter, Microsoft's investment in Facebook, or something(s) else entirely, it'll surely be interesting to see what comes out of FUSE Labs.