Microsoft on Thursday took the wraps off Bing, the rebranded and rebuilt search engine formerly code-named Kumo, designed to replace Live Search. It's a solid improvement over the previous search product, and it beats Google in important areas. It will help Microsoft gain share in the search business. It's surprisingly competitive with Google.

In search presentation, Bing wins. It uses technology from Powerset (a search technology company Microsoft acquired) to display refined versions of your query down the left side of the page. For example, I searched for the game "Fallout 3" on Google and Bing. While Google gave me good results, Bing gave me a menu of "related searches," that included Walkthrough, News, and so on. 

I planned to write this story with the headline, "Bing isn't Better," but the new engine won me over. 

The new game in search is parsing information and displaying it in the engine itself (see Wolfram Alpha for the extreme example of this). Both Google and Bing, and other search products, have areas where they will collate and format information for you, instead of just linking you to external pages where the data reside. Bing does an extremely good job at this in several popular areas -- like product reviews, movie listings, weather, travel, and stock prices. 

While the service doesn't reveal all its riches at once, it rewards exploration and yields pleasant surprises to users who poke around. 

Google keeps improving in the area of in-search collation and display as well, but Bing makes Google look complacent, and that's not good for Google. For the moment, Bing's on top in this game. Try this search engine. I do not think you will regret it.

 Related Links

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2929

 

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Take a look : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

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InsideMicrosoft just got a gigantic scoop of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 7, due to be released in 2009. This isn't Windows Mobile 6.1—which we've seen leaks of recently—but the next full version of Windows Mobile that fixes a bunch of problems we've seen with the platform. The huge changes are multi-touch gestures (including flicking, swiping and drawing on the screen), motion gestures (shaking the phone), Windows Vista-like redesign of the entire UI, better finger-based navigation and a desktop-like Internet Explorer browser. It's totally amazing, and fixes a bunch of the complaints we had with the platform.

 

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Microsoft is trying its luck at social networking - again.

After a failed attempt four years ago, Microsoft (MSFT) is ripping a page from Facebook’s playbook, introducing on Thursday new profile and photo-sharing features to its web-based Windows Live services. The software giant allows users with Windows Live Hotmail or Messenger accounts to create online profiles that highlight what a person is doing through a Facebook-like newsfeed.

Microsoft hopes that giving Windows Live a new facelift will encourage more people to spend more time on its web properties. Checking e-mail or instant messaging accounts for up a third of the time people spend on the Internet, according to research firm comScore. Microsoft has 375 million Hotmail users and 325 million Messenger users worldwide. “If we can gain a whole 60 minutes per user, we would grow a whole Facebook in [time spent],” says Brian Hall, general manager for Windows Live.

Though Hall admits that Microsoft’s new strategy could shift some attention from Facebook - in which Microsoft holds a minor stake - to Windows Live, the real concern is longtime rival, Google (GOOG). The search giant already has a commanding lead in the search advertising business, and Microsoft worries about Gmail’s growing share in the e-mail market. “According to comScore, Google has a 6% share of email [in the U.S.] But they’re growing fast,” Hall said.

Like Google, Microsoft has struggled to make inroads in social networking. Four years ago, Microsoft launched Spaces, a blogging tool to build a social networking site within Windows Live. Though Microsoft added 100 million people in it first year, less than 1% of social networking users use Spaces today. “The blogging approach [to social networking] is not the right approach. People are too busy to make that investment,” Hall said.

Windows Live lets its new newsfeed feature do the heavy lifting to give people’s friends updates on what they’re up to. Microsoft has partnered with more than 50 web companies, including Amazon.com (AMZN), Twitter, Flickr,and iLike, a music discovery site. Anytime you blog on WordPress, write a restaurant review on Yelp, or watch videos on Veoh, your status is updated through your Windows Live profile.

Analysts say the new Windows Live makeover is a preview of Microsoft’s newest operating system, Windows 7. The latest version of Windows is expected to integrate tools like photo-sharing, videos, and messaging more seamless between PCs and mobile devices. “All these built-in applications with a blend of Google, Apple, and Facebook is Microsoft’s view of an integrated world,” said Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group. “Windows Live comes out first. This is designed for Windows 7.”

Microsoft’s had success with operating systems, but the company still struggles to make a profit from its Internet businesses. Microsoft is banking that more time spent on Windows Live will translate into more web searches on Live and more ads viewed on its portal, MSN. For its fiscal first quarter, which ended in September, Microsoft lost $480 million from its online unit. “We have to get great at the advertising business,” Hall said.
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Microsoft's new Web browser, Internet Explorer 8, is now available in a beta version meant for ordinary users, and it's a pretty good piece of software.

Besides the private browsing mode, called InPrivate, which Microsoft has already announced, there are other nifty features. When your cursor moves over, say, an address on a Web site, one of IE 8's so-called Accelerators drops down a menu bar of different Web mapping services. Click and the address is mapped. No copying and pasting across Web sites.

IE8 has also been designed so that tabbed Web sites are isolated. That means a poorly behaving Web site won't crash the whole browser, just that tab.

The list goes on, and Microsoft explains all the new features on its Web site.

IE 6, introduced in 2001, was a mess, really opening the door for the open-source project Firefox, which is richly supported by Google. IE 7, analysts say, was a major catch-up effort, while IE 8 is Microsoft's bid to move ahead of Firefox and Apple's Safari in performance, features and user experience.

"In things big and small, it is a better experience," contends Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Explorer group.

We'll see. But Microsoft's new entry and the revived competition in the browser market brings a sense of deja vu. I think back to the comment made by Marc Andreessen, Netscape's co-founder, in the heady days of the browser pioneer's ascent. The browser, he said, could "reduce Windows to a set of poorly debugged device drivers." Translated: the operating system would be relegated to plumbing, while all the action for users and programmers would be on the browser, riding above the operating system.

On the witness stand in 1998 during Microsoft's federal antitrust trial, Jim Barksdale, Netscape's chief executive, tried to dismiss the Andreessen comment as a young man's flippant joke.

But it was no laughing matter to Microsoft, and that potential threat was the animating force behind the tactics Microsoft used to stifle the Netscape challenge.

Today, the browser challenge — though not Netscape — is alive and well. And it is far more realistic now. The tools for making richer Web-based applications have vastly improved. There is the rise of cloud computing, with its promise of shifting all sorts of computing tasks from e-mail to word processing onto the Web. And there is the proliferation of powerful cellphones that can handle many computing tasks via a mobile browser.

So the browser could become "the universal client," noted Peter O'Kelly, an independent analyst. And Andreessen was "just ahead of his time," O'Kelly said.

Firefox is now a credible competitor to IE, with its share of the browser market having climbed to 19 percent, according to Net Applications, a research firm. Microsoft's IE has 73 percent and Apple's Safari has 6 percent.

IE 8 is Microsoft's answer to the renewed browser challenge. "There's competition now and competition does amazing things," says Matt Rosoff, an analyst for Directions on Microsoft, a research firm.

 

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Microsoft wants its partners and customers to know that it’s done letting its competitors and critics walk all over Windows Vista.

“We know our story is very different from what our competitors want us to think,” Brad Brooks, Corporate Vice President of Windows Consumer Product, told attendees of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston during a keynote address on July 8. “Today we are drawing a line and are going to start telling the real story” about Vista.

While Brooks didn’t call out Apple by name (he instead referred to a “pretty noisy competitor out there”), he made it clear that Microsoft is finally going to hit back via ad campaigns, including the $300-million-plus one it has under development with Crispin Porter + Bogusky. (Sadly, Microsoft didn’t show off during the keynote any of the new ad collateral that Crispin Porter is creating.)

At the Microsoft partner show, Brooks reiterated the same messages that Microsoft has been attempting to get out to the market over the past few months. He acknowledged that partners stopped believing that Microsoft would ever manage to ship Vista and thus didn’t prepare adquately for the launch of the operating system. He admitted that many of the feature changes, especially those in the security area, broke a lot of hardware and software apps. And he emphasized that the Vista that Microsoft first shipped nearly two years ago is very different from the Vista that’s out in the market today. Microsoft is using Windows Update to ship updates to Vista users every week in order to continue to improve and hone the product, he added.

Brooks also re-emphasized that because Windows 7 won’t veer widely from Vista’s hardware requirements and core set of features, partners should encourage customers to move to Vista today in so they will be well-prepared for Windows 7. (Windows 7 is due to ship in late 2009, last anyone from Microsoft said.)

During his keynote, Brooks took the wraps off a new portal site, the Windows Vista Compatibility Center, that is designed to provide users with a single place to check whether specific hardware and software is compatible with Vista. The site currently lists 9,000 devices and software products (3,500 apps and 5,500 devices) — a number that Microsoft is planning to expand via customer and partner feedback. The site will be all about helping to “bust the myth” that Windows Vista is not compatible with many apps and devices, Brooks said.

The new Vista Compatibility site has no connection (so far) with Microsoft’s still-private “Don’t Blame Vista” tool, a k a Windows Advisor. But over time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the site and the tool tied together in some way.

Brooks also announced the new Windows Vista Small Business Assurance program. Microsoft kicked off the program via a series of full-page ads in a number of major newspapers on July 8. The slogan: “Move to Windows Vista with Confidence.” From the ad copy:

“Risks are a part of every small business. Making the move to Windows Vista isn’t one of them. Buy a new PC with genuine Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate and receive free coaching and support from Microsoft to help you get the most out of Windows.”

As part of the program, Microsoft is providing free phone support; tips and tricks via a new Vista Small Business Assurance Web site; and access to existing online tools and guidance.

Brooks closed by saying “Windows Vista is a good product.”

“The quiet majority of million and millions of Windows Vista users out there are going to have a great experience,” Brooks said. “The message is ‘Move to Vista. The time of worry is over.’”

I, for one, can’t believe it has taken Microsoft so long to get more proactive about trying to polish Vista’s tarnished image. What do you think Microsoft needs to do to regain control of the Vista conversation? Are these kinds of programs, portals and ad campaigns enough?

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I don’t buy into all the “Windows Vista is rubbish” rhetoric that’s been floating about. Rather than rely on collective hearsay I much rather collect my own data. Also, when it comes to operating system reliability problems that look like they are down to the OS are usually down to something else - a bad driver or a rogue application, for example. Over the past few months I’ve been keeping a close eye on my system’s reliability and taking steps to improve reliability.

To do this I’ve been using Windows Vista’s own Reliability Monitor and using the information that this provides to help track down issues and fix them.

In case you’ve not come across the Reliability Monitor, here’s how you get to it:

• The quick way:
  Click Start and type Perfmon into the Start Search box, and click the Perfmon shortcut when it appears.  Then click on Reliability Monitor.
• The long way:
  Click Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Rating and Tools > Advanced Tools > Open Reliability and Performance Monitor > Reliability Monitor.

The Reliability Monitor gives you access to a lot of varied and useful information. 

• A System Stability Chart which shows you a stability rating between 10 and 0 (the higher the number the better).
• The chart also shows if any of the following occurred on a particular day:
  - Software (Un)Install
  - Application Failures
  - Hardware Failures
  - Windows Failures
  - Miscellaneous Failures
• There is also a system stability report for each day which gives a breakdown of each of the above categories for each day.

Here’s the data I collected for an 89 day period (for the previous 133 days, check out this post):

Here’s a breakdown of the failures that I encountered over the 89 days (note that multiple failures can occur during a single day):

• Application failures: 19 days (21.3%)
• Hardware failures: 0 days (0%)
• Windows Failures: 1 days (1.1%)
• Misc failures: 0 days (0%)
• Total failure days: 19 days (21.3%)

Let’s now take a look at each of the categories in detail:

• Application failures:
  - CloneDVD mobile (CloneDVDmobile.exe): 11
  - Foxit Reader (foxit reader.exe): 10
  - Explorer (explorer.exe): 6
  - Crysis (crysis64.exe): 5
  - Internet Explorer 7 (iexplore.exe): 4
• Windows failures:
  - OS stopped working: 1

Here is an updated chart containing system upgrade details and information on some of the crashes.

Looking at this data I feel that overall the system has been very reliable - if I ignore the day when I had eleven CloneDVD mobile crashes and the two days when I had a handful of FoxIt PDF reader crashes (where I was hoping that re-running the application wouldn’t result in another crash …).

Over the past few months I have been aggressive in tracking down the causes of instability and eliminating these. Some of the steps I have taken to reduce problems are:

• Apply all patches and updates from Microsoft
• Update critical drivers (graphics card/chipset and so on)
• Flash the BIOS (companies like ASUS put out a lot of BIOS updates, and usually there are good reasons for this)
• Update applications that cause instability (if this isn’t possible, consider replacing the buggy applications with another)

It’s my believe that Windows Vista is about as stable and reliable as it’s going to be, and in my experience, Vista is as robust as XP, if not more so. Yes, it took time (maybe more time than it should) but the reliability is now there.

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Windows Mobile, like Windows itself, has had a checkered history. Early versions were maligned as being feature-poor and difficult to use. However, in a tale familiar to anyone who has followed Microsoft, the company stuck at it, and the portable operating system started to come into its own. The most recent release, Windows Mobile 6.0, added Vista-like themes to go along with a significant upgrade to the OS internals. Having conquered Palm in the dying PDA market, Windows Mobile was now ready to go toe-to-toe with other phone operating systems and platforms such as BlackBerry, Symbian and various Linux derivatives.

All seemed well in Windows Mobile land, but then Apple released the iPhone running a stripped-down version of OS X and a new multitouch user interface. Despite Steve Ballmer's prediction that the phone had "no chance" of gaining significant market share, a recent survey by Net Applications showed the iPhone actually overtaking Windows Mobile in web browsing share: 0.09 percent for the iPhone versus 0.06 percent for all Windows CE and Mobile devices put together. All of a sudden Windows Mobile phones seemed like they were stuck in the past, and minor UI annoyances stuck out like a sore thumb.

 

Never one to back down from a challenge, Microsoft is busily preparing both a minor UI refresh (Windows Mobile 6.1) and a major new release of the operating system (Windows Mobile 7.0). A gallery of screen shots from the 6.1 refresh compiled by Boy Genius shows an emphasis on simplification: the screens are more task-oriented and have less clutter than their immediate predecessor. A new and clearer font adorns the UI, and new features such as zooming, copy and paste in Internet Explorer, and auto-configuring ActiveSync for e-mails are sure to be welcome additions to the platform. In addition, Microsoft is making it easier (and more Windows-like) to switch tasks by adding a standardized task manager to the platform.

As far as Windows Mobile 7.0 goes, there are no leaked screen shots as of yet, but big changes are afoot. Microsoft plans to completely redo applications such as Internet Explorer, bringing the mobile browser up to par with Apple's Mobile Safari. The e-mail and SMS applications are also scheduled for complete rewrites. Microsoft plans to make the user interface even more consumer-friendly.

Beyond 7.0, Microsoft is even hinting at a completely redesigned Windows Mobile 8.0, which will again redo the internals of the operating system to keep up with newer and more powerful mobile hardware. Details for this release are scarce, although Microsoft promises features such as being able to go from a person's address in their contact info directly to a map view with directions to where they live. It all sounds like the iPhone really lit a fire under the posteriors of the Windows Mobile team, and that can only be good news for smartphone users. 

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DOVER, Del. - Two Detroit pension funds have sued Yahoo Inc. and its board of directors, saying they breached their duties to shareholders in trying to thwart a takeover by Microsoft Corp.

The lawsuit was filed in Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday by lawyers representing Detroit's police and fire retirement system and general retirement system, as well as "all other similarly situated public shareholders."

According to the lawsuit, Yahoo's board is pursuing "value-destructive" third-party deals in an effort to fight off Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, which on Feb. 1 announced a takeover bid of $31 per share in cash and stock, a 62 percent premium over Yahoo's previous day's closing price.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, whose shares closed unchanged at $28.42 on Friday, rejected Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid as inadequate, but indicated that it might be willing to negotiate if the price was right. Yahoo is believed to want at least $40 per share, or about $56 billion.

After rebuffing Microsoft, Yahoo reportedly began discussing a possible Internet partnership with media conglomerate News Corp., which owns the popular MySpace Web site, and exploring an advertising partnership with Google, its biggest rival.

The company also adopted new severance packages that would protect employees in the event of a Microsoft takeover, a move the lawsuit labels as a blatant effort to drive up the cost of an acquisition.

"Yahoo's directors cannot 'just say no' indefinitely to legitimate acquisition offers," the lawsuit reads. "Likewise, Yahoo's directors cannot pursue transactions that do not require shareholder approval for the primary purpose of making Yahoo unattractive to Microsoft."

A Yahoo spokeswoman did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

Microsoft has hired a proxy solicitation group to help oust the 10 members of Yahoo's board, all of whom are up for re-election this year.

"An imminent proxy fight necessitates judicial intervention since it poses a deadline for Yahoo's board to place shares in friendly hands," according to the plaintiffs, who allege that Yahoo board members have placed "personal distaste for Microsoft" ahead of shareholder welfare.

"Regardless of their emotional ties to Yahoo and their desire to retain their positions as directors at the company, the Yahoo directors owe fiduciary duties to Yahoo and its shareholders," the lawsuit states.

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Microsoft has increased storage on Windows Live Skydrive to 5GB, up by a multiple of five from its previous limit of 1GB (the 1GB having doubled the original 500mb in October).

Erick compared Skydrive to Gmail in an apples and oranges comparison last time; my Gmail account sits at 6.4gb today so Skydrive is still behind, having said that I’m not sure how many (average) people would use Gmail for online storage, so the comparison doesn’t make a lot of sense.

The more notable point is that Microsoft continues to grow its online storage offering when Google simply hasn’t launched the fabled Platypus online storage solution despite years of speculation and rumors. This is one space where Microsoft has the upper hand, and a 4gb storage jump will further increase the appeal of the product.

On top of the extra storage, Windows Live Skydrive has dropped the beta tag, and is now available in the following additional countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.

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