2011

Rumor: Microsoft and Baidu to reach a search deal in China

Bing and BaiduAccording to Business Insider, a Chinese press DoNews.com is reporting that Microsoft is closing in on a deal with Baidu, currently China’s largest search engine, as soon as this coming weekend. According to the site:

Microsoft is close to

Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector compulsory update, with major bug fixes

Microsoft Outlook Hotmail ConnectorMicrosoft released an compulsory update to its Outlook Hotmail Connector today to its customers, updating the version number to 14.0.5139.5001. All existing users of the connector will be prompted to update to the newer version in order to continue using …

Bing continues incremental search share rise

The new comScore US search market share numbers are out for April, and they show another incremental (13.9% to 14.1%) rise.  The rising trend, starting basically back when Bing was announced in June 2009, is accompanied this time by …

Office Web Apps Service update: Excel, PowerPoint

The Office Web apps Service just got an update. This update brings more features to the Excel and PowerPoint Web apps as well as more optimization for IE9.

New Features:

Excel Web App

You can now insert, delete or …

MSFT-Skype: the interesting tidbits

05-10Ballmer_Bates_webYesterday, Microsoft announced that Skype had agreed to an unsolicited bid, negotiated to $8.5 billion.  The news, of course, came as quite a surprise.  Skype was slated to begin proceedings to announce an IPO (Initial Public Offering), to take the …

It’s confirmed: Microsoft to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion

Skype on Windows Phone 7Our previous reports earlier today indicating that Microsoft to acquire Skype has been confirmed, with Microsoft releasing a press release this morning announcing that the internet communications company will be bought for $8.5 billion, the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. …

Bing Maps: AJAX 7.0 Interactive SDK

To make it easier on developers to find corresponding code and events for use in applications, the Bing Maps team has released an interactive SDK for their AJAX Control 7.0.

AJAX 7.0 interactive SDK

The left hand navigation shows you all the major features …

Microsoft to announce Skype deal: “What does it mean?”

double-rainbow-guyAccording to numerous sources, Microsoft is set to announce a $7 $8 8.5 billion dollar deal to acquire Skype, as soon as early Tuesday morning (apparently a press release is forthcoming at 5am PDT).  Even for a company that loses …

Microsoft to buy Skype? $7 billion deal, says WSJ

skypeYesterday Om Malik reported that negotiations to buy Skype, at first a two horse race between Google and Facebook, had taken an interesting turn with new of interest from Microsoft.  Now, a day later, the Wall St. Journal is

Windows Azure Toolkits for iOS, Android and Windows Phone announced

Today, Microsoft announced Windows Azure Toolkits for Devices, consisting of assets for Windows Phone, iOS and Android. Using the toolkits, developers can use the cloud to accelerate the creation of applications on the major mobile platforms.

Windows Azure Toolkit