Business Tech

Microsoft has begun a campaign to actively urge users of its 8-year-old Internet Explorer 6 browser to upgrade.

After launching IE 8 in March, Micosoft has concurred with critics that IE 6 is outdated. Many people have dropped the older browser, but the remaining users are often the tough cases--those who don't have a choice because of corporate computing policy or who aren't tech-savvy enough to realize there's a reason to move on.

It's this latter population Microsoft is targeting with a campaign that runs through June 2010 that touts its own IE 8 as a better alternative. The campaign's first visible elements are a video aimed at online holiday shoppers and a Web slice to promote daily deals at eBay. Web slices are basically live bookmarks that can show miniature Web pages in the browser.

"What we're doing with the outreach is help users understand how to protect themselves against social engineering threats that exist and to help people understand how Internet Explorer 8 puts people in control of their own privacy online," said Ryan Servatius, senior product manager for Internet Explorer. Security was one of the big problems with IE 6, and Microsoft now boasts that security features in IE 8 block 2 million malware sites a day.

According to Net Applications' statistics, Internet Explorer 6 is still the most widely used browser, with 23.3 percent share of usage in October, followed by IE 7 at 18.2 percent and IE 8 at 18.1 percent. The newer browsers are gaining on IE 6, but so are rivals including Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Google's Chrome.

Web developers often gripe about having to support IE 6, which doesn't support many modern features for more sophisticated Web sites and even applications. Microsoft acknowledges that it's holding back development of the Internet, too.

"The best thing a user can do to advance the Web is to help move people off IE 6," Servatius said.

Of course, many will upgrade to IE 8 by buying Windows 7. IE 6 was the browser that shipped with Windows XP, which remains entrenched, but there are signs Windows 7 is a more compelling successor than Windows Vista. That could help the corporate customers move away from IE 6, Servatius said.

"As enterprises migrate from whatever operating system they're using today to Windows 7, that's going to help deprecate IE 6," he said. "What we're doing is working both with consumers worldwide and IT professionals to help them understand what the benefits of a modern browser are."

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell is leaving the company at the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday.

Liddell has been Microsoft's CFO since 2005, but the past 18 months have been especially long, as Microsoft debated whether to acquire Yahoo and navigated the choppy waters of the recession with its first-ever companywide layoffs. He will be replaced by Peter Klein, who had been serving as CFO of the company's Business Division, which develops and sells Microsoft Office.

In a statement, Liddell said he was looking to do something with his career beyond serving in the chief finance role.

"Chris and his finance team have accomplished a great deal over the past four and a half years. The team is deep and strong, and has an excellent record of building value for our shareholders," CEO Steve Ballmer said in prepared remarks distributed by Microsoft.

As of the close of Tuesday's stock market, the value of Microsoft's stock had increased by 18 percent since Liddell made his debut as CFO.

This story was clarified on Wednesday to reflect that the layoffs referenced above were Microsoft's first companywide layoffs. In the past, the company has cut jobs in specific units.

Developers get a full rundown on the cloud-based Azure OS and some tidbits about Microsoft's next browser, along with a beta of Office 2010.

Sinofsky's Windows plan: More data, less testosterone

In an interview, the president of Microsoft's Windows unit tells CNET why he does things the way he does.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 20, 2009 10:19 AM PST

Windows boss on building his first laptop

In an interview, Steven Sinofsky talks about what he learned as Microsoft partnered with Acer to build a laptop to give away to developers.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 19, 2009 4:00 AM PST

With IE 9, Microsoft fights back in browser wars

By showing its first glimpses of technology in Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft also is showing it's serious about building a competitive browser.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 18, 2009 3:02 PM PST

Office 2010 beta goes public

The test version is being released in conjunction with Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. New features include a mechanism for connecting Outlook to social networks.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 18, 2009 10:15 AM PST

Windows Azure containers on display in LA

Microsoft has transported one of its data center containers to Los Angeles, giving PDC attendees a chance to see just what the cloud-based operating system is running on.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 18, 2009 10:00 AM PST

PDC Day 2 live blog: Office 2010, IE9 on stage

Microsoft talks about Office 2010, shows Silverlight 4, and shares the first details on Internet Explorer 9.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 18, 2009 8:28 AM PST

Ray Ozzie's view from the clouds

In an interview with CNET, Microsoft's software chief talks about Windows Azure, lessons learned from the Sidekick fiasco, and a future in which devices record everything imaginable.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 18, 2009 4:00 AM PST

Internet Explorer 9 not coming at PDC

Microsoft to talk broadly about plans for the next browser, but won't offer a preview version or announce a rumored move to the WebKit engine, CNET has learned.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 17, 2009 10:21 AM PST

Ozzie talks Azure and more

Microsoft's chief software architect kicks off the company's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles by announcing the formal launch of the cloud-based OS.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 17, 2009 8:14 AM PST

Office 2010 beta available for developers

The updated test version is now available to members of Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet developer programs.
•  Office 2010 beta leaks early
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 16, 2009 1:45 PM PST

At PDC, Microsoft's (r)evolution on display

A key developer conference this week will reveal just how much progress Ray Ozzie has made in his efforts to remake Redmond for the cloud-computing era.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 16, 2009 4:00 AM PST

Microsoft and a former employee have settled litigation involving allegations of patent infringement and trade secret theft.

Microsoft sued a former employee earlier this year for allegedly stealing trade secrets that were later used in a patent lawsuit against Microsoft partners, in which Microsoft later intervened as a party-defendant.

All parties deny any liability in the settlement, the terms of which were not disclosed, Miki Mullor, founder of Ancora Technologies, said in a statement.

Microsoft's lawsuit alleged that Mullor took a job at Microsoft in 2005 while he was still chief executive at Ancora. While working on the Windows team, Mullor allegedly downloaded confidential documents, according to the suit. Shortly thereafter, Ancora sued Dell, HP, and Toshiba claiming that their use of Microsoft technology violated a patent held by Ancora. Microsoft fired Mullor last year.

"I am pleased with this resolution and wish my friends at Microsoft's Windows division nothing but success with Windows 7 launch," Mullor said in the statement.

A Microsoft spokesman confirmed the settlement but said the company had no further comment.

As you may remember, in Microsoft's most recent round of layoffs, the company laid off Director of Business Development Don Dodge. Dodge is very respected in the start-up community and tirelessly defended Microsoft's technologies at conferences and to developers during his time at the company. When he was let go, many people were shocked by the move and were watching intently to see who would pick him up. On Monday, Dodge announced on his blog that he will be joining Google in a similar capacity to his role at Microsoft.

Now, Dodge will focus on evangelizing Google's technologies and platforms, instead of Microsoft's, to the developer community. Dodge said that within 90 minutes of the news of his layoff becoming public, Vic Gundotra, Google's VP of engineering (who also came from Microsoft), contacted him about this job opportunity with the company. On his blog, Dodge claims that he has already switched over to Gmail, Google Apps, and Chrome from their Microsoft counterparts.

It's great to see that Dodge landed on his feet so quickly after being ousted from his position at Microsoft and he will likely be a great asset to Google in dealing with the developer community.

This week's Supercomputing 2009 in Portland, Ore., puts the spotlight on the highest of high-end computing systems.

Intel unveils supercomputer chip, NEC partnership

The chipmaker has disclosed a version of its Xeon processor line optimized for high-performance computing. The company also announces it's teaming up with NEC.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
November 16, 2009 1:35 PM PST

Microsoft testing Excel for supercomputers

At the SC09 conference, Microsoft releases an updated version of Windows Server for high-performance computers as well as a compute cluster version of its Excel spreadsheet.
(Posted in Beyond Binary by Ina Fried)
November 16, 2009 9:40 AM PST

Jaguar supercomputer races past Roadrunner in Top500

The Cray XT5 supercomputer known as "Jaguar" finally bests IBM after three tries. The top 10, while still dominated by supercomputers housed in the U.S., had just one newcomer.
(Posted in Circuit Breaker by Erica Ogg)
November 15, 2009 9:00 PM PST

previous coverage

Roadrunner supercomputer maps HIV family tree

Researchers are using IBM's Roadrunner to analyze tens of thousands of genetic sequences from individuals with HIV in the hopes of zeroing in on vaccine target areas.
(Posted in Health Tech by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore)
October 28, 2009 6:25 PM PDT

Supercomputer to use new Nvidia 'Fermi' chip

Oak Ridge National Laboratory announces plans for a new supercomputer that will use Nvidia's next generation GPU architecture.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
September 30, 2009 3:05 PM PDT

How Intel's supercomputer almost used HP chips

In the 1990s, Intel seriously considered building the world's fastest supercomputer with a rival's processors, but the Pentium Pro arrived in time after all.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
September 22, 2009 8:09 AM PDT

In a bit of a Thanksgiving appetizer, many companies were beefing up their structures by--as one of my colleagues put it--gobbling up other companies.

The biggest deal was announced by Hewlett-Packard, which plans to acquire 3Com, maker of network switching and routing products. The deal is valued at $2.7 billion, or $7.90 per share. HP says the purchase is intended to boost its networking business, particularly in China, where most of 3Com's business is focused.

The 3Com deal is the most recent in a string of enterprise-related acquisitions HP has made in the past year, including most recently file serving software maker Ibrix. HP wants to be a leader in providing customers with an integrated stack of computing technology ranging from servers and storage at the foundation all the way up to services.

Other deals

EA picks up Playfish for social gaming push

Electronic Arts makes some serious waves in the social gaming by acquiring Playfish for $275 million in cash and $25 million in equity.
•  A new set of rules for social games

Google to acquire AdMob for $750 million

Mobile advertising is AdMob's specialty, and the deal gives Google a technology inroad into a fast-growing segment of online advertising.
•  With AdMob, Google seeks mobile-ad advantage

Logitech buys video-conferencing firm LifeSize

Acquisition puts the maker of Webcams and other peripherals into the video-conferencing market.

More headlines

Intel to pay AMD $1.25 billion in antitrust settlement

AMD drops its litigation while Intel agrees to "abide by" a long list of prohibitions. And renewed patent cross-license agreement frees AMD to spin off chip manufacturing.
•  What Intel just bought for $1.25 billion: Less risk
•  AMD-Intel deal: No big change for consumers
•  AMD: Our claims about Intel have been 'ratified'

Windows 7 use continues to climb

It now makes up 4 percent of Web-accessing computers, a mark that took Windows Vista nearly seven months to reach.
•  Microsoft pulls Windows 7 download tool
•  Microsoft probing Windows 7 zero-day hole

Microsoft bans 1 million Xbox Live players

Players who were caught modifying their consoles to play pirated games have been booted from the popular service.
•  Craigslist brimming with banned, 'modded' Xboxes

Google hopes to remake programming with Go

A Unix co-creator is among those behind a language Google hopes will speed computers and programming. Today, Go becomes open-source software.
•  Google hopes Go will give a browser boost

Research: Twitter has yet to grow into valuation

Company is worth significantly less than $1 billion, one company surmises. That's in part because the effectiveness of its possible business plan is still up in the air.
•  Judge bans Twitter from court
•  Twitter issues mulligan on new 'retweet' feature
•  Mint makes Twitter an investor hub

Microsoft denies Windows 7 is based on Mac OS

Following comments from a U.K. Microsoft executive that Windows 7 was designed to create "a Mac Look," a company blog post distances itself from his words.
•  Microsoft exec: Mac OS inspired Windows 7

Verizon tests sending RIAA copyright notices

The No. 2 phone company, known for its reluctance to intervene in antipiracy cases, has struck an agreement to forward copyright notices on behalf of the music industry.
•  Even in media mecca, plenty are willing to pirate
•  Former RIAA chief tries to save Qtrax image

Expert says Adobe Flash policy is risky

Adobe Flash Player allows arbitrary content to access applications without permission, says researcher at Foreground Security.

As alternative energy grows, NIMBY turns green

With more renewable energy projects trying to come online, the country grapples with the balance between local land use and a national push for clean energy.
•  Students pitch green businesses for greenbacks

Also of note
•  Bill Gates' home tour on charity auction block
•  U.S. Army orders bridges made of recycled plastic
•  Facebook status update saves man from jail

SINGAPORE--In a year, most enterprises will have the choice to "get rid" of Microsoft Office if they so choose, suggests Dave Girouard, president of Google's enterprise division.

Girouard said in an interview here with ZDNet Asia that he expects Google's online suite of applications, Google Docs, to reach a "point of capability" next year that it will serve the "vast majority's needs."

He acknowledged that Docs is currently "much less mature" than Google Mail or Calendar. "We know it. We wouldn't ask people to get rid of Microsoft Office and use Google Docs because it is not mature yet," he said.

But this is expected to change in about a year, after the company's introduces another "30 to 50" updates.

Read more of "Google: Firms can 'get rid' of Office in a year" at ZDNet Asia.

Microsoft on Monday released a software development kit for Facebook that allows developers to create Facebook applications for Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation. This should expand the reach of Facebook in third-party applications as well as make Silverlight and WPF more viable platforms for developers looking to build social applications.

The SDK comes complete with samples and tools to develop Facebook applications in ASP.NET, Silverlight, WPF, and WinForms. It also features the source code for the API, components, controls, and samples.

There are currently other libraries available that allow Facebook developers to develop with other technologies, such as JavaScript, PHP, ActionScript, and the iPhone. There are a variety of others as well, which can be seen here, but these are the ones that Facebook officially provides support for.

Microsoft, as you may remember, invested $240 million in Facebook back in October 2007. Many called this move more of a strategic play to keep Google and Yahoo from getting a stake in the company. The release of this SDK is a part of Facebook and Microsoft's ongoing partnership.

If you're interested in taking a look, you can download the SDK here.