Beyond Binary

SAN FRANCISCO--Just days after launching Internet Explorer 8 in March 2009, Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch wrote a memo about what the company really needed to do with the next version of its browser.

"A browser is only as good as the underlying operating system," the head of the IE team said in an e-mail to his staff and others at Microsoft. "We have amazing opportunities to differentiate IE because of the underlying strengths of Windows. Our broad opportunity is making Windows the best place to experience the web."

Internet Explorer, he knew, needed to run much … Read more

Although Yahoo still leads Bing in most measures of search market share, Microsoft's search engine has passed up Yahoo, according to one tracking firm.

Nielsen, which says its numbers reflect only queries typed into a search box, has Bing at 13.9 percent, just ahead of Yahoo's 13.1 percent. Google is still the dominant market leader with roughly 65 percent of the market.

In the past year, Yahoo has seen its share slip 2.9 percentage points, while Microsoft's search engine has gained 3.2 percentage points. Google is little changed from a year earlier. And … Read more

Microsoft's top lawyer said on Monday that the company is taking action in the wake of a report that its antipiracy efforts have been used by the Russian government as a means to monitor computers of dissident groups in that country.

In a blog post, general counsel Brad Smith said that the company is hiring an outside law firm to investigate a report in The New York Times that the Russian government has used Microsoft's antipiracy efforts as a pretext to search computers of potential dissidents and, separately, that some lawyers hired by Microsoft have worked with corrupt … Read more

Microsoft's Windows Phone team staged a mock funeral for the iPhone and BlackBerry on Friday, a sign of both Redmond's ambition and the immensity of the challenge facing the new phone operating system, which is slated to hit the market next month.

Two hearses were among a dozen floats that were part of a parade that took place on campus on Friday to celebrate the completion of a total overhaul of Microsoft's cell phone strategy.

Photos of the event turned up on Flickr, but Microsoft was less than eager to talk about the goings-on.

"The Microsoft … Read more

Microsoft plans to hold a consumer press event in New York next month that will serve as, among other things, a formal kick-off for Windows Phone 7, CNET has confirmed.

The October 11 event isn't a pure Windows Phone launch, but rather a consumer-focused "open house" similar to a holiday event Microsoft held last year in New York, according to a source familiar with the company's plans. Further details on the October event were not immediately available.

While Windows Phone 7 will be a major focus, the open house won't necessarily mark the availability of … Read more

Users of Microsoft's hosted versions of Exchange and SharePoint have had to endure a bumpy last couple of weeks, with at least three service interruptions or outages.

Microsoft said in a blog post this week that all of the issues were related to a change in networking infrastructure that the company made last month. The company attempted to fix the issue after a two-hour service interruption on August 23, but the fix didn't solve everything and there were further problems on September 3 and again on Tuesday.

"We aspire to deliver quality services, and in the last … Read more

Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, is leaving the software giant to become chief executive of Nokia as the phone maker seeks to become a software company.

Nokia said in a press release late Thursday it has hired Elop to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who will leave his position as CEO on September 20. Kallasvuo, a 30-year Nokia veteran, will also leave the company's board but remains non-executive chairman of Nokia Siemens Networks.

"The time is right to accelerate the company's renewal to bring in new executive leadership with different skills and strengths in order to … Read more

Microsoft said on Thursday that it is ready with a public beta of the next version of its CRM software, a program for midsize businesses to track their clients.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, as the program is known, can be purchased either as server software or as a hosted service. The current version CRM 4, is available in hosted form from Microsoft only in the U.S. and Canada. With the new release, which is due in final form by the end of the year, Microsoft is expanding the hosted option to more than 40 countries.

In an interview this week, … Read more

Microsoft on Wednesday is launching Redu, a Bing-powered site that aims to act as a "homeroom" for people interested in learning more about the state of American schools. The Web site, to which Microsoft plans to link from Bing.com, aspires to be an online hub for those looking to donate to schools, volunteer locally, or work in education.

"This new site is a great way to galvanize interest and focus on public education," Pamela Passman, vice president of corporate affairs at Microsoft, said in an interview Tuesday.

Among its features is a Bing Map that … Read more