Microsoft

Is Microhoo silence a sign of progress?

When Microsoft and Yahoo were basically not speaking to one another, there was plenty of chatter and posturing from both sides.

Since that primping and posturing has largely died down (save Yahoo's recent road show with investors), does that mean the two companies are finally getting down to business?

Now it could be that the two companies have nothing to say because each is waiting for the other. But even that would be something to talk about. What makes companies really quiet is when there is something, but things are still fragile. I'm not claiming inside info on … Read more

Silicon Valley and the Zen way

We're all familiar with the notion that Silicon Valley's roots lie in the Bay Area's adventure-seeking gold rush history and the mind-expanding experiments and hippie culture of the 60s.

But you may have not realized that there are strong links between the tech start-up mindset and the Buddhist philosophy of Zen.

A blog called ValleyZen is exploring that connection.

"We believe there is a strong link between Zen and technology. The Silicon Valley spirit is incredibly Zen," says Drue Kataoka, a master Sumi-e Japanese brush painting artist who launched the blog in January with Bill … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 689: Mousetronauts

Please, someone, make a Mousetronauts show. We're begging you. In other news, cell phones on airplanes appear to be coming to European airspace near you. Comcast and Time Warner are lining up behind WiMax, and South Park is coming online -- for free! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 689

Approval for mobiles on aircraft http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7314362.stm

TiVo's take: It's a Comcast mistake http://cultureofownership.org/?p=24

Comcast and Time Warner to bankroll WiMax joint venture http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9903411-7.html

Motorola to split into two, … Read more

With Firefox 3, Microsoft has reason to worry

In the chronology of Internet browsers, Netscape came out earlier, but Microsoft figured out a way to do most of the same things at least as well, if not better. It didn't hurt that the company violated the law as it mobilized to crush a nascent challenge to its desktop monopoly.

Still, it's an incorrect rewrite of history to explain the triumph of Internet Explorer solely in terms of antitrust violations. Fact is that by the time Microsoft got around to the third incarnation of its Web browser, IE was arguably as good--if not better--than Netscape. We all … Read more

Google U.S. search market share up, Yahoo down

Updated 2:55 p.m. PST with January and year-ago figures for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Google's market share for Web search in the U.S. rose in February to 58.7 percent, up from January and the same period a year ago, while Yahoo's, at 17.6 percent, was down compared with the same periods, according to data released Wednesday by Nielsen.

In January, Google had 56.9 percent share and Yahoo had 19 percent share. A year ago, Google's share was 55.8 percent and Yahoo's was 20.7 percent.

February share at MSN/… Read more

Microsoft's dilemma: The importance of the downstream

The most critical element that emerged from Brad Smith's OSBC keynote is the importance of protecting the downstream. By "downstream" I mean those users who may come into contact with open-source software beyond the immediate licensee. One of the benefits of open source is that once released under a certain license, the code endures under that license.

Patents foul the water. As emerged from the question-and-answer period, while Microsoft may prefer to deal with other "cathedrals" (e.g., its agreements with Novell, LG, etc.), in open source you simply can't avoid the bazaar (e.g., downstream developers who may come into contact with the code). This is why at Microsoft's Mix conference, Mozilla's Mike Schroepfer took issue with Miguel de Icaza's suggestion that his Moonlight code is protected from patent claims:

During the discussion, de Icaza explained that anyone who downloaded Moonlight from Novell was protected by the company's licensing of Silverlight codecs from Microsoft through the company's own cross-licensing agreement. Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering from Mozilla, then raised the question that if he downloads and then distributes the code for Moonlight, would he get the patent protection?… Read more

Does Microsoft need a value menu?

Microsoft has been tight-lipped about the "Albany" product that it has just started testing, but ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley hears it might be a consumer bundle that includes Windows Live OneCare, Office Live Workspace, and Office Home and Student Edition.

The product, which apparently also goes by the name "ValueBox" may be an attempt to beef up the consumer version of Office amid stepped-up competition from Google Docs and other free and online competitors.

It strikes me, though, that Microsoft may be looking at ways to protect the Home and Student version of Office, a … Read more

Get over it already. Microsoft is not the Anti-Christ

Give Brad Smith credit: he didn't wuss out in front of a potentially hostile crowd.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Microsoft's top lawyer got on stage at a open-source conference in San Francisco and tried to find common ground with the audience.

In the end, it was mission accomplished, and he commanded a nice ovation from the crowd. Still, it's clear that a big divide separating Microsoft from open-source advocates remains.

Smith was sent to the conference to offer another olive branch. Open source raises all sorts of intriguing--and thorny--problems for Microsoft, which still struggles to coexist with a … Read more

Mail Trends looks deep into your in-box

Sorting out the overload of e-mail is one of the mostly unsolved problems of computing. The first step is analyzing your in-box, which is what Google developer Mihai Parparita has done with Mail Trends, a program that lets users analyze and visualize their inbox.

Mail Trends, which is similar to Google Reader Trends, extracts data from IMAP servers and displays statistics such as distribution of messages by year, month, day, day of week, and time of day; distribution by message size; a breakdown of top senders, recipients, and mailing lists; distribution of senders, recipients, and mailing lists over time; and … Read more