Microsoft

Microsoft lawyers will be relieved today after the Chinese government appeared to deny reports that the company could fall foul of new anti-trust laws. The denial follows a report in a government-run newspaper, Shanghai Security News, which said ... officials were investigating large software companies. The report claimed local tech firms might bring legal action under laws which come into force on August 1. The main objection seemed to be that Microsoft has used its dominance in the Chinese market to price Windows (the equivalent of US $145-290) and Microsoft Office ($580-725) so high that the ... (view more)

Microsoft is launching a centre in Europe to study search technology, following the example of a similar facility in China. According to the firm, it's part of a specific plan to "help accelerate Microsoft's investments in Live Search and disrupt ... the search and advertising marketplace." That appears to be corporate speak for "compete better against Google and Yahoo". There's no official word yet on where Microsoft will choose as a site for the facility, though it has recently bought Fast Search and Transfer, a search engine company based in Norway that developed the AllTheWeb.com site. ... (view more)

Industry analysts are scratching their heads after Microsoft recently decided to join a project measuring how people are using open source software. The Open Source Census is run by OpenLogic, a company that aims to help organisations obtain, use ... and control open source software -- programs where the underlying code is open to everyone to see and to share ideas on improving it. The project launched in April and has so far taken details from more than 200,000 places where open source software is being used. It's got several industry backers, but Microsoft has become by far the biggest. It's ... (view more)

Not so long ago (April, in fact), Microsoft revealed it would be extending its support of the Windows XP operating system to ultra low-cost PCs (ULCPCs) for a year after the release of the next Windows (currently named Windows 7). Last week, ... Microsoft followed up that announcement with news it would be extending the same support to Nettops, or very, very cheap desktops. Microsoft's announcement at Computex marks another potential black eye for Windows Vista. It could, and perhaps should lead many analysts to speculate that Microsoft is growing increasingly prepared to quietly skip its latest ... (view more)

Microsoft has found yet another way of promoting its Live.com search engine: targeting those people who either mistype a page address or follow a duff link. It's thought that this happens between 2% and 10% of the time when people try to visit a ... page on a major website. Normally when that happens, you get what's known as a '404' page. That's a reference to the relevant Internet error code, which means that your computer was able to contact the relevant server, but couldn't get a response to your specific request. In most cases, you'll simply get a standard message -- depending on which ... (view more)

The Google-Microsoft-Yahoo search software love triangle seems to have finally settled down, but now it seems the players will be battling to hook up with hardware firms. Microsoft has just announced a deal with HP to make 'Live Search' the default ... search engine on the firm's computers. The agreement covers all machines sold in the US and Canada from next January on. The HP machines will now come with Live.com set as the home page on Internet Explorer, which will also include a toolbar with a Microsoft search box and links to HP's online services. Google did a similar deal with Dell, HP's ... (view more)

Officials in India, Brazil and South Africa have all filed official protests against an international decision backing Microsoft's controversial 'open' document format. Office Open XML (OOXML) is Microsoft's own invented format where documents (such ... as those created in word processors or spreadsheets) are designed to work on all computers regardless of what software is being used. The problem is that there's already an open format named OpenDocument which was created by an independent organisation. Critics say it's redundant to have a second open format -- by definition there only needs to be ... (view more)

At this week's All Things Digital conference, Bill Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled plans for the new Windows 7, to be released next year. The program will not be a major departure from the previous operating system Vista, but will ... include some important improvements, as well as some innovative developments. As many techies and clients will agree, Vista has been the source of some controversy and may be one of Microsoft's bigger botch-ups. Ballmer has emphasized that Windows 7 will improve upon some of Vista's failings, like decreasing the "overzealous security controls" and ... (view more)

As technology doesn't seem to be helping Microsoft in the search engine wars, the firm is resorting to a tactic that predates computing itself: bribery. Registered users of Live.com will be paid every time they visit a dedicated 'Live Search ... cashback' site, click on a search result to a participating website and then make a purchase. The amount they'll 'earn' will be a portion of the sale price set by the retailer and, once the user has racked up $5, they'll be paid through Paypal, online bank account, or check. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) In most cases, customers will earn money for every product ... (view more)

In Part 1, Microsoft attempted to takeover Yahoo, but withdrew after discussions proved unfruitful. In this installment, Carl Icahn rides in to resurrect the deal and investors start to line up behind him. Will Jerry Yang and his crew fall to the ... Icahn raiders? We'll find out soon enough. May 3, 2008: After four months of phone calls, sit downs, dueling press releases and letters, Steven Ballmer officially withdraws Microsoft's offer to acquire Yahoo. (Source: microsoft.com ) May 5, 2008: Billionaire investor and hostile takeover veteran, Carl Icahn begins to increase his ownership of Yahoo ... (view more)