Microsoft have given a major helping hand to Windows users this week by releasing an all new version of its “fix it” software designed to keep an eye on a PC and repair common faults automatically with no fuss (apparently). (more…)

Online rumours have been rife for months regarding Microsoft’s imminent announcement of their iPad rival. The dual screen tablet named ‘Courier’ has not actually been spoken of directly by anyone at Microsoft until this week. (more…)

As we reported on the Top Click Media blog in recent weeks, the implementation of the browser ballot box by Microsoft has gone live, and it would seem that the chief protagonists of the new system, Opera, have benefited the most. (more…)

It would appear that Microsoft’s relentless marketing of its Bing search engine is beginning to pay off at the expense of Yahoo. The last couple of months have seen Microsoft release a number of advertisements in the UK as well as a lucrative sponsorship deal with The Simpsons on Channel 4 in the hope of increasing the number of users flocking to Bing. (more…)

Microsoft’s latest attempt at world domination has been announced this week – they have revealed their new on-demand video service.

Much like the already popular 4od and iPlayer from Channel 4 and the BBC respectively, the MSN video player will offer viewers more than 1000 hours of popular shows both old and new. (more…)

2010 has been a year of major competition between the internets ‘big 3’ of Microsoft, Yahoo and Google as each of them form partnerships and make new deals in the hope of overhauling the other two. So it comes as no surprise that Microsoft has revealed their new MSN homepage to its 100 million users in the United States. (more…)

It is quite rare these days to find an internet user that frequents both the Microsoft Outlook e-mail program and the often forgotten spawn of social networking that is MySpace. The former is often used by people with a lot of e-mail accounts usually for work and the later by teenagers hoping to get their attempt at a chart topper heard. (more…)

You have to admire the sheer tenacity of Microsoft. It is well noted that Google completely dominate the search engine market with a massive 86% of the global market, whilst Microsoft’s Bing has a meagre 3.4% share. Despite this, Microsoft have embarked on an aggressive advertising campaign in the UK in the hope of at least stealing second place from Yahoo. (more…)

A deal struck by two online superpowers, Microsoft and Yahoo has been cleared by European Union and US regulators. First announced in July 2009, clearance by regulators will see Microsoft allowed to buy Yahoo’s internet search and search advertisement business. This move comes as Microsoft attempt to increase their share in the Google dominated online search engine market. (more…)

Two giants of the online world, Microsoft and Facebook, have come together to form a mutually beneficial agreement. The companies have decided to revise their search pact into a global deal. This would mean that the social networking behemoth Facebook will sell its own advertisements and receive more of Bing’s features on its web results. (more…)

No one would be surprised to learn of delight at Microsoft related to the news that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, are thinking of removing their content, which includes some of the world’s most popular newspapers and television channels, from Google. There is famously no love lost between the companies. However, few commentators would have expected Microsoft to wade in, in quite the style they are thought to be contemplating. (more…)

As you may have heard, if you’ve been paying attention, MySpace/News Corp are currently in the process of trying to sell Photobucket, the video and image sharing service it acquired for $250 million dollars with an additional $50 million earnout in 2007. The buyer is a company called Ontela, who come with 40 million backing from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures arm. The deal with Ontela is thought to be at an advanced stage though sources close to both companies are putting the valuation at around $60 million, an 83% reduction from what MySpace paid. (more…)

Another day, another display of pettiness from a member of the digital elite. Hot on the heels of Google bigwigs refusing to refer to Twitter by name, referring to it instead as ‘micro-blogging’ (as if we don’t know who they mean), Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has gone out of his way to avoid mentioning Google in a recent interview. When TechCrunch interviewed the Microsoft head this week, he refused to call their main search competitor by name, referring to the company repeatedly as, ‘the incumbent’.

It does seem a little small of him though some might say that Google started it. Many people saw the inclusion of the phrase ‘do no evil’ in the Google charter as a subtle dig at Microsoft, implying of course that the previous ‘most powerful company in computing’ had done some evil.

It’s hard to see what, if anything, Ballmer’s playing at by doing this. It might be that he’s trying to avoid giving Google free publicity or implying that he believes they are the market leaders at all… Or, on the other hand, he might just have been feeling a bit tetchy at being very much not the incumbent currently.

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer has put an end to persistent rumours that the world’s premier software manufacturer is looking to move into the burgeoning ebook reader market. Speaking at an event in the Netherlands, Ballmer informed a room full of journalists in no uncertain terms that Microsoft had no interest in doing so. The Microsoft head stated that the company already had ‘A device for reading. It’s the most popular device in the world. It’s the PC’ (more…)