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.

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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.

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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’

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Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer wowed an audience of government ministers and company executives at the opening of Microsoft’s new corporate HQ in France when he gave a ten minute speech entirely in French. Guests and dignitaries were apparently not expecting to be spoken to in their own language by one of the most important men in the computer industry.

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Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz has angrily asked the media to stop talking about the £47.5 billion dollar Microsoft buyout rejected by her predecessor late last year. The head of the number two search engine is apparently tired of hearing about the deal, stating…

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You’ll probably know by now, whether from this blog or one of the hundreds of others that have been covering this, that Microsoft have named their new search engine ‘bing.’ Now, to some that name may seem like just a random title picked out of the air at great expense by a marketing firm, however, to Mr. Steven Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft it is a clever marketing ploy rich in potential to become a household name.

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The European Union has set a rough date of June the 3rd – 5th for an oral antitrust hearing to allow Microsoft to defend their practice of bundling Internet Explorer with their Windows package.

The EU have been investigating whether or not the practice is anti-competitive since last year, if they find in against Microsoft then, it is though the company could be in for yet another sizable fine from the European regulatory body.

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It appears, unofficially at least, that Microsoft has accepted the total lack of love for Vista exhibited by the world’s computer users. In all official communications the company is remaining fiercely loyal to its troubled Vista operating system, even halting free customer support for XP in an effort to move people on quicker. Unofficially however, the company appears to have accepted that XP is not going to die easily and could even be around into the next decade. In response to this, they have allowed computer manufacturers to continue offering XP as the OS on new systems.

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Microsoft, which is currently in the process of being sued by the European Union for violating antitrust laws, has been granted an extension of the deadline for them to respond to the allegations facing them. The new deadline has been set for April the 21st. The extension is a significant act of good faith on the part of the European Union – the body is not usually in the habit of granting extensions of this nature. It is thought that the size of the company and the large-scale nature of the infringement are factors in its decision to do so in this case.

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Earlier in the week we reported that Microsoft was internally testing a new search engine named Kumo. Technical details are still sketchy – presumably it’s being tested internally for a reason – though one thing we can do is explain the name Kumo.

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Google is a strong proponent of self regulation and governments staying out of the affairs of online companies. Except of course where its competitors are concerned, then it couldn’t be more in favour of government imposition and control. That’s why the search engine giant has decided to not only publically support the European Commission’s investigation of Internet Explorer (Google Chrome’s key competitor) but to actively participate in it.

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Times are hard at the Microsoft PR department currently, what with the company demanding money from recently sacked workers after severance miscalculations. However, it’s not all bad news, the department are currently in the process of announcing something that casts Microsoft in an awfully good light indeed – free technology courses.

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Microsoft have announced that they are to open a chain of real-world retail stores around the US. Microsoft hopes that the move will help the software manufacturer compete with Apple, whose glossy shops have done a lot to help bolster their brand over the years.

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Earlier in the week we reported that many companies who had chosen not to update to Windows Vista were finally prepared to update to Windows 7 when it came out. In response to this softening of attitude amongst the business community, Microsoft immediately began managing expectations warning that those users who skip Vista may experience compatibility issues from upgrading straight to Windows 7. Today they have made themselves clear about exactly what was meant by that.

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