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Microsoft places its future in the hands of Cloud Computing

Matt Thomas — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:06:39 +0000

As its war with Apple rages on Microsoft continue to try to lead the market in terms of innovation, at a recent speech at the University of Washington, their chief executive Steve Ballmer explained exactly how they are planning to do it.

The key seems to lie in cloud based computing services which Ballmer claims that he will “bet the company” on its success. He also stated that a massive 70% of Microsoft’s employees are currently working on cloud based project’s, a figure that he is certain will rise to 90% by the end of the year. So it would it seem that Microsoft really are putting all their eggs in one basket, Mr Gates must evidently share Ballmer’s idea that there is a lot “unrealised potential” in the sector.

“The cloud fuels Microsoft, and Microsoft fuels the crowd,” he said. “We’re all in.”

The idea of cloud computing is something that has been floating about for quite sometime, and it does seem the logical progression from what we already have. It refers to the notion that any files, services or software found on a computer are not solely restricted to that one machine but are available and can be accessed anywhere and everywhere on any other machine with the use of the internet.

It is a service that I am sure we will see become increasingly important to most computer technology companies from now on as constant accessibility and connection to ones computer is becoming more and more important and necessary in some cases.

Microsoft simply want to adapt their already highly successful model of operating system (Windows) to the ever expanding, fast moving age of the internet.

As a representation of their intention to really push cloud computing Microsoft have already released Windows Azure which is a platform that allows developers to create applications based on the idea of cloud computing, they have also made online versions of some of their more popular programs such as Microsoft Office.

It is evident from Ballmer’s bullish attitude that Microsoft really do see cloud computing as the future and that they are more than willing to risk it all in the knowledge that they are right, for their sake I hope they are.

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Microsoft ordered to offer Web Browser choice

Matt Thomas — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:02:12 +0000

The beginning of March and the blossom of spring is upon us, which means a lot of changes are imminent, but none may be more significant in the online world than the new ‘ballot screen’ that is soon to be launched by Microsoft.

On Monday the European Commission (EC) announced that Microsoft where to allow its users a choice of web browsers when surfing the internet through its Windows operating system. Currently, any new PC purchased anywhere around the world that comes with Windows will have a pre-installed version of Microsoft’s web browser Internet Explorer. This has been deemed to be unfair by the EC as it allows Microsoft to dominate the market.

Originally the complaint that led to action being taken against Microsoft was made by ‘Opera’ a Norwegian company that offers its own operating system. The complaint was lodged back in 2007 where they insisted that bundled Internet Explorer software with Windows gives Microsoft an unfair advantage. They are of the belief that if users are given a choice of operating systems then they are most likely to try and quite often settle on another browser.

As a result, this week, users of Windows XP, Vista or 7, that have Internet Explorer will whisked off to a ‘ballot screen’ page that will offer them the choice of 12 different browsers (who knew there were that many?)

The main five: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera will inevitably be positioned at the top in random orders allowing people to choose which browser they fancy.

It is great news for especially, Apple, Google and Mozilla as they evidently will be the main beneficiaries of this action. Microsoft, however, must be smarting from the announcement as they stand to loose a fair chunk of their 62% domination of the browser market. So it would seem that surfing the web will come with a brand new conundrum, which browser to choose?

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Different Search Engines Need Different Approaches

Matt Thomas — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:10:55 +0000

For a while now I’ve been talking about the dangers of assuming that one search marketing approach will work across a number of platforms, with mixed results. Unfortunately, some people just don’t want to believe that the approach required to make a success of a PPC campaign on Google is that much different to the approach required to do well on Yahoo, Bing, etc. Some people unfortunately will not be swayed from the notion that search is search and what’s good for the good is good for the gander.

If you’re in this camp then allow me to have one last crack at persuading you otherwise with one good reason why you need to think of each as a new campaign and tailor your approach to match… Demographics.

The splits in terms of search engine use in the UK are pretty well known. Google have around 85 – 90% of the market, Yahoo come in around 5% and Bing fluctuate erratically below that. However, the mistake comes in believing that the pie is split along the same lines in terms of demographics. It isn’t.

A couple of examples of what I’m talking about…

Youth – For some reason, the average age of yahoo’s users has historically tended to be a bit younger than Gopogle’s. So if, for example, you sell products and have a certain selection that you think is going to appeal to younger consumers then it might be an idea to push those products more enthusiastically on Yahoo. By the same token, you may find that the results you get from saga holidays isn’t quite as good.

Experience – Many Internet Explorer users have Bing as their default search engine to begin with. Whereas experienced internet users will more often than not change the default settings to Yahoo, or (more likely) to Google the less experienced won’t. Ergo the users of Bing may contain be the less experienced users – perhaps not the venue for your ‘integrated IT business solution.’

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Microsoft Clicking on its own Ads

Jack Fox — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:45:23 +0000

A webmaster working on Microsoft Bing has admitted to SE Roundtable that an MSN bot has been clicking on Bing ads. The Microsoft webmaster was very keen to point out that the system was set up so that there was no chance of these clicks being charged to a client though this has done little to calm the annoyance amongst PPC account managers.

The frustrating thing for the likes of us is that whilst the client might not actually be billed for these clicks (we only have Microsoft’s word for that by the way) the data is still distorted by these automatic click-throughs. With Google Adwords this might not matter so much as there are so many impressions and clicks to be had, however when we’re talking about a group of users so comparatively small as MSN’s then one impression or one click can seriously hamper your data.

Recent studies had shown Bing to have better CTRs and conversion rates than adwords, though this information has to call that into question.

Exactly why MSN is doing this is, so far, a mystery. It might be that they’re testing the system or simply trying to up the CTRs though at this stage I can only guess.

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How much will the new Windows cost

Matt Thomas — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:58:06 +0000

Most industry analysts expect Microsoft to go public with Windows 7 prices at some point next week. This begs the question, how much does the software giant think it can get away with charging for the new system?

Many analysts expect that ‘not very much’ will be the answer to that one. Using a recent Windows Vista cost cutting move as a guide, some analysts have predicted as little as $100 dollars will be the asking price for the system. For my money, they could well be right, Windows Vista has been such a disaster that Microsoft need, for probably the first time, to actually make the case for an upgrade rather than just taking it as a matter of course that people would. The easiest way to do that is to lower the price significantly.

However, on the other side of that coin is the fact that continuing to use XP, a system that is two years out of date will be fairly unpalatable to most businesses. Microsoft may well take the stance that committing to another few years of using an out of date system will be too much for most IT departments to stomach. Basically it depends on whether or not Microsoft feels like playing hardball or eating humble pie.

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Microsoft Completes Planned Job Cuts, but more could be on the way

Jay Smith — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:07:53 +0000

Yesterday Microsoft made its latest wave of redundancies. The software giant is declining to specify how many were laid off exactly though it has revealed that half of the cuts were from inside the US with the other half coming from Microsoft offices and interests around the globe. The company also revealed that a further 1,200 staff will be lost within the US thanks to a Worker Adjustment and Retirement Notice (WARN).

It is thought that this second round of redundancies will take Microsoft close to the target of 5,000 redundancies announced in January this year. Worryingly for staff however, that might not be the end of the matter.

In an email to employees on Tuesday, Steve Ballmer raised the prospect of yet more job cuts in the future stating…
“As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and, if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.”

These mass job cuts are the first wholesale layoffs in the company’s history and mark a real change in culture as the company moves from a policy of aggressive expansion to a more cautious approach.

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Immediate Windows 7 adoption unlikely

Matt Thomas — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:00:38 +0000

If I was working for the Microsoft PR department right now, I’d probably be holding my head in my hands and wondering what I have to do to repair the damage done by Windows Vista. This despair would have been brought on by recent reports that, despite the fact that Windows Beta testers have been hugely positive about Windows 7 and that many of them are now running the beta version as their main browser, most companies still do not plan to upgrade immediately to Windows 7 when it becomes available.

California based, Dimensional Research, surveyed 1,100 IT workers across the world – a whopping 83 percent said that their departments had no plans to upgrade to Windows 7 immediately.

Now, in part, this could be put down to the economy, though not completely. If Vista adoption statistics are to be believed, many of these companies would never have actually upgraded from XP to Vista in the first place or, even worse, have upgraded and then downgraded again after experiencing problems.This means that a large number of companies will actually be using an operating system that is now two versions old. Whichever way you look at it that’s a fairly clear indication of just how far confidence in new Windows products has fallen.

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Microsoft: Encarta officially finished

Matt Thomas — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:13:54 +0000

Now there’s a name I bet you haven’t heard in a while! It may surprise you to know this but up until this year Encarta was still being manufactured and sold by Microsoft. Even in the age of Wikipedia it seems that the world’s premier software manufacturer thought there was a place for the CD Rom Encyclopaedia.

As anyone who went to school in the nineties knows, the software resource used to be one of the staples of Windows, the first and often only stop on the homework research path. Sure, it tended to lead to teachers sifting through thirty identical reports on Martin Luther King for History class, but that was a small price to pay for knowledge.

Anyway, flash forward ten years or so and internet resources like Wikipedia and Google itself have made the programme obsolete. In truth, it’s been that way for years, ever since Broadband really took off and high-speed internet access became feasible for a sizable number of people. Anyway, finally Microsoft has just about woken up to that fact releasing this statement…

‘Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopaedias and reference material has changed.’

There’s nothing like a company with its finger on the pulse, is there?

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IE8 out Today

William Peebles — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:27:36 +0000

Microsoft will release the final version of Internet Explorer 8 later today, almost two months after the release of the RC1. The browser is said to be laden with new security features after the previous version, Internet Explorer 7 was criticised for various security failings and breaches.

Early indications are that these new features, which took more than a year to develop, have been remarkably successful. A report on the RC1 beta rated the browser at the number one spot for malware prevention, though it is worth noting that the report was commissioned by Microsoft itself.

It is hoped by the software giant that the new, more secure version of Explorer will help lure users back from the so called ‘more secure’ browsers like Firefox. However, security is not the only reason that users have been abandoning IE, Firefox has more features and more customizability, it’s also generally seen as being quicker than IE.

Explorer 8 is unlikely to be a silver bullet for Microsoft, though it will help, not least because it demonstrates that Microsoft is taking the browser war seriously and not taking it’s ever more precarious position at the top for granted.

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Windows 7 features to be Customisable

Matt Thomas — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:23:42 +0000

Early testers of Windows 7 are finding that as well as myriad new and improved features, there will also be an option to opt out of some of Windows more tiresome elements. The biggest news is the option not to have Internet Explorer installed on the system however, the options to opt out are far from limited to just that. Windows 7 will boast a Windows Features menu which will give you a list of Windows programmes to either have available or not, as well as IE the list includes Windows stalwarts like Media Player, Windows Search and Games features like minesweeper.

The features will not be off the system entirely, however. They will remain staged in case the user wishes to reinstall them at a later date. The point of this, according to Microsoft, is to eliminate the need for cumbersome installation CDs.

Microsoft have so far remained fairly tight-lipped about exactly why they have chosen this course of action though one would have to suspect that it has something to with the fact that the European Union recently accused them of stifling competition by bundling IE with Windows. As Microsoft well knows, it can be expensive to go against the EU.

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Ballmer takes a hammering on Windows Mobile

Mark Isle — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:00:11 +0000

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer was on the receiving end of a corporate tongue-lashing from attendees of Microsoft’s Public Sector CIO summit in Washington. Frank and forthright opinions were offered regarding Microsoft’s progress regarding turning Windows Mobile into the sort of product that can rival the other mobile operating systems on the market.

During a fiery Q&A after a speech by Ballmer, a CIO informed Ballmer in no uncertain terms that the slow progress of the Windows Mobile operating system in comparison to Android and the iPhone made it hard to get excited about Windows Mobile.

Even in the face of this kind of criticism Ballmer still managed to take a couple of swings at Microsoft’s competitors stating that Microsoft have sold more devices powered by Windows Mobile than Apple have sold iPhones. He also added that Google was, “nowhere to be seen, except in Silicon Valley.”

With Android poised for a breakthrough year in 2008, he could just live to regret that last comment.

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Microsoft testing Kumo internally

James Oliver — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:00:43 +0000

Microsoft is internally testing their new online search system named kumo, say Microsoft spokespersons. It is hoped that kumo will finally provide Microsoft with a viable way in which to compete with Google, or more realistically, Yahoo in the coming months. People beyond the company are not yet able to test the system.

Microsoft remains cagey about the particulars of Kumo – an internal memo announcing the initiative, sent by the head of research at the online services division yesterday outlined the service though provided no details at all of the specific new features that are being trialled. However, it is thought that they will leak out over the coming weeks and months.

“Kumo.com exists only inside the corporate network, and in order to get enough feedback we will be redirecting internal live.com traffic over to the test site in the coming days” – Satya Nadella, Head of Research.

Nadella is bullish about Kumo’s chances of competing on a bigger stage than currently available…

“We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks.”

I suppose only time (and a public test) will tell.

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Finally some important information on Windows 7

Jack Fox — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:00:50 +0000

Windows 7 will offer easily distracted workers three brand new versions of their time-wasting games to enjoy while avoiding work, it has been revealed today. Okay, I know it’s not exactly the most important newsflash you’ll ever read but don’t try to pretend like you’re not interested…

The new games versions that, if you’re anything like me, will eat up hours of your life in the coming years are Internet versions of the popular parlour games, backgammon, checkers and spades. The games can be played on your own or over the Internet with other bored people.

Here’s what Brandon LeBlanc, a Microsoft blogger had to say about the new games…

“The new versions of these games have been completely redesigned and improved over their old-school predecessors,”

Mustering a remarkable amount of enthusiasm for checkers, LeBlanc continued to espouse the benefits of the new products’ Internet connectivity.

“Tired of Minesweeper? Definitely give these games a try and join the thousands of other players online who are playing too.”

Scoff if you must, but I predict it’ll take less than a day of using Windows 7 before you’re doing just that.

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Microsoft forced to make awkward request of Former Employees

Matt Thomas — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:35:20 +0000

According to various reports, software giant, Microsoft, is asking recently laid off employees to return a portion of their severance package. Apparently the company overpaid the latest tranche of workers to be shown the door at Microsoft.

A letter, sent out by Microsoft to the overpaid workers said the following…

“This letter is to inform you that an inadvertent administrative error occurred that resulted in an overpayment in severance pay by Microsoft. We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to you.”

Reclaiming the money is likely to be a huge administrative headache for the Microsoft accounts department – probably the only section of the company where jobs are still fairly secure – with many former employers presumably not Microsoft’s biggest fans at this exact moment in time. There is also going to be an issue for the marketing department – asking unemployed people to fund a multinational business giant is not the best PR.

The miscalculations appear to have been widespread with industry blog, Tech Crunch, reporting that as well as overpaying some of the workers the company has also underpaid a significant portion of its former employees.

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