Popout Not content with a PC on every desktop, Microsoft wants to see every available surface become a computer screen. It has already developed a multi-touch Surface Computer (which is being used in AT&T stores), and turned that vertical in a multi-touch wall. Now, it’s latest project at Microsoft Research is a Sphere (see video above). A prototype of the spherical display is expected to be unveiled today. On of the features is the ability to “send to dark side.” When you place your hand on an image and press, it sends the image to the other side of the sphere, where a collaborator might be standing. The video also shows a globe mapped onto the sphere, some video playing in a crystal-ball effect, and Pong-like game. (Todd Bishop at the Seattle PI has more details).
Ed: More software that works, less bravado – that’s the way for Microsoft to fight back.
Microsoft SVP Satya Nadella has announced that the company has expanded its deal with Facebook to integrate Microsoft’s Live Search into the social network. There are few details at this point, but Microsoft will be serving up advertising (both traditional and sponsored search results) through Facebook by the end of the year. Microsoft previously bought a $240 million stake in Facebook at a massive $15 billion valuation, in exchange for global advertising rights.
The news parallels the search deal that Google signedwith MySpace in 2006, when it won the rights to provide search and advertising to the News Corp-owned social network, with a minimum rev share agreement of $900 million. Microsoft was also clamoring for search rights on MySpace at the time, but Google managed to beat it out by forging a hasty deal…
For anyone who uses multiple calendars, you know that one of the big issues that’s being addressed by numerous applications is getting your calendars to sync up with each other. We’ve covered some solutions to this problem before, but we had not seen a truly integrated offering that allowed you to sync up a work calendar in desktop software with an onlne calendar without need of a third-party app of some sort…that is, until yesterday. It seems that Microsoft has finally given the people what they want and have provided a calendar sync tool that actually makes all of Microsoft’s calendaring programs work together.
Outlook Connector Beta
The new tool providing this functionality is the latest version of the Outlook Connector public beta. This downloadable software works to sync Outlook’s calendar with Windows Live Hotmail’s Calendar with the Windows Live Calendar Beta. Such an integrated offering is a surprise considering that Microsoft is a company that’s sometimes known for launching what are perceived as too-similar, parallel solutions (think FolderShare, SyncToy, SkyDrive, Mesh).
The previous version of this connector allowed you to sync email and contacts data between Outlook and Hotmail for free, but calendar sync required a subscription service. With this new version, however, calendar sync is now free and it includes the ability to work with Live Calendar beta. And because Live Calendar also supports calendar sharing, those shared calendars will sync back to Outlook, too.
For someone who uses an Outlook calendar at work, keeps a personal calendar in Hotmail, and perhaps has a shared family calendar in Live Calendar, this new sync tool will be incredibly useful. Whether you’re online or offline, all your calendars are available from one place: Outlook…
According to a comment made at Microsoft’s Analyst Day today, Microsoft and Facebook are preparing a search and advertising deal that would lead to the integration of Microsoft’s Live Search and search advertising into Facebook. Microsoft already provides ads on Facebook as part of a ’strategic alliance’ and Microsoft holds a $240 million equity stake in the company. No information about the financial specifics of the deal were mentioned so far and it is not clear if this deal would be exclusive.
Judging from the information available to us from the transcript of the call, Microsoft’s main reason for doing this deal is to get more people to know about Live Search. As part of that effort, Microsoft will also ink a distribution deal for its toolbar with HP.
Also, according to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft will be providing an API to Facebook which will allow them to create a “rich search experience for the Facebook users and that is something that they will launch in the fall working with us. And it will carry both our web results, as well as our page search advertising.”…
NBC is bundling its Web inventory along with broadcast buys. The move suggests advertisers are getting a bargain on the online ads, but it also helps NBC sell TV at a premium in a very tough ad market. NBC U has already said it will report a combined viewership number for TV, online and mobile as one number, signalling it believes the impressions on different platforms are interchangeable. It plans to follow through on that belief, too: It is going to try to use Web inventory to fix any shortfalls in its TV performance. NBC is airingthousands of hours of TV coverage–some of it with extreme niche-appeal. While the men’s swimming final on NBC primetime will deliver predictable ratings, it’s hard to know how many people will tune in for badminton and greco roman wrestling on MSNBC. NBC can make up any shortfalls by promising additional online impressions. Is the strategy working? NBC says ad rates are up 10% since from the 2004 Games, which isn’t terribly impressive given that it was four years ago. A 30-second spot in NBC’s primetime coverage is running $750,000. NBC is predicting a $1 billion advertising haul for the Games, $850 million from national TV and $150 from local. Whatever NBC U ends up attributing to online ad sales, it won’t be keeping all the cash. NBC shares revenue with MSN, which is providing the infrastructure for NBC’s Webcast of the Games online, as well as distribution on MSN.com. MSN also gets compensation from NBC U for traffic delivered to NBCOlympics.com. A side statistical bonus: traffic from the games will accrue to MSN, just like traffic from the NBC U-MSN joint venture, MSNBC.com. One thing seems certain: the Games will surely set a new viewership record for live sports on the Web and may become the most-watched Webcast, ever. That’s what MSN’s GM of Entertainment and Sports Rob Bennett is expecting. He told us Microsoft (MSFT) has spent the last eight months building a system to accommodate demand, built around Microsoft’s Silverlight media player and bandwidth from Limelight (LLNW). Because it shares in revenue, MSN has incentive to push the Games. To that end, MSN is working on a redesign to accomodate editorial content from the Games. An Olympics “super-banner” will be stripped across MSN’s homepage, with news from the games, a live medal count, and video from NBCOlympics.com.
NBC Hedges Its Olympic Bets: Buy A TV Ad, Get A Web Banner, Too
According to a letter detailing the program and published on TechCrunch, Microsoft is doing a pilot program that allows smaller publishers to use contextual advertising from Microsoft, putting it potentially in competition with Google’s AdSense and Yahoo’s publisher network.
In a statement provided to CNET News on Thursday, Microsoft confirmed the trial.
“Microsoft’s self-serve advertising offering for publishers is still under development and is currently in a private pilot phase, being tested by select publishers who met the participation requirements,” Microsoft said. “The private pilot phase began earlier this year.”
Microsoft pointed publishers interested in the pilot to sign up for the trial.
“It’s our intention to continue to expand our high quality network and relevant audience gradually and intelligently over time for our advertisers,” Microsoft said. “We will evaluate customer interest and product performance as we move through the private pilot, but we have no specific launch plans to announce at this time.”…
So while all the attention on who Microsoft is hunting next–after its latest parry at grabbing Yahoo’s search business was foiled once again–has settled on Time Warner’s AOL (see BoomTown’s post on that interest from Monday), it would be a mistake to assume that the software giant is not still aiming directly at Yahoo…
Display accounts for 34 percent. In this space, Yahoo is king, while Google has been a minor player, despite its recent purchase of DoubleClick. Microsoft has been trying to muscle its way in too.
Many think the scaling and targeting technologies that are developing and that Google or Microsoft certainly can bring to the table–combined with the relationship business for which Yahoo is famous–is the next killer app to make display dominate.
Google, though it is trying to downplay its overall power of late, is aiming hard at doing in display what it has done in search, especially trying to use its powerful technology skills.
“We really feel we’re in a position to become the world’s largest display ads provider,” said Google’s SVP Jonathan Rosenberg in its first-quarter earnings call in April…
