14 DAY TRIAL // Following the recent releases made by the rival companies such as Google and Yahoo, Microsoft decided to take attitude and rolled out on Monday MSN Mobile, a special flavor of the famous portal accessible from any handheld device connected to the Internet. Using this new edition of the website, Microsoft wants to offer instant access for the mobile phone owners to several products developed by the Redmond company such as Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces and Live Search. A recently-conducted study revealed that from approximately 230 million US mobile phone owners, no less than 180 million of them have web-compatible devices that means they are all able to access Internet services using their phones.
"We believe consumers want to see their favorite Web sites optimized for their mobile phones, while having them remain easily accessible and free of charge," said John Smelzer, senior vice president and general manager of mobile for Fox Interactive Media. "FOXSports.com is an integral part of MSN.com, so extending that experience to the mobile Web makes perfect sense. We look forward to working with MSN and the carriers to usher in the next wave of mobile content."
As I said, the Microsoft rivals are continuously working on their mobile side, updating the existing products or developing fresh new solutions. Take for example Yahoo, the Sunnyvale company that is now struggling to make oneSearch the main search technology for the mobile platforms connected to the Internet.
The battle between Google and Microsoft is now even more interesting as both companies are claiming that their own mapping tool is more powerful than the one owned by the rival. However, they are both working on their solutions and following the recent improvements made to the famous Google Earth, the Redmond giant updated its product too. On Tuesday, Microsoft rolled out a major improvement for Virtual Earth that is now able to show full 3D view for the entire area of UK. In addition, the partnership with Intermap Technologies Corp also brings improved imagery for Western Europe and for the US.
"Microsoft is committed to delivering the highest-accuracy and highest-quality product for our Live Search Maps customers, and this enhancement is another step toward meeting this commitment," said Aric Weiker, director of product management for the Virtual Earth platform at Microsoft. "Having Intermap's highly accurate and reliable foundation layer under our imagery and building models allows us to provide one of the most accurate viewing experiences on the Internet today."
At this time, the IT market offers only two major solutions, Google Earth and Virtual Earth, both of them being continuously promoted and kept in the spotlight. However, Google Earth seems to be the favorite application to win the competition as the parent company is adding revolutionary functions every once in a while.
On Wednesday, Microsoft made the first step to resolve the dispute with the Mountain View company Google after the search giant claimed that Windows Vista infringes the antitrust guidelines because it doesn't allow users to install other search application. Although it was regarded as a reply to the Microsoft complaints over the DoubleClick acquisition, the regulators decided to investigate the matters. However, the Redmond company agreed to Google's demands and decided to modify Windows Vista in order to comply with the requirements.
In an official response released on Wednesday, Microsoft said that Vista users will have the possibility to choose their default search application in the operating system. "Second, the default desktop search program will be launched whenever Windows launches a new top-level window to provide search results. This will include an existing location on the Start menu that a user can select to display additional search results in a new window. Windows Vista also includes search boxes located in the upper-right hand corner of various windows in the operating system, such as all the windows used to explore the files on the computer - often called "Explorer" windows - and the Control Panel," it is also mentioned.
On Thursday, the not-so-famous instant messaging client Windows Live Messenger celebrated its first anniversary as the application is now one year old. Windows Live Messenger is regarded as one of the most popular instant messaging software solutions on the Internet, being described as the perfect alternative for rival products such as Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk. In fact, Windows Live Messenger is compatible with Yahoo Messenger, allowing the users of the two programs to communicate with ease.
"Just for the sake of a trip into the past, Microsoft released the first beta for Windows Live Messenger 8.0 on 13 December 2005, making the instant messenger client quite old. However, the testing phase can be considered in utero. Windows Live Messenger 8.0 Beta 2 was delivered on 26 February 2006, and was followed by yet another beta release on May 2. And on 19 June 2006 Microsoft celebrated the availability of the final version of Windows Live Messenger," Marius Oiaga from Softpedia made a short history of the application.
On Friday, the European Commission announced that it plans to investigate other search engines on the Internet following the recent privacy concerns raised around Google, the owner of the best search technology ever created. As you probably know, the Mountain View company was placed among the latest companies when it comes to users' privacy and to the search giant's solutions. Microsoft's Live Search is now a part of the investigations although the EU officials sustained that Yahoo and the software giant are two of the top companies in this matter.
However, Google refused to accept this condition and started working on its privacy. The first major change was the modification of the anonymity period, Google deciding to decrease it to 18 months for most of the users and to 24 months in certain countries with specific laws.
"Microsoft has a long-term commitment to providing customers with control over the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information. While we have not received formal communication from the Article 29 Working Party, we recognize that online search is creating legitimate concerns about privacy and are actively engaged with data protection authorities around the world to ensure that our practices meet the highest standards when it comes to protecting privacy," the software giant's officials sustained.
