Microsoft had a handful of journalists at its new Envisioning Center last week to show off its latest and greatest technology. Here’s what it demonstrated. Read more »
Microsoft is no joke when it comes to building web infrastructure and developing techniques such as machine learning. The company thinks its heavy investment in these areas will pay off big-time in the years to come. Read more »
The changes Google is making to Adwords will, it says, make it easier for advertisers serve up relevant ads to users on all devices. Critics say the only company to profit from this will be … guess who? Read more »
Microsoft isn’t getting much — if any — sympathy for its complaints over the Federal Trade Commission’s recent settlement with Google over its business practices. Read more »
Big data tools such as Cassandra and Hadoop are transforming how data is stored and exploited at scale. But without similarly capable search technologies, enterprise adopters face challenges when it comes to gaining insights from that data. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A strategic partnership announced between Klout and Bing could provide a needed social boost for Microsoft’s search platform and bring Klout scores into greater profile as the two work to put Klout scores further across the web. Read more »
Would Google chairman Eric Schmidt like his company’s search engine to replace Microsoft Bing as the default search in Yahoo.com? Do you really have to ask? If so, the answer is yes, according to reports out of Japan. Read more »
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social network is already handling a billion search queries per day, and that it is interested in launching a social search engine powered by the activity of its users — something that could turn out to be Google’s worst nightmare. Read more »
Microsoft has spent billions to make Bing a search contender against the heavyweight champ Google. Now it’s inviting users to judge for themselves with an online contest. Check it out and let us know how it goes. Read more »
The adoption of tablets, social media and new interfaces and the changing nature of the TV itself mean the digital living room will continue on its path of rapid change, thanks to new ways of creating, viewing, bundling, distributing and selling content. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Microsoft’s Bing StreetSide service was offering a welcome replacement for Google’s out-of-date Street View imagery in Germany, but now privacy complaints have seen it taken offline. When will somebody realize these complaints have gone too far? Read more »
Microsoft’s top search guy took to the Web Thursday to show off a refreshed interface for Microsoft’s Bing search engine, that he said better incorporates the user’s social media contacts in a new sidebar which brings in their Facebook and Twitter contacts input. Read more »
Google-co-founder Sergey Brin recently said he believes the future of the “open Internet” is at risk. Then why is the company trying to build its own closed network? Because the open vs. closed debate is more complicated than it first appears when it comes to Google. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Social media are a great source of information on consumer sentiment, but the next wave of analytics in social media will be influence. It’s easy to ridicule your friends and co-workers who are actually concerned with their Klout scores, but this stuff matters. Read more »
Barney Pell has a new startup. The serial entrepreneur, who sold Powerset to Microsoft, has founded a new company called QuickPay, which aims to revolutionize the way that people find and pay for parking. QuickPay has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Fontinalis Partners. Read more »
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and other search engines “overwhelmingly” direct music fans to illegal copies of copyrighted tracks online, a coalition… Read more at paidContent »
Microsoft’s fourth-quarter earnings came in about where Wall Street had expected, but the decline of its Windows business continued during a… Read more at paidContent »
While many of the top Internet companies faced a volatile ad market in the fourth quarter of last year, Facebook saw its share of the overal… Read more at paidContent »
In the world of search advertising, mobile phones and tablets continue to outpace performance of search ads on PCs, although they still repr… Read more at paidContent »
Are Google, Yelp and Facebook scared of Siri? If they aren’t they should be, as should any mobile website, service or app that depends on advertising. Siri is the first user interface that shifts our attention away from our phones’ screens, but it won’t be the last. Read more »
On Tuesday, Microsoft is launching a new app for Windows Phone handsets to help Xbox 360 owners navigate their game console. The timing is in conjunction with the company’s living room push to bring more music and video content to the Xbox 360 console. Read more »
Microsoft is launching Bing for Mobile Hybrid Apps this week that are built on HTML5 and take the best of native apps and blend with them with a robust mobile web experience, providing faster updates, more consistency between platforms and added search functions. Read more »
The PC business is not the most dynamic place to be these days, but fortunately for Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) it has a growing presence in the… Read more at paidContent »
For iPhone 4S users out there, you probably know that Siri can search the web for keywords of your choosing. But did you also know that you can tell it on the fly which specific search engine to use to find your results? Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With audience buying becoming the primary focus on online ad spending, analytics is likely to remain a hot funding area for some time. And t… Read more at paidContent »
Want to help stimulate the economy? You may not need to go any further than your web browser’s search box. Each online search engine adds about 50 cents to the worldwide economy, according to a new research report from consultancy giant McKinsey & Company. Read more »
ISPs have been exposed as hijacking the search traffic that some of their customers have tried to type into Yahoo and Bing search engines, and now the backlash begins. Now companies involved in the scheme has been hit with a lawsuit and may face Congress. Read more »
Microsoft can’t give up on search. Though it’s been losing money forever, Microsoft needs search to defend its core platforms, compete with Google and solidify its ad business while opening emerging revenue ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Microsoft’s online business lost $2.6 billion for its fiscal year, mainly due to its investment in search. Yet even with Yahoo’s outsourced search business, Microsoft barely cracks 30 percent in market share, according to comScore. Last week, a Reuters Breakingviews piece that was picked up by […] Read more »
The power balance between desktop computers and mobile devices has finally shifted. Google debuted improvements to its web search that show an increased prioritization of the mobile experience. Two of the three features make desktop search like mobile and the other is made for mobile. Read more »
Microsoft is boosting the number of content choices available to Xbox Live users, starting with millions of video assets available from YouTube. It will also be partnering to add more live TV streams. And to navigate all of those choices, it’s adding Bing unified search. Read more »
Media guru Clay Shirky once famously said that the problem of the modern age isn’t information overload at all, it’s “filter failure” — and many new services have been built to help with that. But Eli Pariser says the cure could be worse than the disease. Read more »
Israeli startup Ineze thinks it can go where dozens have struggled, and create a better way of searching for products to buy online. But what can it do that they can’t? Understand what you’re actually looking for, says CEO Gil Rozenberg. Read more »
Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Skype is the largest the company has ever made, and it’s raised many questions in the process. This research note examines Skype’s overall value and where it fits strategically into the world of Microsoft. From Office 365 and Bing to Xbox Kinect and Windows Phone, there are numerous ways in which Microsoft can leverage the functionality of its newest addition — and numerous risks it could incur in the process. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Cisco, Panasonic and Google. For a full list of companies and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The mobile landscape is entering a new, consolidation phase as late-comers are banding together to fight against Apple and Google. The latest loose alliance is between Microsoft and RIM as Bing will be integrated as the default search and map engine for future BlackBerry products. Read more »
The handset maker and software giant may have already walked down the aisle as far back as February 11, but it was only today that they fina… Read more at paidContent »
Microsoft’s Bing team has a new photo-stitching app that creates immersive, 360-degree images right on a handset. But not a Windows Phone 7 handset; that comes next. For now, the software, which didn’t work completely well in my test, is for camera-enabled Apple iOS devices. Read more »
The first quarter of 2011 saw plenty of competition between various web companies — and some heated tension, too. Content farms generated the most debate, with Demand Media’s IPO attracting attention and controversy and Google making a major change to its ranking algorithm. Facebook, meanwhile, maintained its heavyweight status online, but this time the social network’s impact was centered on social search, unified communications and comment systems. And Facebook’s ongoing dominance raised the question, Is there room for more than one social network? If niche networks like Quora and Color are any indication, the answer is “yes.” Additional companies mentioned in this report include Twitter, Groupon, Microsoft, LinkedIn and MySpace. To see the full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Microsoft introduced its new dedicated Bing iPad search application Thursday, and my first impression is that it offers more useful features than Google’s iOS app in a better package. Yet while it may outclass the competition, I also doubt I’ll ever use it again. Read more »
