'Net Features : microsoft

Amazon, Microsoft & Go Daddy News to Know

Amberly Dressler — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:15:00 GMT

Too much domain news, too little time? Spring into the new season armed with the domain news you might have missed.

Single- and Two-Character .ORG Auction Starts Today: Go Daddy and Public Interest Registry (PIR) have teamed up to auction 42 valuable single- and two-character domain names like I.ORG, S.ORG and TS.ORG on GoDaddy.com, March 18. This historic auction starts today and will last 10 days. Pre-approval is required, and a look at the current auction shows domains, like 3p.org and 5v.org, going for $10, while single-character domains, such as v.org and i.org, going as high as $50,000 (and likely only to increase as the hours and days go on).

“Businesses looking for short, effective domain names are going to love the .ORG auction,” said Go Daddy Director of Domain Name Aftermarkets Paul Nicks in a statement. “These names are the best of the best. I expect the auction of these single- and two-character domain names will not only generate high interest, but also help define the aftermarket prior to the introduction of new gTLDs later this year.”

Microsoft Releases ccTLD Registry Security: A few weeks ago, Microsoft released the Microsoft Country-Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) Registry Security Assessment Service, which is meant to assist ccTLD registry operators to find and fix security vulnerabilities before they are exploited. Those who own a domain registry and are seeking a solution to help identify vulnerabilities and receive guidance that may help to improve the security of your service, can visit www.microsoft.com/cctldregsec to schedule an assessment.

“Through programs and initiatives like these, we hope to help create a safer, more trusted online experience for everyone and support a dynamic environment for increasing the dialogue and sharing of best practices within our industry,” wrote Microsoft’s Online Services Security & Compliance General Manager Pete Boden, in the company’s official announcement.

Amazon Wants .book, .author and .read: Amazon is seeking these top-level domains, and the publishing world isn’t happy with the e-commerce and technology giant’s efforts. The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers are objecting to Amazon’s request on the basis that its ownership would be a threat to competition.

Marketing to Modern Digital Mulitaskers

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Microsoft has released results of an interesting study which examines why consumers are using multiple devices, the motivations that drive "simultaneous or sequential" usage across those devices, and what the opportunities for marketers are today.

The practical side of the study provides details on the modern consumer experience and addresses how consumers are in control of their own flow of content – and what marketers can do about it.

Microsoft found four typical "pathways" for the modern digital consumer. The first, "content grazing," is the most common pathway at 68 percent of consumers falling into this category. Content grazing occurs when consumers use two or more screens to access unrelated content (such as watching television and checking email and texting a friend).

The second multi-screen pathway is Investigative Spider-Webbing, and 57 percent of consumers engage in this manner. In this pathway, consumers are seeking information across multiple devices at the same time. For example, watching a television show and seeking out information on a tablet or PC.

There are also consumers that are on a "quantum journey" according to the research. 46 percent land in this pathway, where productivity and efficiency are paramount as consumers are trying to accomplish a specific task. In this consumer category, each screen adds something to the ultimate goal. For example, a consumer might take a photo of something on their mobile phone, look up reviews of the product ad on their tablet, and then purchase it at home on their desktop.

The last multi-screening pathway is also the least common. Just 39 percent engage in Social Spider-Webbing. Consumers are typically extroverted in this pathway and focused on sharing content and connecting with others across their digital devices.

Spider-Webbing, Quantum Journey, Content Grazing? What’s it all mean? Microsoft provided some tips for marketers based on these finding's and they certainly play to its own strengths. Microsoft not so subtly touted Windows 8 as a suggestion, which promises one of the more consistent and cohesive experiences across devices - from desktop to Xbox.

Microsoft also suggested that marketers be "Always On" and tailor their message throughout the day. For example, connect them with commercial content that can be consumed in small bites via Bing and casual gaming apps, and then help them investigate or communicate deeper in the evening through Windows 8 Ads in Apps, MSN Video and interactive rich media ad units such as the new IAB standard Filmstrip unit.

While not the most actionable data, it should provide Web marketers with some insights into how consumers may interact with brand messaging, reveal opportunities that they may not have known existed, and even generate some excitement about employing a system which is built from the ground up with experience truly in mind.

Desktop Search On The Rise

Allison Howen — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:05:00 GMT

Despite mobile’s momentum, desktop search activity has been on the rise.

In fact, a recent comScore study reveals that October’s overall desktop search activity saw an increase of 8 percent compared to the previous month – with a total of 17,623 searches conducted.

Other statistics show that Google gained two-tenths of a percentage point and continues to lead the search industry with 66.9 percentage of the market share. However, Microsoft also gained a tenth of a percentage point and now makes up 16 percent of the search market share, followed by Yahoo at 12.2 percent.

This means that even though many Web workers have focused on mobile lately, desktops should still not be overlooked – especially during the holiday season. In the coming weeks consumers will be conducting a lot of searches, both on mobile devices and on desktops, and the only way to guarantee your business is found is by continuously monitoring your brand’s placement on the SERPs. For those Web businesses who need a little help to do so, check out Website Magazine's Master List of SEO Tools.

Microsoft Brings Azure Cloud OS to China

Michael Garrity — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:38:00 GMT

China’s increasingly important role in the future of the Internet and Web hosting just got a major seal of approval from Microsoft, who recently announced that it was going to bring its Windows Azure cloud-based operating system to the Asian nation.

This launch, which follows the release of Windows Server 2012, will bring multi-tenant public and private cloud services to millions of the businesses that operate in the world’s most populous country, giving owners a choice in how (and when) they will move to the cloud. Thanks to both Server 2012 and Azure, Windows customers can find the cloud that best matches the needs of their businesses, from on-premises datacenters to a public cloud.

According to a report from Forrester Research, the public cloud market in China is set to grow from $297 million in 2011 to an astonishing $3.8 billion in 2020.

Microsoft has signed a memorandum of understanding with the municipality of Shanghai and inked a deal to license its technologies with the company 21Vianet, which will provide Windows Azure services from its local Chinese datacenters to provide the best performance for its customers in the country.

Social CMS in the Cloud: DotNetNuke Delivered in Azure

Administrator — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:15:00 GMT

DotNetNuke, a Web content management system for Microsoft .NET, recently announced an alliance with Microsoft to offer its Social CMS software through Microsoft's Windows Azure Cloud. DotNetNuke will also receive an investment from Microsoft to support engineering, sales and marketing.

By running DotNetNuke in the Azure cloud, users will be able to install and manage the software and hardware required to run the platform and will have access to the full feature set including site and document management, social collaboration, security, workflows, page and module caching, analytics and even mobile site management.

"Social experiences are ideal for cloud computing; they are consumed across many devices and browsers and they also need to scale based on fluctuations in usage," said Kim Akers, General Manager of Microsoft. "With Windows Azure developers can build social experiences that take advantage of a reliable cloud backend and a scalable way to manage and continually refine their sites. DotNetNuke's Windows Azure-based offering is designed to make it easy for organizations to build and deploy websites."

DotNetNuke began offering Windows Azure-based trials of its professional edition software worldwide, localized into five languages, earlier this year. The company today opened up registration for a beta version of its cloud offering that will be available in Q4 2012. DotNetNuke is scheduled to make the service generally available in early 2013, with service plans for mid-sized businesses and enterprises.

DotNetNuke began offering Windows Azure-based trials of its professional edition software worldwide earlier in 2012 but the company has now officially opened up registration for a beta version of the cloud offering that will be available in Q4 2012.

What is TypeScript?

Michael Garrity — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:46:00 GMT

Have you heard of TypScript, yet? That’s Microsoft’s new JavaScript-like programming language that the company just released a developer preview of a few weeks ago.

TypeScript is translated into good old JavaScript so that apps developed with the language can run in any type of browser, which naturally begs the question, “Why come up with TypeScript to begin with?”

See, while this new language has a similar syntax to JavaScript, it also offers a slew of additional features that you can’t get with JavaScript, including optional static typing, class declarations, a Visual Studio plugin and module support. According to Microsoft, this will make it easier to build larger, more complex applications without straying too wildly from the commonly used JavaScript path.

In fact, Microsoft has been looking forward with this new project, and apparently much of TypeScript is based on the next version of JavaScript that is currently being developed by the ECMA.

Also in an effort to be more forward-thinking, TypeScript is being developed to work with existing frameworks and libraries like Backbone.js, which intend to make it easier for people to create more large-scale applications suited to the Web today. Thus, any JavaScript code should be able to be pasted into TypeScript and work just fine.

TypeScript was developed by Microsoft’s Anders Hajlsberg, along with Steve Lucco and Luke Hoban. The language’s source code has been licensed under Apache 2.0 and now on Codeplex.

Adcenter Rebrands as Bing Ads

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 18:25:00 GMT

Bing announced a name change for its Microsoft adCenter, the tool advertisers use to manage their search-based ads on the Yahoo!/Bing Network. But if you've been following adCenter changes the past six months, you know that it's much more than a name change alone.

In the official announcement, Bing touted several new features which should indicate that not only is it ready for prime time, but that it has its sights set clearly on Google and is singularly focused on providing a better experience for those managing ad campaigns on the network.

In the past few months, Bing’s list of improvements is impressive and include a new Web interface, improved ad rotation controls, and agency enablement tools for those managing multiple accounts.
The Yahoo! Bing Network is comprised of 151 million unique searchers in the U.S. who are likely to spend 24% more than the average searcher, and likely to spend 5% more than Google searchers in the U.S.*.

* Source: US, comScore Core Search (custom), June 2012

Attack Surface Analyzer (Security)

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:35:00 GMT

Microsoft has formally released a tool that gauges the security of an application by exploring how it affects the computer upon which it is installed.

The Attack Surface Analyzer, which might just be the best name ever for a security product, was originally released in January 2011 during the Blackhat DC security conference. Over the 20 months since launch, Microsoft claims that it has reduced the number of false positives, enhanced performance and made some bug fixes.

The tool takes snapshots of a system before and after an application was installed and then compares each to identify changes made when new apps were installed. The tool then provides an overview of changes including those such as newly added files, registry keys, services, ActiveX Controls, listening ports, access control lists, etc.

Analyzer only looks at classes of security weaknesses where programs fall short or those which are exposed to attack vectors, but it is something developers should explore running attack surface validations before releasing Windows apps is now required by Microsoft.

Microsoft Launches Grown Up Email Service

Michael Garrity — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 22:30:00 GMT

The Outlook email service is a big part of what makes Microsoft’s Office suite of such a success. For many businesses, it’s an essential tool that helps them keep track of more than just email correspondence, but also in-house communications, scheduling, task management, and more.

Apparently the world’s best known software company is looking to build upon the Outlook name with the release of a brand new free email service launched earlier this week, Outlook.com.

Upon first glance, this may seem like a curious decision, as the company already has the widely used Hotmail platform. More so when you compare the features of the two services, which seem basically identical on paper.

However, once you see Outlook.com, you’ll see that they are, in fact, very different products. While Hotmail is littered with gaudy display ads, Outlook.com is are more prudent and professional about the way it presents advertising. Best of all, it doesn’t show any targeted ads inside personal email correspondence with individual people (this doesn’t include newsletters, etc.), which is great for those users who are a little unnerved by the idea of Web-based email programs scanning their messages for advertising purposes.

The service will offer quick and easy access to social networks Twitter and Facebook, allowing users to retweet, Like, or post comments on the content of an email. It also links to the social profiles of the people that users are corresponding with, so their status updates will appear on the right side of the screen (in place of personalized ads). Eventually, it will also feature integration with the Microsoft-acquired Skype video chat service, just not yet.

With its clean, minimal interface, Outlook.com seems to be Microsoft’s attempt to provide a more grown up alternative to Hotmail, which has about as much credibility with Web professionals as a dirty sock.

Outlook.com is already open to the public in a preview period, and users can either create an account or sign in with an existing Hotmail address (which you can “upgrade” to an Outlook.com account). The company is offering nearly unlimited storage, and new accounts will be given access to 7GB of Microsoft SkyDrive cloud storage.

No More Gender or Age Targeting in adCenter

Michael Garrity — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:15:00 GMT

For marketers, targeted ads were the next logical step in the online advertising space, and this was made clear by the rapid rise they have seen over the last few years. However, for many everyday Web users, the idea that advertisers were tracking them based on their personal information wasn’t quite as popular.

There are a number of issues inherent in attempting to target display ads to a specific set of customers, and none is more pertinent than the fact that one simply cannot know how accurate the information that a user submits actually is, and thus, whether the ads are actually reaching the desired audience.

Largely because of this, Microsoft has removed the ability to target ads based on age and gender in adCenter, which provides the pay-per-click ads seen on the Microsoft Network, most prominently on the Bing search engine.

According to a company employee in a Microsoft Advertising Help thread, “Some people add the information accurately, most don’t and even more don’t add the information at all. So if you use age and gender, your [sic] limiting yourself to what information was provided by the searchers when signing up for Windows Live.”

Windows Server Host Now Features node.js Support

Michael Garrity — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:45:00 GMT

Over the last few years, server-side JavaScript implementation node.js has really picked up in popularity among developers, and because of this, utilizing the software system has become more of a priority for many Web hosting providers.

Microsoft Windows hosting solutions provider DiscountASP.NET has been offering node.js support in its WebMatrix 2.0 beta labs sandbox for a while, and many of the developers using it have requested that it make node.js generally available in its Web hosting service.

Now, its Windows 2008 hosting platform officially features beta support for node.js.

It was a natural choice for DiscountASP.NET to begin supporting node.js, as Microsoft announced in 2011 that it would be actively working with Joyent to port node.js to Windows. The first stable port was available last November.

TheFind and IE Launch New Shopping Platform

Allison Howen — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:30:00 GMT

Could this be the future of online shopping?

A new partnership between TheFind and Internet Explorer has brought social discovery to print catalogs – resulting in Glimpse, an HTML5 Web site that is a combination of two popular apps from TheFind.

Glimpse combines the social sharing and shopping capabilities of TheFind’s Facebook app (also called Glimpse) with Catalogue, the company’s popular paper catalog tablet app. The site’s layout is similar to Pinterest, but it also displays and enables users to interact with catalogs from big name retailers like Lands’ End, Alloy and Moosejaw.

Each catalog is equipped with items that users can click on to find out prices and descriptions. Users sign into Glimpse with Facebook, and have the ability to see what items their friends have liked and products from brands that they have previously liked on Facebook. Additional social aspects of Glimpse include the ability for users to like or comment on an entire catalog or individual items, as well as save items into their personal collections or share items across their social networks.

“Working with Internet Explorer has been a great collaboration. Together, we have been focused on changing online shopping to deliver to consumers a rich and compelling experience that is driven by social discovery and curation,” says Ramneek Bhasin, VP and GM of Mobile at TheFind. “By bringing store catalogs to Glimpse, we have done just that. Glimpse will run seamlessly across all tablet and desktop platforms. This is just the beginning of what true ‘social discovery’ is all about.”

IE and TheFind also released a free, open-source framework for HTML5 page-flip, in order to give developers the code to create more online catalogs.

Check out some screenshots of Glimpse below:

The New Office is on Its Way

Michael Garrity — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 06:38:00 GMT

Major news out of Camp Microsoft last week, as CEO Steve Ballmer officially unveiled the customer preview of the new line of Microsoft Office products.

The biggest advancement in the company’s core suite of applications is its cross-platform capabilities, as well as its deep integration with Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service.

The new Office works seamlessly with touch, stylus, mouse, or keyboard across all new Windows 8 devices, from desktops to tablets to smartphones. Users will be able to create and edit content and access features using touch or a stylus as naturally as if they were using a keyboard and mouse.

It will also come with new Windows 8 applications built for touch-first experiences on tablet devices, such as OneNote and Lync. For ARM-based Windows 8 devices, there is Office Home and Student 2013 RT, which offers new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

But it’s not just about optimizing Office for new devices; Microsoft has been hard at work preparing for the future, which includes social media and cloud technology.

On the social front, Microsoft has integrated Office 2013 (via SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics) with Yammer, the private social network for businesses, and it now comes with Skype, letting users call or instant message anyone, as well as add their contacts into Lync. Companies can also use SharePoint to follow people, teams, documents, and sites, as well as view embedded pictures, videos, and Office content.

As for the cloud, Office 2013 will be closely tied to Microsoft SkyDrive; so much so that all documents will be saved to SkyDrive by default, making that content accessible across various Windows devices. For example, when users take notes using OneNote, regardless of the device, they can then access them again on whatever they happen to be using at the time. Of course, these documents will be available offline and will sync once the user reconnects to the Internet.

Cloud technology allows Office to roam a user’s personalized settings, which includes recently used files, templates, and custom dictionaries (among other things), to remember where they left off and bring them back in a single click.

Suite offerings and pricing plans will be announced in the fall, as well as new Office 365 subscription services, which (when available) will all feature 2013 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. The three announced subscription services will be Home Premium, Small Business Premium, and ProPlus, and each will come with rights to version upgrades and per-use rights for up to five PCs, Macs, and/or mobile devices.

It has been officially announced that Windows 8 will be released on October 26.

Windows Azure Comes to Web Hosts

Michael Garrity — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Microsoft, once unquestionably the biggest name in technology, has fallen drastically behind the pack in most areas over the years. However, as of late the company has been making a major push to remain relevant, if not become a leader, in today’s hottest industries – not the least of which is cloud computing.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a new white-label-type version of its Windows Azure cloud platform for Web hosts using Windows Server.

The Service Management Portal (as it’s being called) will allow Microsoft’s hosting partners to provide their customers with an Azure-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) without having to tap into the Microsoft cloud. The service will use a standardized management portal, and will also come with extendable APIs. This will allow developers to connect their current hosted applications to their hosts’ other services, their own on-premises resources, or directly to Windows Azure.

At present, Microsoft is working on developing a collection of partnerships with various service providers, and has already named big time Web hosting and domain name company GoDaddy as the Service Management Portal’s pilot customer.

The service will also work with long-time Microsoft partner Apprenda; so, if Web hosts set up an Apprenda instance internally and plug it into the portal, their customers will be able to deploy their Web apps using the auto-scaling and other Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities of Apprenda from within the Service Management Portal.

For now, the offering is in a beta-ish Community Technology Preview mode.

The Most Popular Smartphone Is...

Allison Howen — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT

Here is the proof that 2012 is the year of mobile…

A recent study by Nielsen reveals that two thirds of new mobile buyers in the U.S. are now opting for smartphones, which has led to more than half (54.9 percent to be exact), of U.S. mobile subscribers now owning a smartphone.

And although this is good news for the mobile market, as well as for Web workers who are already monetizing off of this new channel (retailers, marketers, affiliates, etc.), it is not good news for some companies who have put many dollars into mobile, yet are still being left in the dust – we are talking about you, Microsoft.

The Q2 smartphone study shows that the Windows 7 phone is only used by 1.3 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, while other Windows phones only make up 3 percent of the market. This means that less people have a Windows phone than still have a Blackberry, since RIM devices make up 9 percent of the U.S. smartphone market.

The study also reveals that Android leads the smartphone market in the U.S., with 51.8 percent of smartphone users owning an Android device. And Apple is currently in second place, with more than a third of smartphone owners (34.3%) using the company’s iPhone. However, it is also important to note that Apple has the highest manufacturer share of smarphone handsets. Additionally, among smartphone owners who bought their device during June 2012, 54 percent said they chose an Android phone, while 36 percent bought an iPhone.