Posts Tagged ‘microsoft’
In the aftermath of an aborted takeover of Yahoo!, Microsoft continues to remain the 800 lb gorilla in the tech industry. The question is where does it go from here?
There’s still talk about Microsoft working with Yahoo! on a collaboration for its search services, but really to leapfrog search engine leader Google, requires a paradigm shift. One possible avenue? The social media game.
Witness the fact that Google hasn’t done much with Blogspot/blogger in the last couple of years.
Services like Google’s Blog Search seemed like a half-hearted implementation.
That’s not to say that Microsoft and Yahoo! are exactly leading the field either.
The Web 2.0 space is still littered with their dying or dead blog services and communities.
A search at Microsoft’s Social Computing Group shows a number of interesting projects, but none really earth shattering to shift the field.
A couple of years ago, Microsoft spun off its own social network Wallop, to fanfare from Mashable and TechCrunch.
So what happened?
For sure, “cloud computing” still seems a distant reality, hobbled by a lack of compelling applications (in contrast, the Japanese with NTT Docomo’s I-Mode service do just about everything with their 3G phones which fold origami-like into small objects of art. Elsewhere in the world, cell phone users rejoice when they get restaurant recommendations or proximity locaters on their phones…).
It could be a good couple of years till (more…)
Looks like Twitter is fast becoming a victim of its own success.
Over the past weekend, the microblogging platform seems to have had a major bout of traffic/resource overload and indigestion and went offline for 48 hours or more.
When she came back, she came back sans direct messaging and pagination (I believe it refers to a backlog beyond your first page of tweets).
In addition to conserve resources, third party apps like Twhirl, can’t seem to do API calls more than once every 5 minutes.
This should take a number of steps to increase scalability and stability, although it will take quite a bit away from the “real time” nature of the hybrid IM/blogging type service.
Beyond being a juicy piece of M&A bait for one of the Google-Yahoo-Microsoft tirumvirate, I’m not sure if Twitter has a viable business model, beyond grabbing marketshare and mindshare for the microblogging space.
If you’ve thoughts on the issue, post your comments below:
I was downloading some files off Microsoft and noticed their logo:
(swiped from my browser tabs).
And here’s the logo for affiliate network, Market Leverage:
Which looks fairly similar.
I’ve seen companies fight it out in the courts when it comes to trademark similarity, and Microsoft certainly rigorously enforces it’s intellectual property.
Watch this space for updates…
Lee Odden interviewed MyBlogLog CEO Scott Rafer and got some insights into the blossoming social community site. From the looks of things, there are certainly some interesting developments in store for the young blogging community site.
To date MyBlogLog clocks in at about 50,000 users, fairly impressive considering the fact that it launched in Mar 2005. And with the recent acquisition by Yahoo! it looks set to grow from strength-to-strength (Especially with a 2% daily growth rate).
From my personal observation, MyBlogLog users tend to be fairly active, especially since the service combines the best features of blogging and social community sites.
As Scott observes, the MyBlogLog widget (typically displayed in the right sidebar of most blogs) certainly proved to be its secret weapon.With blogs already being very social-oriented, the widget only helped accelerate the pace of the service’s “virality”.
It’ll be interesting to see (more…)
Counterstrike, Painkiller, Battlefield 2, Half-Life, Quake, Guild Wars fans rejoice!
High-end gaming peripheral manufacturer Razer USA Ltd just announced today at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, a joint effort with Microsoft Hardware to design and develop next-generation computer gaming peripherals.
This is a major coup for Razer, long a cult hit for professional gamers who choose Razer’s high-end gaming peripherals. Razer has taken the leading in sponsoring several professional gaming tournaments in the Republic.
They’ve jointly introduced a new gaming mouse, the Microsoft Habu.
“We are thrilled to partner with Microsoft to combine form and function in order to deliver the best gaming products possible,†said Robert “Razerguy†Krakoff, president of Razer. “The Hardware Group stands out when it comes to comfort and design  and when we combine that with our years of experience in gaming power and precision, we will truly elevate the quality and overall gaming experience for our customers.â€Â
“By partnering with Razer, we are building on our own legacy of developing innovative hardware solutions while taking advantage of Razer’s expertise in providing smart technology that elevates the PC gaming experience,†said Bill Jukes, product marketing manager for Microsoft Hardware at Microsoft. “We believe that Microsoft Habu specifically addresses the demands of today’s PC gamers, and its versatility, comfort and performance will benefit gamers of every genre.â€Â
For more information, check out Razerguy’s blog: Razerguy on Form Meets Function
To look at the viral marketing elements of their campaign, check out http://www.notfornoobs.com
