Microsoft Flops and Loses 7% of the Browser Market in Last 12 Months - Vista Still Only Used by Less Than 15% of all Users, per Janco

Janco and the IT Productivity Center have just released their Browser and Operating System Market Share White Paper. The major findings are: Microsoft's browser market share has continued to erode and has fallen to 58.50% versus 65.48% (loss of 6.96%) in August 2007 and 82.99% (loss of 24.49%) in August 2005; Firefox has maintained its number 2 browser position and now is used by almost 19% (18.94%) of all users; Google Desktop has over 4% (4.01%) of the market; and Time Warner made a strategic error in abandoning Netscape as users continue to use Netscape even though AOL no longer supports it.

The study also finds that on the Operating System front, Microsoft's Vista has just under 15% (14.94%) of the market after almost 20 months since Vista's first release candidate (RC1). Victor Janulaitis, the CEO of Janco, said, "Both Vista and Netscape show that large companies make huge blunders in technology. In the case of Microsoft, they no longer count on moving users to new products as quickly as they want. Time Warner's short-sighted decision to abandon Netscape shows technology decisions are long-term ones, and companies that want to create value in that market need to look beyond quarter-to- quarter earnings. But the real story is the continued erosion of Microsoft's market share."

Gregory S. Stanger Joins Bridgevine Board of Directors

Former Expedia, Microsoft executive to lend significant business and financial leadership experience to Bridgevine as newest board member

ATLANTA & VERO BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bridgevine, Inc., the trusted source for consumers to learn about, compare and shop for the services that shape their lives, today announced the appointment of Gregory S. Stanger to the Bridgevine board of directors. An accomplished investor, venture capitalist, and financial and business leader, Stanger joins a highly accomplished and effective board of directors assembled to help solidify Bridgevine’s leadership in the online marketing and advertising space. The announcement comes on the heels of the company’s public launch of its consumer-facing website, Bridgevine.com.

“Through strong partnerships with leading service providers and a powerful technology platform, Bridgevine is well positioned to fill the void in helping consumers educate themselves and select customized bundled services that meet their unique needs,” said Stanger. “Bridgevine stands out as a trusted source for simplifying the buying process for consumers, and I look forward to working with the company as it continues to grow.”

Stanger is a private investor and has served as a venture partner at Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) — a venture capital firm — since June 2005, and was an executive in residence at TCV from December 2003 to June 2005. Previously, Stanger served as senior vice president, chief financial officer and director of Expedia, Inc. from February 2002 to September 2003, and as its chief financial officer from October 1999 to September 2003. Before joining Expedia, he served as senior director, corporate development of Microsoft Corporation and held other positions within Microsoft's finance and corporate development departments since 1991. Stanger serves on the board of directors of Netflix, Drugstore.com, Infovell, and of Global Market Insite.

“Greg’s significant leadership experience with successful consumer-focused Internet companies will be a valuable asset to Bridgevine,” said Vinny Olmstead, president and CEO of Bridgevine. “The Bridgevine leadership team looks forward to tapping Greg’s knowledge and experience as we push forward in presenting the online marketing and advertising platform that revolutionizes the way advertisers market and consumers purchase.”

About Bridgevine

Founded in 2003, Bridgevine, Inc. is headquartered in Vero Beach, FL with an office in Atlanta, GA. The company’s consumer-facing website, Bridgevine.com, is a trusted source for consumers to learn about, compare and shop for the services that shape their lives. From communications to entertainment to security, Bridgevine.com lets consumers choose individual services that are best for them, or create personalized bundles from trusted providers resulting in saved time and money. Unlike other “comparison” shopping websites, Bridgevine’s powerful technology offers a unified shopping cart, real-time pricing, order status and scheduling to deliver the best customer experience in the industry. Bridgevine’s deep integration with leading service providers from across the country — including Comcast, AT&T, D-Link, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, DIRECTV, RealNetworks, Panasonic, GameFly and more — enables Bridgevine to deliver the most accurate information on services, pricing and special promotions, adding even more value to the bundled services shopping experience. The company’s proprietary ecommerce platform is licensed by leading retailers, websites and Fortune 500 companies, making it possible for them to monetize online, call center and in-store traffic. Bridgevine was ranked 57 on the prestigious 2007 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies. For more information, please visit www.bridgevine.com.

Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share

Transaction valued at approximately $44.6 billion in cash and stock; Provides 62 percent premium to current trading price for Yahoo! shareholders; Combined entity to create a more competitive company while providing superior value to shareholders and better choice and innovation for customers and partners

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft's proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan.31, 2008.

"We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. "We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners."

NBC Universal and Microsoft Team Up On Unprecedented Web Offering for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

NBC's Olympic on-line coverage will be delivered by the MSN Network- "NBCOlympics.com on MSN"-- and use Microsoft's Silverlight Technology to Stream Thousands of Hours of Exclusive Interactive Video from Beijing Games

NBC Universal, owner of the exclusive U.S. media rights to this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing, China (August 8-24, 2008), announced today that it was teaming up with MSN
and Microsoft in an unprecedented strategic alliance to create "NBCOlympics.com on MSN", a next-generation online experience for Olympic fans across the United States. With thousands of hours of competition video in both live and on- demand formats, deep analysis and results delivered from NBC's award-winning broadcast and digital media teams, and Microsoft's Silverlight technology to deliver deeply immersive user experiences, NBCOlympics.com's coverage will be powered by MSN and Microsoft technology
to complement NBC's broadcast programming and put millions of fans in control of the Olympic sports, athletes and countries they want to watch.

Viacom and Microsoft Announce Long-Term Digital Content and Advertising Partnership

Companies sign landmark multi-year deal to collaborate on content distribution, advertising, event promotions and gaming Microsoft's Atlas to become exclusive ad serving platform for Viacom U.S. web sites

Viacom Inc.and Microsoft Corporation today announced a broad-based, strategic alliance under which major divisions of both companies will collaborate on advertising, content distribution, event promotions and games over the next several years.

The comprehensive agreement spans across the two companies and includes a number of significant components. Among them:



-- Microsoft will license, on a non-exclusive basis, long and short-form
television and theatrical content from across Viacom's cable network
and motion picture businesses, including MTV, Comedy Central, BET and
Paramount Pictures for use on Microsoft properties such as MSN and Xbox
360.

-- Microsoft's Atlas division will become the ad server for Viacom's U.S.
websites and Microsoft will have the exclusive right to sell remnant
display advertising inventory on Viacom's U.S. websites.

-- Microsoft will buy advertising on Viacom broadcast and online networks
over a five-year period and the companies will work together on
promotions and sponsorships for MTV Networks and BET Networks award
shows;

-- Viacom will work with Microsoft on opportunities to become a preferred
publishing partner across Microsoft's casual gaming platforms.

Detailed financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal has a projected base value of approximately $500 million in financial considerations and business services between the two companies over the initial five-year length of the agreement. The deal includes a combination of revenue sharing provisions, guarantees and content licensing agreements. The agreements contemplate the potential for expansion of the transactions.

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Windows bug fixed by Microsoft

In its latest monthly patch release, Microsoft has patched a Windows bug that was deemed "critical" and has possibly been being exploited by cyber criminals.

The MS07-061 patch fixes an important flaw in Windows' Uniform Resource Identifier, which is involved in Windows' process for passing information between applications. Ben Greenbaum, a senior research manager at Symantec, told the Associated Press that the security flaw is "concerning". By taking advantage of the security flaw, cyber criminals could take over a victim's computer and steal crucial information such as passwords and financial information. Once infected, the victim's computer could also be used to disseminate spam.

This month unusually saw only two patches released, the other of which was deemed "important", the second-highest level of security rating for a patch. The second patch is for those with computers running the Windows 2000 Server and the Windows Server 2003.

New console includes five games, wireless controller and storage to save games - all for $279.99

Just in time for holiday, Microsoft Corp. today released a new Xbox 360(R) console that
delivers games and content to everyone in the family for an incredible value of $279.99 (U.S. estimated retail price)*. Available in stores beginning today, Xbox 360 Arcade console is the first Xbox 360 console to include five family-friendly games, a wireless controller, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connection to enable
high-definition output if desired and 256 MB of memory useful for storing games and entertainment content. At $279.99, the Xbox 360 Arcade console will include five best-selling games: "PAC-MAN Championship Edition","Uno", "Luxor 2", "Boom Boom Rocket" and "Feeding Frenzy".

Companies 'not ready for disasters'

Many companies are not ready should the worst happen, the security software company Symantec has reported.

Though 91 percent of IT companies do carry out tests of their disaster-recovery abilities, more than half of those tests fail, a recent in-depth study found. Many IT professionals fear that a disaster could hurt their company's reputation, affect the loyalty of customers and result in company information being compromised, the research discovered.

Sean Derrington, director, storage management product marketing at Symantec, said: "IT executives are taking a fresh, hard look at their disaster recovery and business continuity strategies. "To protect against downtime, organizations must implement high availability and disaster recovery across their enterprise environments."

Companies also need to have procedures in place that allow for them to test their recovery abilities, Mr Derrington added. Meanwhile, Microsoft has found that phishing scams are successful approximately 0.4 percent of the time. For more information visit www.broadbandnational.com

Online copyright regulations announced

Several of the world's foremost media companies have collaborated to develop a set of regulations for the use of copyrighted material online.

Wide-ranging filtering technology will be in use across the board by the end of the year, the alliance concluded. Among the companies making up the alliance are NBC, Viacom, Disney, Microsoft, Fox and MySpace. However, the internet search giant Google declined to participate.

Jeff Zucker, president and chief executive of NBC Universal, commented: "[This] announcement marks a significant step in transforming the internet from a Wild West to a popular medium that respects the rule of law. "By recognizingthe mutual benefits of a technology-based framework to control piracy, technology and content companies have laid the foundation for the lawful growth of video on the internet." The guidelines are an attempt by the media sector to stop copyrighted content being shown on video clip sites like the popular YouTube site.

Mobile search service unveiled by Microsoft

The software giant Microsoft has created a new mobile search service that allows users to use their voice when searching.

Dubbed Live Search Mobile, the service lets one access phone listings and maps, among other services. Users must download the search function to their Windows-based cell phone. Spurring the creation of the service is Microsoft's determination to capture a piece of the burgeoning mobile ad market.

Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the search & advertising platform group at Microsoft, said: "Microsoft is building on several years of innovation in imagery and 3-D visualization, adding some of the most significant innovations to driving directions technology in the last several years." Now the company's 185 million customers can access "a wider variety of clients, platforms and devices", added Ms Nadella.

The maps and directions function of the service is the area that has been the most improved, according to the company.

Microsoft Delves Into Advertising

Digital marketing company aQuantive has been bought by Microsoft for $6 billion, it has been announced.

The move signifies Microsoft's first foray in to the world of internet advertising, a sector that has recently been attracting the attentions of most of the major internet companies. Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive is the company's largest to date.

The chief executive of aQuantive, Brian McAndrews, will run Microsoft's newly devised Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group. The new body will be responsible for all of Microsoft's ad operations. At a recent meeting for financial analysis PC World reports that Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: "We are going to be an advertising company."

"We need to embrace that. We need to be world class at that." Earlier this year Microsoft's rival Google acquired the internet advertising giant DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. U.S. regulators are still investigating the acquisition amidst possible privacy and antitrust violations.

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VoIP Battle Predicted

A VoIP "war" is set to begin between providers Cisco and Microsoft, according to a new report.

Writing for CRN, Larry Hooper suggests that the two firms will soon go head to head in the VoIP market. The situation arises as Microsoft prepares to launch its unified communication strategy this fall.

Dubbed Office Communication Server 2007, the new package includes instant messaging, email, mobile and VoIP telephony, as well as videoconferencing. But Mr Hooper warns Microsoft that Cisco did not find things easy in the early days of VoIP. He states that it took Cisco a number of years to establish its channel program in the voice market.

"Time will tell if Microsoft will hit the same bumps in the road to VoIP, but the journey will be fascinating to watch," the writer suggests. Announcing the new product earlier this year, Microsoft business division president Jeff Raikes said that unified communications will be behind "the next major advancement" in the mobile work environment.

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Europe Beats U.S. On Internet Usage

Europe Beats U.S. On Internet Usage

During April, average European usage of the Internet beat out usage by Americans, according to the Internet data company comScore.

An average of 122 million Europeans over the age of 15 used the internet daily during April, the comScore figures showed. This is in contrast to the average of 114 million Americans who used it every day during the same period.

The countries with the largest proportions of their populations on the Internet at any one time, was Denmark with 68 percent and Holland with 83 percent. However, as a whole, Internet penetration in Europe stood at 40 percent, compared to 66 percent in the US. The most visited website in 13 out of the 16 countries was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Google, most often followed by Microsoft.

Included in the survey was Russia, which was the last of countries ranked for internet penetration, with only 11 percent. What ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifre described by the company as "massive" databases are maintained by comScore to monitor the different ways that the internet is used.

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Microsoft To Acquire Aquantive

Software giant Microsoft is to acquire the digital marketing company Aquantive for $6 billion, it has been announced. The move is part of a wider effort from the company to expand its presence in the lucrative world of online advertising.

After the acquisition, Microsoft will acquire Seattle-based Aquantive's Atlas Media Console and Drive PM solutions for advertisers and publishers. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: "The advertising industry is evolving and growing at an incredible pace, moving increasingly toward online and IP-served platforms, which dramatically increases the importance of software for this industry.

"Today's announcement represents the next step in the evolution of our ad network." Microsoft will also gain control of Aquantive's own interactive advertisement agency, Avenue A Razorfish. In April, Google won the race to acquire the ubiquitous internet advertiser Doubleclick, paying $3.1 billion for the company.

The New York-based Doubleclick was founded in 1995 by Kevin O'Connor and Dwight Merriman.

Windows Updates Hijacked

Windows Updates Hijacked

Malware could be installed onto a PC in the security updates issued by Windows, experts have stated.

There is currently a program in circulation that is capable of hijacking Windows Update and installing malware that could leave a computer vulnerable to attack. The program works by bypassing a user's firewall and then downloading damaging files that then remain undetected.

A Microsoft spokesman stated: "Microsoft is aware of phttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifublic reports that Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is being used by TrojanDownloader:Win32/Jowspry. "The bypass most commonly occurs after a successful social engineering attempt lures the user into inadvertently running [Jowspry], which then utilizes BITS to download additional malware."

Speaking to the BBC, security consultant Robert Schifreen said that the way to avoid infecting one's PC is to not click on any links or attachments unless one is sure that they are not infected. Meanwhile, management company Fortinet has joined the Microsoft Virus Information Alliance (VIA) to collaborate on monitoring the distribution of internet viruses.

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