Microsoft

Microsoft’s new search engine better than its marketing

While Microsoft’s new search engine bing has been getting a number of positive reviews since its launch a few days ago, the TV commercial is being lambasted.

Just read the comments on this Advertising Age story. Comments such as this one from Robert in New York:

Noise and nonsense. Particularly unimpressive—its set up is too long and confused; while it’s payoff is virtually indistinguishable from the set up, which is to say no message, let alone benefit was delivered. More distressing, it was created by people who simply want to delight themselves and who I suspect think they’ve created something cool.

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Video: Microsoft’s amazing surface computer

This video has been floating around for a few days on blogs and on Digg, but it’s so good, I wanted to be sure to include it here too.

It’s a report by PopularMechanics.com on Microsoft’s new coffee-table computer — a device that uses “multi-touch” input to manipulate files, and which can recognize and interact with actual objects sitting on its surface.

The surface computer concept is hugely exciting, and the video conveys an appropriate sense of astonishment and delight.

– via Publishing 2.0

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Microsoft finally gets an online ad company

Microsoft may have lost out to Google on the purchase of DoubleClick, but the software giant has at last bought an online advertising company. And it had to look no further than nearby Seattle.

Microsoft announced this morning that it will acquire aQuantive [the parent of better-known names such as Avenue A | Razorfish, Atlas and DRIVEpm] for US$6 billion cash, or almost twice the market capitalization of US$2.8 billion. That will make only a small dent on Microsoft’s cash reserves of US$35 billion.

The purchase comes only a day after WPP agreed to acquire 24/7 Real Media. Last month saw Yahoo’s purchase of RightMedia and the GoogleClick deal.

More on the story from TechCrunch and Mathew Ingram.

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YahooSoft versus GoogleClick

Yahoo and Microsoft may be considering a merger in order to fight the rapidly growing Google.

Reports today in the Wall St Journal and the New York Post quote unnamed sources as indicating informal merger/takeover talks have occurred. The Post says Microsoft is getting more insistent, having lost out to Google last month in the bidding for ad-serving giant DoubleClick.

Yahoo’s share price rose sharply this morning, following the news reports.

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