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Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

Mobile internet and the changing search experience

May 28th, 2011 by Daniel Young | No Comments | Filed in Search, Technology

We all expected mobile to change search and now we’re beginning to see this come to fruition. Via the seer Robert Scoble I recently learnt about two new and quite similar approaches to mobile search.

One is built into Microsoft’s l latest version of Windows Mobile, which is called Mango and the other – Do@ – is an app that will be available on multiple mobile platforms.

Both take a similar approach in that they produce results as opposed to links. Someone has already gone to the trouble if defining the best results for you.

At a macro level, google is presented with some significant challenges with its traditional approach to search, results are heavily polluted and the Google search engine leaves a lot of work with the searcher, hence the company’s foray into social search. The other problem is that the traditional approach to search simply doesn’t lend itself to the mobile experience.

Check out these videos to learn more, that’s assuming you’ve learnt anything up to now!

Windows Mango

Do@

Tags: Google, Microsoft, mobile, Search

Microsoft takes the bait, enters discussions with News Corp

November 23rd, 2009 by Daniel Young | No Comments | Filed in Media, Search

It was pretty obvious that Rupert Murdoch’s recent announcement that News Corp would prevent its content being indexed by Google was an appeal to other search engines to step up to the plate. I have half expected other publishers to make their own ‘anti-Google indexing’ announcements but it seems that they are keeping quiet for the time being to see what eventuates.

The FT reported today that News Corp and Microsoft are in ‘discussions’. Microsoft is determined or desperate to catch up with Google in search, the latter being streets ahead. Microsoft has made it clear that it will invest heavily to achieve its goals.

Could Microsoft turn the tide in search through exclusive partnerships with publishers?

Update: Some interesting perspectives on today’s developments…

Tom Foremski at SiliconValleyWatcher: Is Murdoch Setting Up a Bidding War for News Corp. Index?

Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land: Why an Exclusive WSJ Deal Wouldn’t Help Bing

Tags: bing, Google, Microsoft, Murdoch, news, newscorp, Print, Publishing, Search, Yahoo!

From the handwritten journal to blogging to a continuous record of your life

September 8th, 2009 by Daniel Young | No Comments | Filed in Life, Technology

Humans seem to have an innate urge to chronicle their lives and experiences. From handwritten journals (think Samuel Pepys and the Fire of London) to blogging, Twitter and lifestreaming, its clear that writing about and recording life is an important aspect of our self realisation. Technology has dramatically improved and enhanced our ability to capture and relate events and developments.

At some point the human brain will be integrated with technology. Lets imagine that the technology is a camera and a hard-drive. We’ll effectively have a video recorder built into our heads with our eyes acting as the camera lense. You’d have the ability to turn the camera on and off by the simple act of thinking.

Maybe some parents would have remote access to their children’s vision so that they could see exactly what they were up to at anytime. Painful memories and unpleasant experiences could be deleted or archived.

The prospect of human-computer integration is scary but the opportunity to recall and playback experiences on demand would be fun. I’d love to rewind to my last year of secondary school so that I could re-experience the goal that I scored for the first eleven. A solitary goal during my school career but a cracker (top left corner from the opposite corner of the 18-yard box with defenders galore in pursuit).

This TechCrunch story by Michael Arrington refers to some of the development in this area, including a ten year Microsoft research project called SenseCam. At the moment, the technology is external and it also has a fair way to go in terms of downsizing. SenseCam takes images passively but one wonders what the quality or usefulness of these pictures will be if the thing is basically dangling from the wearer.

I wouldn’t swap my computer free brain for the opportunity to capture my future – not really – and I am struggling to see the value of a semi attached camera. Most photos aren’t much cop without the ‘point’ part of the process and surely this guy is just going to get in trouble…

Would this appeal to you?

Tags: camera, Microsoft, recorders, sensecam, snaps

Microsoft Vista Ads with Seinfeld: What’s the Point?

September 15th, 2008 by Daniel Young | No Comments | Filed in Technology

Has Bill Gates left Microsoft or was the whole retirement-PR campaign a strategy to divert attention away from the relentless pounding that it and Vista was receiving in the media, old and new?

Either way, the company has invested in a advertising campaign featuring Jerry Seinfled – the second in the series is here in my ‘Featured Video’ section within my new look site.

I think the strategy discussion went something like this:

MS: OK, so Vista was pretty unfunny. We’re getting a lot of negative publicity – what do you suggest?
Ad Agency: We’ve pulled in our big guns on this one and we recommend making something even more unfunny…
MS: Right, right… like it. Strategy.
Ad Agency: We could a pay a mozza to a well known comic to appear along side Bill. Bill’s involvement would make it authentic.
MS: Yeah, right. And would add to the unfunnyness.
Ad Agency: erm… Yeah.

I have never been a huge Seinfeld fan (I must admit) but I think these ads do very little to demonstrate that MS understands or is in touch with its audience (quite the opposite in fact). They also do a poor job of conveying any meaningful message about the part that MS plays in people’s lives (this is the objective), apart from some throw away motherhood statements.

“Bill, you’ve connected a billion people”

So, what is the point? Perhaps this will build over time? They don’t come close to the Mac vs. MS campaign, which combined stong product messaging with humour and which established affinity with viewers.

MS spent more than $300million on the ad campaign, with $10million of that going to Seinfled. The ad agency is Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s.

Here is what the LA Times had to say.

Microsoft provides more detail about the campaign and the underlying programs (many of which are partner and product focused) here. Its interesting how quickly this explanation gets away from the content of the ads; its concludes with:

In the end, says Veghte, the ideal would be to maintain that level of excitement that users experience when they first purchase a PC, and ensure that it continues through years of use, by helping them find new ways to be creative and productive.

“Windows has always been about putting the power of computing in the hands of people. All of these efforts are designed to reconnect and re-ignite our customers’ imaginations around the value of Windows in their lives today, and the promise of Windows in their lives tomorrow.”

Bill Veghte is the Senior Vice President, Online Services & Windows Business Group

OK, so the ads are designed to re-ignite our imagination around the value of Windows in our lives. I’m still not getting it.

Tags: Ad, Ballmer, Gates, Microsoft, Seinfeld

Content Application Integation: Adding Search to Office Applications

September 13th, 2008 by Daniel Young | No Comments | Filed in Technology

Google have introduced some new features to their Google Docs office-style applications, including the ability to more easily insert images from the Web into working documents.

I think of this as a type of Content Application Integration and thikn that we are likely to see many more examples of this.

New media is driving increases in the usage of audio, video and imagery (rich media) and so it makes a lot of sense to build features into creative applications that offer search functionality, access to the Web and easy one-click insertion. See my earlier post on a related topic.

CAI (CAI) offers many potential applications… imagine, for example, being able to click on any word in a working document (a Word doc say, or PowerPoint) and going straight to the Wikipedia page for that word or opting to open a search in a Web browser on that term. This would be a variation on the linking strategy that underpins Web collaboration and sharing.

These functional capabilities are available today but CAI would make the integration between the productivity applications and content engines much tighter – furthering enabling the development and creation of multi-media content.

It would seem that Google has a much stronger position in this space as it is suited more to Web based applications as opposed to on-premise apps.

Tags: CAI, Docs, Google, Microsoft, PowerPoint, Search, Wikipedia, Word, Yahoo!

Microsoft bids US$44.6 Billion for Yahoo!

February 1st, 2008 by Daniel Young | No Comments | Filed in Technology

Microsoft has made an approach for Yahoo!.

It’s not the first time that Microsoft has tried to find ways to work with Yahoo!

There are obvious synergies and opportunities for Microsoft. The deal would give Microsoft’s advertising sales division – which has been recently bolstered by the acquisition of aQuantive and other small online ad sales players – a vast amount of well trafficed Web property to sell. Online advertising sales are expected to double in the next three years to US$80bn.

The deal would provide an established channel for a Web based version of Office to compete with Google Docs and there would be value – potentially – in combining the Hotmail and Yahoo! email constituencies.

The following section is from Yahoo! Finance:

Yahoo would give Microsoft dominance in Web banner ads used by corporate brand advertisers. It also attracts more than 500 million people monthly to sites devoted to news, finance and sports, and Yahoo Mail is the No. 1 consumer e-mail service.

On the topic of email, I must say that I wasn’t impressed by the new Yahoo! mail service and have reverted to the ‘Classic’ product.

On the down side, you’d have to wonder how easy it would be to align the diverse cultures of these two companies and how keen the Yahoo! employees would be to work for the dark empire Microsoft (Will the talent leave? Hello Google!). Also, Microsoft’s cultural leaning towards software release cycles wouldn’t represent a good fit with the dotcom ethos where innovation and development is a part of every working day.

Search is clearly a massive lead generator for an Internet company and Microsoft pursues this market aggressively and keenly. One wonders if two companies that have struggled in search, or at least have failed to take the lead, would represent an effective competitor to Google anytime soon.

If the bid is successful, both companies will take their eye off of the ball while they deal with the integration of the two companies, providing Google with an opportunity to extend its lead. Google already has a 75% market share in search advertising compared to Yahoo!’s 9%.

Tags: , deal, Google, hotmail, Microsoft, Search, Yahoo!