Posts Tagged ‘microsoft’

‘Traditional Search Is Failing’ – Bing Director Stefan Weitz

May 20th, 2011

Image via CrunchBase

Most people think about search as a simple series of actions: type in a phrase, cross your fingers it brings up what you need, and then click around a page of blue links till you get what you were looking for.

But Stefan Weitz, director of Microsoft‘s search engine Bing, says that we should expect more out of our search experience. He criticizes “traditional” search engines — namely, web giant Google, Bing’s main competitor — for failing to keep up with the changing needs of users by sticking with the the search model they’ve always used, which is based on an algorithm measuring the strength of backlinks.

“When Google launched, they wanted to organize the world’s information, that was their mantra — it still is,” Weitz said in an interview. “It was a great vision that assumed really the web of yore, which is a web of documents, literally pages and the connections. Google’s whole mission was to leverage those connections and say, ‘Okay, I can see that the connection between these two pages is almost as important as the page content itself in defining what these things are about’ — it was a brilliant, brilliant model.”

But what worked ten years ago doesn’t work as well anymore, Weitz said, noting that the amount of information available online today, and the range of activities people seek to do there, have made the simple search that currently exists less effective.

“Search itself hasn’t changed fundamentally in the past 12 years,” he said. “Traditional search is failing. The standard notion of search … looking at the texts in the page, the backlinks, all that stuff doesn’t work
anymore.”

Yet for all the flaws Weitz might find with Google, Bing offers a similar set of features, such as searches keyed to news, images, and maps, as well as the ability to calculate sums, define words, and check the weather. Moreover, Google has maintained its dominance in the search market. It claims 65 percent market share to Bing’s 14 percent — a dominant position that has attracted scrutiny from government regulators, who are investigating whether Google’s search dominance is anti-competitive. Microsoft, itself convicted of antitrust abuses, has supported regulators’ investigation of Google in Europe, and Weitz added that in his estimation, the government probe into Google’s activities is understandable, given Google’s power in the area.

“I think whenever you have a player who has, depending on who you’re looking at, two-thirds of the market, it’s natural for regulators to look into this,” he said. “In Germany they have 98 percent share. It’s natural for folks to just look into what’s going on there. This is a place that controls so many people’s livelihoods, you want to make sure its a level playing field.”

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Google has started to include social results in its search in an attempt to make searches more relevant to users. Its new +1 feature lets users “like” results in search and see when friends and other users have “liked” that result as well. But Weitz said he didn’t think the feature was particularly useful.

“+1 today is only on search results,” he said. “I don’t really like search results very often. I like the sites, but I don’t like the result itself. I don’t know how helpful it is, frankly, to like the results.”

Bing is attempting to get a leg up on Google with its own take on social search results. The company recently unveiled a feature that pulls information from Facebook to show what sites, articles and other content Facebook friends have “liked.”

Bing’s approach to social data is to focus on delivering what it believes will characterize search in the future: An engine that anticipates a user’s needs and helps make decisions, finding the most relevant information without the user having to put in an undue amount of effort. But whether it will be able to distinguish itself from Google’s efforts to go social remains to be seen.

“Our mission is literally to deliver knowledge by understanding intent. What that implies is that we understand the web as this digital representation of the real world,” Weitz said. “We’ve now mapped almost every single square inch of the planet, we know where buildings are, we know who the people are, we know what tasks people are accomplishing — we are literally creating a semantic model, or a model, for everything in the world.”

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

  • Bing head says ‘traditional search’ is dying (news.cnet.com)
  • Bing’s Stefan Weitz: A Web of Verbs, Not Nouns! (stonetemple.com)
  • Is Traditional Search Passé? (technologizer.com)
  • Bing head says ‘traditional search’ is dying (news.cnet.com)
  • Bing Increases Facebook Integration to Outsocial Google (wired.com)
  • Bing Gets Friendlier with Facebook (technologyreview.in)
  • Bing Makes Facebook Data To Use, Personalized Bing Results By Facebook (seroundtable.com)
  • Bing’s Social Search Won’t Always Rely On Facebook “Likes” (fastcompany.com)
  • Why Bing Could Beat Google in Social Search (readwriteweb.com)
  • Bing Taps Facebook Data for Fight With Google (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
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Microsoft Acquires Skype for $8.5 Billion

May 10th, 2011
Image representing Skype as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

After rumors that first Facebook and then Microsoft were in talks to acquire Skype, the latter announced that it has acquired the VoIP giant for $8.5 billion in cash.

Skype will be integrated into Microsoft devices and systems such as Xbox and Kinect, Xbox Live, the Windows Phone, Lync and Outlook, Microsoft said in a statement. The company has pledged to continue supporting and developing Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms as well.

The deal, which was spearheaded by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with assistance from Charles Songhurst, the company’s head of corporate corporate strategy, was completed Monday evening, AllThingsD reported earlier.

The acquisition is an expensive one for Microsoft. Not only is it the largest price Microsoft has paid for a company in decades, Skype is not yet profitable. Despite revenues totaling $860 million last year and operating profits of $264 million, the company lost $6.9 million overall, according to documents filed with the SEC. And the company carries $686 million in debt.

Much of the company’s appeal rests in its largest user base of 663 million, 145 of which use Skype monthly (Update: Microsoft says Skype has 170 million regular users), and 8.8 million of which are paying customers.

There is one clear set of winners here: Skype’s investors. A group including Silver Lake, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board purchased the company from eBay for $2.75 billion in September 2009.

In August, Skype filed for an IPO but put plans on hold after Tony Bates joined the company as CEO in October. Bates will take on the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division and report directly to Ballmer.

Source -: http://mashable.com

  • Microsoft confirms purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion (winrumors.com)
  • It’s Official: Microsoft Acquires Skype For $8.5 Billion In Cash (paidcontent.org)
  • Microsoft Plans to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion (pamil-visions.net)
  • Why Microsoft Is Buying Skype for $8.5 Billion [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)
  • Microsoft Buys Skype, Facebook Wins… (bigthink.com)
  • Microsoft to acquire Skype (microsoft.com)
  • Microsoft to Acquire Skype for Over $8 Billion (slashgear.com)
  • Microsoft Can Take Skype to The Next Level: Mobile & Living Room (readwriteweb.com)
  • Microsoft Making Company’s Biggest Acquisition: Skype (searchenginewatch.com)
  • Microsoft buys Skype for $US8.5bn (theinformativereport.com)
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Google Named Most Reputable Company in U.S

May 5th, 2011
Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

Google Inc an American public corporation is now recognized the world over as the fastest search engine. It is an easy to use free service that conveys relevant information in a matter of seconds to the user.

Harris Interactive poll asked about 30,000 people in the US to express their opinion on the 60 most visible companies in the US and rate them on the basis of 20 different categories like finance, leadership, social appeal etc.

Google has topped the list of the most reputed company in the US. Harris Interactive has rated Google with 84.05/100 which indicates excellent performance. Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Sony and Amazon are the other technology companies rated over 80 but Google tops them all.

Insurance, Banks and oil companies were rated the least and AIG was given the worst reputation with 47.77. BP, the company known for its worst oil spills followed next.

Google definitely enjoys total supremacy and has appealed to the masses even when government investigations and privacy concerns have tried to tarnish its image. It is also indicative of the fact that more and more people are connected to the web. Google’s product and service quality has made them accessible to millions.

Source:- http://www.clickindia.com

  • Google Named Most Reputable Company in U.S. (mashable.com)
  • Google named most reputable company in U.S. (cnn.com)
  • Google brand reputation tops all others in U.S. (news.cnet.com)
  • Google brand reputation tops all others in U.S. (news.cnet.com)
  • 11 Companies With The Worst Reputations In America: Harris Interactive (huffingtonpost.com)
  • Harris Interactive releases it’s list of the 10 worst companies in America (saltlakecitymortgage.wordpress.com)
  • Report: Google Most Reputable Corporation In U.S. (searchengineland.com)
  • Google takes top spot in reputation rankings; Apple, Intel, Amazon close behind (zdnet.com)
  • Google Most Reputable in Harris’ Annual RQ Poll (webpronews.com)
  • Google Boasts Pristine Reputation (adweek.com)
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IE9 Downloads Cross 2.3 Million in One Day IE9 Downloads Cross 2.3 Million in One Day

March 19th, 2011

Microsoft on Cloud 9

The final version of Internet Explorer 9, the latest iteration of Microsoft’s web browser, was released to public two days ago on of March 15. In just 24 hours, the browser managed to cross 2.3 million downloads. That’s a pretty impressive number, considering only Windows Vista and 7 users can download this browser. Of course, Microsoft couldn’t be more pleased with this news, as is evident from their blog post. In comparison though, Firefox 3 managed to cross 8 million downloads in a day, creating a world record for itself back in 2008. Then again, Firefox is a multi-platform browser, available to Mac and Linux users as well.

We are glad that IE9 is getting a good response. It’s quite a good browser and for the first time, Microsoft has a browser that can compete with the best of the browsers out there. Unfortunately, unless the Windows XP users upgrade to Windows 7, we don’t really see the percentage of IE6 users to drop any time soon. Too bad IE9 is not available for XP users.
To download IE9, click here. To read our full review, click here.

  • IE9 Hits 2.3 Million Downloads In 24 Hours (informationweek.com)
  • 10 Things You Need To Know About Internet Explorer 9 (maketecheasier.com)
  • Internet Explorer 9 Reaches 2.3 Million Downloads In 24 Hours (webpronews.com)
  • IE9 First Day Downloads Disappoint (conceivablytech.com)
  • IE9: Downloads beat Angry Birds, lag Firefox and Opera (go.theregister.com)
  • IE9 downloads hit 2.3m, miles behind Firefox – but could soon hit 100m (guardian.co.uk)
  • This week at Microsoft: IE9, spam, and Metro expansion (thenextweb.com)
  • Firefox 4 to be released March 22, will it beat IE9? (downloadsquad.switched.com)
  • “IE9 downloaded more than 2.35 million times in 24 hours” and related posts (neowin.net)
  • “Internet Explorer 9 Hits 2.3 Million Downloads in 24 Hours” and related posts (gadgetvenue.com)
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Microsoft Bing Searches Include Facebook Likes

February 28th, 2011

In an answer to Google’s Twitter searches, Bing makes public likes searchable

Social networking is ubiquitous and the current trend now. It’s all pervading grip has now spread to search engines too. Google already has a social search with Twitter integrated into its results, but what’s lacking is Facebook in the social search arena. However, it isn’t for long because Facebook has partnered with Microsoft and the alliance see’s Facebook “Liked Results” being integrated into Bing searches.

Microsoft’s Bing team blog explains how it works:

While we are very excited to talk about our next development, we’re all aware that it’s all part of a longer journey. This is the first time in human history that people are leaving social traces that machines can read and learn from, and present enhanced online experiences based on those traces. As people spend more time online and integrate their offline and online worlds, they will want their friends’ social activity and their social data to help them in making better decisions. Integrating with Twitter data 16 months ago was one step, and exploring Facebook’s rich streams is another.

For those concerned about privacy, only the publicly liked links will be available on the search engine, but that still leaves the possibility of unsolicited likes by friends being included in the links. However, that is a moot point because the whole point of friend system is to have people you trust. Moreover, Bing mentions that not all Facebook “Liked Results” will not show up in searches. The partnership harks to a new trend of the social foray of the two players in the search engine market.

  • Bing Search Improves Facebook Integration (ghacks.net)
  • Bing Turns to Facebook for new Social Search Results (webmonkey.com)
  • Bing Adds Facebook ‘Likes’ To Search Results (informationweek.com)
  • Bing Now Displays Facebook Likes In-Line With Search Results (insidefacebook.com)
  • Bing Increases Integration With Facebook Likes (seroundtable.com)
  • Bing Expands Facebook Integration With Search (allfacebook.com)
  • Bing integrates Facebook likes in search results (zdnet.com)
  • Bing Is Catching Up to Google (couchcontent.com)
  • Bing Integrates Facebook Likes Further Into Its Search Results (searchengineland.com)
  • Bing Milks Facebook Even More With Liked URL’s (fastgush.com)
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