Microsoft announced today that it had acquired a 4% stake in jobs site CareerBuilder, taking percentages from the newspapers that own the popular service (1.7% from Tribune, 1.7% from Gannett, and .6% from McClatchy). As part of the deal, CareerBuilder becomes the exclusive provider of job listings on MSN Careers, and Microsoft is guaranteed at least $443 million over the next seven years.
Microsoft also announced plans to acquire OfficeWriter, a business intelligence tool made by SoftArtisans. OfficeWriter is a Java tool that lets you create Microsoft Office documents from any data source through a web browser. Sounds extremely useful in connecting Office with the web.
Microsoft also acquired mobile phone advertising firm ScreenTonic. ScreenTonics makes a product called STAMP Technology, which manages mobile advertising and all the different factors associated with many different models of mobile phones.
Besides technology, another important piece of this acquisition is the fact that ScreenTonic has strong relationships with some very large brands and operators in Europe. Companies such as McDonald’s, Nokia, Toshiba, Apple, and Disney help fill out ScreenTonic’s laundry list of connections. Being that ScreenTonic already has a strong presence in Europe, expect Microsoft to start reaping the benefits of this acquisition within the next few months.
May 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Advertising, Office, MSN, Applications |
one comment
Miel writes about the new Visual Studio island Microsoft has opened up in the virtual world of Second Life. Here’s the Soapbox video trailer for it:
Video: Visual Studio Island
Miel says that there are a series of hidden logic puzzles, and if you solve them you get into a major VIP room, where you will find a prize. The registration page will help get you set up in Second Life, show you how to get there, and let you register for a party on Thursday.
UPDATE: Valleywag’s not a big fan, saying Microsoft is trying too hard to be hip, to be cool, to do human marketing, and that it should try something smaller. Jeez, somebody hasn’t being paying attention. Microsoft does this stuff all the time, as part of its marketing revolution the last few years, and is pioneering much of the new marketing these days.
May 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Marketing |
3 comments
Halo 2 for Windows Vista, the PC version of the 30-month old bestselling shooter, was supposed to release yesterday. Didn’t happen. The reason given? Technical and installation issues. Sorry, fellas, but if you’ve been hotly anticipating playing this game on Vista, you’ll have to wait a little longer, til May 22. Bummer.
This just goes to remind you: Don’t wait for a game to make it to PC, just buy the Xbox 360 version. I remember when Halo 2 came out, people talked about waiting for the PC, and they wound up waiting 30 months. SO not worth it. Just buy the damn game now. God only knows how long it could take for Gears to make it to Windows!
May 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Gears of War, Halo, Vista, Xbox 360, Xbox, Windows |
4 comments
Completely missed in all the talk at Mix about Silverlight, Microsoft’s amazing development platform for rich applications, is the news that Silverlight is coming to the excellent Opera browser. Opera, which I use and love, is known for having some of the best web standards support of any browser and amazing features not available in any other browser, would be an amazing platform for running Silverlight applications, and the release would guarantee Silverlight compatibility on the top four browsers (IE/Firefox/Opera/Safari) and top operating systems (Windows Vista/XP/2003/2000 and Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard), covering probably over 90% of the market.
Note that I mentioned Windows 2000. Silverlight doesn’t support it right now, but it will, just like it is going to support Opera. I can’t wait to be able to run Silverlight in Opera, since it would eliminate many reasons for loading up IE. With IE8 moving towards web standards, and websites having to follow it there, all sites will eventually run as intended on Opera, and that’s great for everybody, even those on other browsers.
See the compatibility list in the bottom right hand corner of this reference document.
More about the work for Opera compatibility with Silverlight and ASP.net AJAX here.
May 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Developers, Silverlight, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Applications, General |
2 comments
Robert McLaws posted the first of several commercials promoting the new Windows Live Hotmail.
The first one, called Date, is a little more risque than you expect from Microsoft, especially the half-second moan:
Video: Live Hotmail - Date
Jeez. I like them pushing the envelope, but I’m a little shocked.
On the other hand, Hot Male is hilarious:
Video: Live Hotmail - Hot Male
Groceries is pretty good, but once again it includes a moment that probably goes a little further than you want it too:
Video: Live Hotmail - Groceries
And finally, Arrows, again, kinda worries me:
Video: Live Hotmail - Arrows
So, am I overreacting? Absolutely! Microsoft is being edgy, and good for them! I want them to worry me, just a little. I want ads that say, “The new Hotmail is bold, edgy, exciting, and has great features”, and these absolutely do. Just don’t air them before 9.
You can view them all on Soapbox, with this playlist.
May 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Soapbox, MSN |
2 comments
Microsoft has released a final compatibility update for users of both Windows Vista and Apple’s iPod. This update, available today and being pushed through Windows Update on May 22, should eliminate any problems iPod owners experienced under Vista, including an issue where the iPod would become corrupted when being ejected.
ITsVista says:
You’d expect the fix to come from Apple, but I suppose they don’t have as much incentive to see it working, so Microsoft to the rescue.
It seems more like this was a collaboration between the two companies than Microsoft coming to the rescue, but you’d think Apple would have made an effort to settle compatibility before Vista hit stores. Guess they didn’t care. I can’t imagine how annoying it was for iPod owners to have to sit through that the last few months.
(via Digg)
May 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Vista, Apple, Windows |
one comment
Yeah, that’s J Allard, architect of the Xbox, Xbox 360, XNA and Zune, wearing fake dreadlocks and holding a PSP. The picture is actually on his bio page at Microsoft.com, complete with the story why. See, two years ago at E3, Allard made a bet with Newsweek editor N’Gai Croal, who said that the PSP would sell faster than the PS3.
Allard was so sure the portable system wouldn’t sell 10 million units in a year, he bet hair-versus hair with N’Gai. If the PSP made it, he’d have to wear dreads, and if it didn’t, N’Gai would have to shave his head to match J’s chrome dome. Obviously, the PSP made it (and did it in only 10 months), so there’s J’s ridiculous photo.
Being fair, he said if he won, J would never make anyone with such hard-grown dreads shave them. He says he’d have probably just cut one of them. Good for him.
(via Major Nelson)
May 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Zune, Sony, Corporate, Xbox 360, Xbox, Humor |
no comments
Rick Brewster has released an update to Paint.NET, the free Microsoft image editing software that competes with Photoshop on everything but price (100% cheaper!). New features include a new line/curve tool that supports arrowheads and dotted/dashed styles, an indicator in the tab thumbnail bar if an image hasn’t been saved, an improved save dialog that can be resized to anything and stay that way, a smaller download size (by moving the help file online), and a few minor fixes.
I love Paint.NET, and if you haven’t tried it, you are definitely missing out. Download it now. It won’t cost you anything but time.
May 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Applications |
2 comments
