Slashdot reports that the ISO, the Internation Standards Organization, has grinded to a halt, unable to conduct any business at all since the vote over Microsoft Office’s Open XML file format. Because the fight was so cutthroat on both sides, Microsoft pushed many countries to register to be able to vote, resulting in significant growth in the number of ISO voting members.
Since rules require 50% of the members to participate on each ballot, and most of the new members dissapeared after the Open XML vote, they don’t have enough of a quorum to conduct any official business. Looks like the new guys kind of suck. Let’s hope next time around, if Microsoft does win, its with a better class of voters behind them.
Microsoft shipped a new version of Windows Live Search Maps, one that comes with an all new, all better interface. The new interface takes all the controls, for panning the map, switching between 2D and 3D, zooming in and out, switching between road, aerial, hybrid and bird’s eye views, and switching on traffic data, all in a simple, minimalist bar in the corner. You can, with a single click, contract that bar into nothingness:
Besides the improved interface, there’s a new version of Virtual Earth 3D for you to install. It adds these features:
Add bird’s eye view to 3D maps.
Put your own modeling creations on the map.
Turn your collections into tours and movies to show and share.
Here’s the new 3D interface, with a bird’s eye image taking up the center of the screen, and a ton of 3D buildings on either side:
LiveSide lists other improvements here and here, including the ability to abbreviate the beginning or end of driving directions. If you already know plenty about the end or the beginning (because one of them is your house or office), you can tell it to shorten that section and not waste your time telling you how to leave your own neighborhood.
Another new feature: traffic redirection. If there’s bad traffic, it’ll re-route you around it, though you’ll have the option to see the directions without that. Another one: One-click directions. Choose a destination, and it’ll give you a page with a map and seperate directions from the North, South, East and West.
Search Engine Watch reported that Microsoft has added Search Engine Marketing to the services Office Live businesses can use to help grow their websites. Customers will be able to choose from three levels of service, starting with online training and working up to full service campaign management, provided through a partnership with The Search Agency.
The first service, TSA Learn, consists of three online training modules that teach the essentials of SEM and search engine optimization (SEO). Next is TSA Launch, a selection of more than 20 one-off, a la carte SEM and SEO services. For example, a user can fill out a questionnaire about their business and get a list of potential keywords to use in their search campaign, or enter their existing keywords and get a list of expanded keywords to consider. The third offering is TSA Grow, which is a full-service option where The Search Agency manages all search marketing activities for the subscriber.
Here’s a fun new Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget: Coming Up looks at your Outlook Calendar and pulls out your All-Day events, giving you a heads-up on upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and whatnot. Very useful for keeping track of that stuff.
Here’s a fun new Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget: 
