Microsoft

Will a 'Jackass' boost Microsoft's image?

Microsoft is looking to an expensive new consumer advertising campaign to help improve its image.

Valleywag posted a report on Friday suggesting that Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame may be the pitchman behind the new spots.

A Microsoft representative declined to comment on whether Knoxville was indeed on tap to pitch the software maker.

"Microsoft is in the early stages of planning a consumer advertising campaign. We have no other details to share at this time," the company said in a statement. Microsoft has hired a new ad agency--Crispin Porter and Bogusky--for the assignment, which Ad Age estimated … Read more

Microsoft heads to 'Albany'

Microsoft confirmed Friday that it has started testing for a product code-named "Albany" but would not offer further details on the product, which may or may not be its ad-funded version of Works.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley posted a report earlier Friday saying that Albany is a consumer product in the Office family. She didn't get anything concrete out of Redmond either, but has some informed speculation of what it might be.

Microsoft said last year that it plans to test an ad-funded version of Works, following several years of exploring the idea. However, it is … Read more

Microsoft continues to prey upon the overly cautious with patent deals

Apparently Microsoft has a thing for conservative Japan. Just when I thought Microsoft had closed patent cross-licensing deals with every Japanese firm ever to have considered corporate existence, Microsoft surprises me with a deal with Onkyo.

So far Microsoft's list includes the needy (the various second-rate Linux distributions and Novell, which is a first-class Linux distribution with second-class aspirations of how to build on its technical merit) and the overly cautious (Japanese and Korean electronics companies for whom it's easier to just pay rather than try to figure out whether Microsoft's machinations are worthy). Microsoft might consider this a Very Good Start, but to me it looks like a Very Poor End to Microsoft's attempts to afflict the world with its dubious patent-rattling.… Read more

What's driving Microsoft SharePoint adoption?

Microsoft's SharePoint has now topped $1 billion in licenses and is perhaps the fastest-growing product in Microsoft's history. What is driving that growth? The same thing that has driven all of Microsoft's most successful products: Microsoft removes complexity (and cost) from existing markets, as Craig Roth notes:

To a certain extent, the excitement about SharePoint has really been a reflection of disillusionment with existing collaboration, content management, and portal products. The people that are interested in SharePoint - despite already having incumbent alternatives - see at first glance a product that may finally provide easy-to-use, inexpensive, web-based collaborative solutions.

Love them or hate them, Microsoft does lower the bar to computing. Its products can be shoddy (SharePoint is no winner in that department - just try scaling it) but that's a trade-off many are willing to make in order to have something, anything that works reasonably well at a reasonable price.… Read more

Block spam, phishing attempts in Outlook

The battle for your in-box shows no signs of waning.

Despite the efforts of software companies large and small, spammers and phishers continue to find and exploit weaknesses in junk-mail filters at the server and client levels. After years of foil and parry between these two forces, you would think that Microsoft Outlook, the most widely used e-mail program in the world, would be a paragon of in-box defenses.

Then again, this is Microsoft we're talking about, a company not noted for being the paragon of anything more than profitability.

A few years back, Service Pack 2 for Office … Read more

Microsoft signs cross-license pact with Onkyo

And here I thought Microsoft had a cross-license pact with nearly every tech company other than Red Hat.

Apparently there are still a few more names to cross of the to-do list Microsoft set-up a few years back. On Thursday, Microsoft announced a deal with Tokyo-based Onkyo, which will pay Microsoft an undisclosed amount of compensation to Redmond.

Onkyo also signed a deal to use Microsoft's Windows Rally technology which aims to offer a better connection between PCs and other consumer electronics, such as Onkyo's home theater and audio/video gear.

Microsoft scoops up rootkit finder Komoku

Microsoft said Thursday that it is buying Komoku, a Maryland-based company that specializes in software to detect rootkits.

As my ZDNet colleague Larry Dignan (who was more on the ball on this) points out, the move gives Microsoft's security unit the Department of Defense as a customer, along with the Department of Homeland Security.

Microsoft said it will build Komuku's technology into future versions of both its Windows OneCare consumer security products as well as Forefront, its line of security software for businesses.

The Komuku name and independent product line will go away, Microsoft said, but most of … Read more

Next PS3 firmware one more reason to buy console as Blu-Ray player

Update: This story now reflects NPD data showing improved PlayStation 3 performance in the first two months of the year.

For many people, Sony's oft-maligned PlayStation 3 video game console had one no-doubt-about-it selling point: when it launched, it was by far the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

That's no longer true, what with plenty of low-cost players flooding the market now that Blu-ray has effectively vanquished HD DVD as the next-generation playback standard.

But with its announcement of a forthcoming PS3 firmware upgrade, Sony has once again given consumers a reason to buy the console for … Read more

Microsoft's search numbers show need for Yahoo

The latest monthly market share numbers from Comscore show Microsoft still struggling just to tread water against Google.

While just a continuation of an existing trend, the market share figures highlight why Microsoft is so serious about buying Yahoo. It's not clear that Yahoo is the answer to all that ails Microsoft's online business, but it is the biggest option out there when it comes to boosting Microsoft's presence.

While Microsoft and Yahoo do well in areas like Web mail and instant messaging, it is search that pays nearly all the bills in the online world and … Read more