After being an unconditional fan from Internet Explorer all along last week I made the switch to Google Chrome. What Firefox never could; Chrome did in a weeks. Why I changed, well quite simple it runs much quicker than IE, when you click on a link it immediately pops up, you don’t have to wait a second. Yes it does have less features and functionalities but for me it does everything I expect from a browser. Let’s see what the next version of IE brings and maybe …
While I wasn’t really a big fan from the first commercial they made I quite like the second one, it even made me laugh a few times.
I’ve now looked at it 3 times and I still don’t know if I like it or not. One thing is sure everybody seems to have an opinion about the new spot from Microsoft starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.
The final movie has been release but whereas the first movie was a means to communicate the second is "only" a trigger to join the conversation and talk about the Inspiration that everybody drives in our line of business. The purpose of the site http://getinspiredhere.net/ is to drive the inspiration for different audiences, going from developers to marketing people and to really grasp and get as much idea's and possibilities in one site. Anyway I'll be following closely those RSS feeds. For now just enjoy the movie which is really again what lives in about every agency.
One of my co blogger's gave me this link today he didn't find it interesting enough to put on the blog; but I think it's just a great Commercial and a piece of history. I mean Steve Balmer selling Windows 1.0, I don't think we'll spot him again in such a commercial.
Google launched an attack on one of the core products from Microsoft Office SharePoint, you can read the full story in "The New York Times". Below you'll find a movie explaining the basic product and features or you can immediately visit http://sites.google.com/.
Microsoft Corp said on Friday it has offered to buy Yahoo Inc, the popular Web portal, for $44.6 billion in cash and stock, seeking to join forces against Google Inc in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger.
Reed the full story on Reuters.
Today on the Viral Video Chart I saw a spot for the windows mobile application.
It's not so much the spot that I found really nice it's more the corresponding advergame Freeyourbuddy, Free Your Buddy is an interactive video game based on the old text adventure computer games from the eighties. Using a messenger window people communicate with a Buddy character trapped inside an old computer. The object of the game is to use the messenger window to help Buddy find a way out. In addition to the game play commands there are hidden responses people must discover on their own.
It's all about setting you free with the your windows mobile applications, it includes live search, Outlook, IE, Messenger ...
You IM. We give, is a campaign from Windows Live that's running for a while but apparently doesn't have much success in Belgium I got more than 200 messenger contacts and none of them has the I'm sign. Now what is this I'm all about well and I quote "The i’m™ Initiative from Windows Live Messenger™ makes helping your favorite cause as easy as sending an instant message. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, we share a portion of our advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective social cause organizations. Each of our partners will get a minimum of $100,000. As for the maximum? There is none. The sky's the limit. It's simple. It's free. You IM, we give." So what can I say for everybody who's reading my blog it's simple so make the difference ...
After Microsoft won the battle for the investment in the social networking site Facebook against Google and Yahoo 
the first unofficial counterattack from Google already sees the world the name of this attack is "Maka-Maka". Last week Microsoft invested $240 Million dollar for a stake in Facebook now Google counterattacks with the plans to develop their own 
You can read the full story on TechCrunch.
This week 2 big companies specialized each in a different area launched the same product namely Unified communications, these 2 companies are Microsoft and Cisco. Now what is this "Unified communications" well if I quote Microsoft "it bridges the gap between telephony and computing to deliver real-time messaging, voice and conferencing to the desktop environment". Now if we take the definition of Cisco it says "Unified Communications is helping you integrate communications more closely with business processes, ensuring that information reaches recipients every time and everywhere, no matter what their working environment, through the most appropriate medium". They both look at the product from a totally different point of view, one as a software vendor, one more as a hardware vendor and they say it differently but they actually mean more or less the same thing. Maybe if we look at a little movie that I found on Geert's blog everything will become more clear.
You can also find an explanatory movie and site from Cisco here. I guess in a few months we'll see who wins this fight.
Category: Bloggers , Microsoft , Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions Belux
Yesterday Geert Desager invited me to a dinner with Surya Vanka who's Microsoft's Design and Usability Training Manager. Am far of a Usability guy but still it where some really good conversations and I was very happy to meet him.
Next to Surya and Geert I met a whole lot of other people going from bloggers to creative directors to Microsoft evangelists. It was a great evening as the people around the table really had a totally different approach and view about every possible topic roaming the virtual world.
It's also nice to talk with competitors like Petra, Brice or Mark (which I was happy too meet again since we where colleagues some time ago) and to exchange idea's and thoughts. I only regret one thing, that the evening was far too short to talk to everybody at the table.
So Microsoft and especially Geert thanks again.
I took the liberty of using one of the pictures that Pietel took I hope he won't be too mad, he really took some nice pictures.
In the same series as I posted previously Microsoft released another commercial for the launch of Halo 3.
Today I saw on DutchCowboys that Microsoft released in Beta their new Live suite and there where 2 programs that really interested me. One was the new version of windows live messenger which is really nice cause now I can share very easily files with my other contacts. I didn't play much around with it so maybe I'll find some other stuff later on. But the other program was Windows Live Writer and this program was really one I had 
to try immediately. So this is my first post with "Windows Live Writer" I must say it all looks very easy to use and I really like it "At the moment". I guess I'll test some more the coming days and I'll write a full review of it later on.
In Belgium Combell a hosting company will provide a new service namely to Rent software through the internet. Combell made a deal with Microsoft to be able to give this service to his clients. At the moment it will only be the Office suite but other programs will shortly be added to the list. For a fee a month you will be able to use the latest office programs the only thing you need is a broadband access to the net. Will this be the future of the net I guess only time will tell.
Technorati tags: rent software, Combell, Microsoft Office
This tool really captivates me, just have a look at the explanation it's incredible.
Technorati tags: Photosynth, demo
Marc Bresseel talked yesterday about a now project of the Microsoft Live Labs and of course I had to check that one out right away. He talked about Photosynth and a tool that links the images to each other doesn’t seem that innovating well it’s difficult to explain so I guess you’ll have to have a look for yourself, It’s really worth it.
Technorati tags: Marc Bresseel, Microsoft, Photosynth
At the moment everybody is talking about Microsoft Surface, for sure it looks really impressive and the things you are able to do with it are rather incredible but still for me the combination between a coffee table and a high end computer system still seem strange. Really I wouldn’t buy something that expensive to put my coffee cup or beer on, but still as I said it looks nice. If I would get it for free I would be more than happy to test it all and I don’t think my daughter will give me one for father’s day It would be to heavy anyway ;-)
Technorati tags: Microsoft, Surface
I read in a post on the New York Times that Microsoft wants to take over or at least make a partnership with them to counter the overwhelming presence of Google. I guess that can create a Big Bang. the final quote is “Microsoft has better technology. They have innovation. And Yahoo has the customers’ data, the social media and the community.”, we'll see what happens but it all looks promising.
You can read more about it here: http://www.nytimes.com
