Category Archives: Microsoft and MSN

TeliaSonera Ditches Microsoft, Chooses JumpTap as their New Mobile Search Provider

Up until now, TeliaSonera, the largest mobile network operator in Finland and Sweden, was using MotionBridge (acquired my Microsoft in 2006) for their on-portal search service. I’ve heard from an inside source that in the 2 weeks, TeliaSonera will relaunch a brand new search service on their WAP portal in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. TeliaSonera will stop working with Microsoft. Instead they have chosen JumpTap, a white label mobile search engine that has been growing during the last 2 years.

TeliaSonera’s mobile content providers will still be able to index their content with JumpTap, so that users can find them via search keywords, just like MotionBridge/Microsoft. What’s new is the paid search solution offer. Advertisers can now buy sponsored listings from JumpTap to appear in the search results, there will be two ads per page.

TeliaSonera’s WAP portal is also going to be revamped, and the focus will on mobile Internet thanks to a tool called SurfOpen, you can find more information about that on this press release.

This is yet another case where a mobile network company chooses to work with a white label search engine, rather than one of the big 3s. Let’s wait a few months or years to see if this choice proves to be the right one for users, advertisers, and mobile phone companies.

Confirmed: Microsoft Offers to Buy Yahoo! for $44.6 Billion

This day has come my friends. Microsoft just offered to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 Billion, or $31 a share. According to the press release:

Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.

This could be huge and really shakes up the search industry. Go for it Yahoo! !!!

When Will Mobile Advertising Really Take Off?

A study made by Gartner predicted that revenues made from mobile advertising will be worth $11 billion by 2011. But not everyone is that optimistic, even people from mobile advertising companies. Business Week reports what people from Nokia or Screentonic have said about such figures:

Kuhn, CEO of a mobile advertising company acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) in May, views most analyst predictions as way too rosy.

Mike Baker, vice-president in change of Nokia’s (NOK) ad business, also sees a longer wait, suggesting it will take at least five years for the industry to surpass $10 billion in annual revenue. “The near-term visibility is cloudy,” he says.

I think 2007 was really the year when mobile advertising companies really started to push their services and big brands trying them. We just need to be patient to see where we’re headed, and maybe see the big tech brands such as Google or Microsoft adjusting their strategies.

Microsoft’s Testimony Before Congress Regarding Google-Doubleclick Merger: WTF?

So Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith is about to testify before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust regarding Google’s merger with Doubleclick.

I’m quite puzzled by one part of his testimony:

This country doesn’t permit a phone company to listen to what you say and use that information to target ads. The computer industry doesn’t permit a software company to record what you type and use that information to target ads. Yet with this merger, Google seeks to record almost everything you see and do on the Internet and use that information to target ads.

I really don’t get the sentence about recording personal information to influence ad targeting. Isn’t Microsoft doing the exact same thing with their AdCenter program? I mean, Adcenter’s specificity is that it uses demographic data to fine-tune targeting, such as sex, age, or income. If they’re not recording information about their users, where are they getting their demographic data from?

Sorry, Brad, but I don’t get it?

Microsoft Acquires Mobile Ad Company Screentonic

It’s better late than never, Microsoft has decided to purchase Screentonic, a french mobile advertising company.

It’s the second french company that Microsoft adds to its mobile division, the first one was MotionBridge, a mobile search company which has been acquired last year.

Microsoft now catches up with Google and Yahoo, which are already providing mobile advertising offers such as click-to-call or pay-per-click advertising.

Microsoft Launch New Mobile Browser (beta)

Microsoft Live Labs just announced that their new mobile browser was now available as a beta version. The browser is called Deepfish (the blue fish is really cool!), and is basically capable of displaying any desktop website.

“The Deepfish Technology Preview enhances existing mobile browsing technologies by displaying content in a view that is closer to the desktop experience. Our zoom-able interface and cue map allow you to quickly access the information you care about over the web without ever losing track of where you are. ”

The browser allows you to zoom in and out, which seems like a pretty nice feature. I’ve seen that kind of feature on a Nokia e50 as well.

I’ve tried to download it but I guess they already ran out of invites…

Via Opera Watch and Cre8asiteforums.

The End of Microsoft bCentral Directory

If you try to submit your website to Microsoft bCentral Small Business Directory, you’ll get a message that may disappoint you:

As of November 15, 2006 Microsoft will no longer accept new sign-ups for select Microsoft Online Small Business Services. These services, previously marketed under the bCentral™ brand, include Appointment Manager, Banner Network Ads, Commerce Manager, Customer Manager, FastCounter Pro, List Builder, Sales Leads, SharePoint®, Submit it!, Traffic Builder, and Web Hosting Packages.

Unfortunately, they no longer accept submissions to their directory. As Andy Beal rightly noticed, the new home for Microsoft Small Business Services doesn’t appear to have a directory.

In the mean time, DMOZ has been unavailable for more than a month now… Could it be the end of human edited directories?

Google Maps vs. Windows Live Local

This post provides a nice comparison of Google Maps and Windows Live Local. The author compared, for the same address, different views: standard, plain view, and detail (3D view), and he explains that he prefers Windows Live Local for detailed maps and Google for standard views.

I agree with the author, the “Bird’s eye” view option provided by Windows Live allows you to have a very detailed view of a location, something that’s not available with Google Maps. This option is only available for a few cities such as San Francisco and New York.