Gadgetopia

MSN Search More Useful Everyday: You can try out the results of MSN's search crawler here. It's still in beta, but what isn't?

MSN to offer search ads through AdCenter: Microsoft is going to add contextual pay-per-click ads to MSN Search. Who didn't see that coming? Internet search giants Google and Yahoo no longer have the red-hot search advertising market all to themselves. Microsoft's MSN on Wednesday will unveil its answer to Google ...

Microsoft Details First-Ever MSN Profit: I was a beta tester of the first MSN, back in 1995. I worked there was a forum manager all through college. "Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet division posted its first-ever quarterly operating profit of $58 million since it was launched eight years ago..."

MSN's Search will now show you a thumbnail of the sites for which it returns hits. (You can tell it to stop, if you like.)

MSN shuts down its chatrooms: Microsoft decided to do this out of fear that the chat rooms were being used by pedophiles and other malcontents. "Microsoft's internet service MSN has taken a major step in net safety which could sound the death knell for unsupervised chatrooms. MSN are closing all ...

LookSmart says losing key Microsoft MSN deal: LookSmart and MSN are going their separate ways, much to the detriment of LookSmart. "LookSmart said Microsoft chose not to renew its distribution and licensing deal with the company, which is best known for its paid-listing services that allow advertisers to pay to ...

Microsoft gets in on blogging phenomenon: All your blogs are belong to us. MSN Spaces, which debuts in test form Thursday, is targeted at home users who want to share things like vacation pictures, text journals or a list of favorite songs. The service, free to anyone with a Hotmail ...

Microsoft search set to take on Google: Because there is no corner of the Web that Microsoft doesn't want to own. You can try it out here. This is what the MSNBot has been trolling for over the last year. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told shareholders at the company's ...

MSN 9.0 to Include Built-In Outlook Synchronization: Premium subscribers to the next version of MSN will be able to sync their Web mail, contacts, and calendar with their client version of Outlook. "The Connector will allow for 'rich integration scenarios,' Pai said, such as the ability to drag contacts from ...

Obviously, Microsoft's answer to the iTunes Music Store won't look exactly like the iTunes Music Store. Or will it?

MSN Search MSNBOT: This is new. MSNBOT is a prototype Web crawler robot developed by MSN Search... More good information over at Scripting News: They [MSN] currently outsource all their searches to Inktomi and LookSmart, with ads embedded through a partnership with Overture. Now that Inktomi is owned by ...

Boing Boing: MSN Spaces = soylent green: Boing Boing points out something pretty flippin' important about MSN Spaces: Microsoft owns anything you post there. If you post a picture, Microsoft can technically sell that picture to anyone for whatever reason, receive money for it, and never pay you Dime One. ...

ArsTechnica tells us that Microsoft and Yahoo will integrate their IM Networks. Sources tell me that Microsoft and Yahoo will announce a new partnership tomorrow that includes Instant Messaging network sharing that will effectively allow MSN Messenger users to talk to Yahoo's IM users, and vice versa. While details are ...

What they got right I was pleasantly suprised by a lot of the features they are offering. First off, making new entries is terribly simple. They already define categories, give you an easy way to add pictures to articles, and there's neither a WYSIWYG editor nor markup needed to write ...

MSN Web Messenger: I couldn't try this because Passport is down for some reason, but my buddy Matt assures me that "it works great and looks just like the client version." MSN Web Messenger lets you talk online and in real-time with friends and family using just a web browser! ...

Another free MSN service to be payed for: It's now $19.99 per year, apparently. "If you are accessing MSN Hotmail on your wireless device, this free service will expire on Wednesday, December 3, 2003. This only affects access to your Hotmail account from a mobile device..."

Microsoft is beginning their push to out-Google Google. They've launched a preview site containing their new search technology. What do we have under the hood? A brand new algorithmic search engine built from the ground up on Microsoft technology. Give it a spin and tell us what you ...

Michael Robertson (the guy from MP3.com, Linspire, and now SIPPhone) writes up "Michael's Minute" a few times a month, which is sort of a letter to customers that's often informative, but usually relates to MS-vs-Linux type issues. This week, though, he wrote a thinker of a piece on how far ...

Up2Speed: Verisign to Redirect 'Trash Traffic': I predict a war of some sort will break out over this. "Currently, when an incorrect address is entered into a browser, the user is directed either to a 404 page or to an MSN or AOL search page. This could soon change. These ...

MS launches Outlook email subscriptions: It's essentially a Webmail account with a client thrown in. (Or a nice way to open a huge security hole in an otherwise secure Webmail account, depending on how you look at it...) Microsoft has launched a subscription version of Outlook that will connect to ...

Microsoft kills off Outlook Express: This was probably inevitable, but it makes you wonder what Microsoft's entry-level, bundled email program is going to be. Are they going to push MSN as the email program for new machines? "'[Outlook Express] just sits where it is,' said Dan Leach, lead product manager ...

The Eight Biggest Tech Flops Ever: I haven't even heard of half of these: Data Play? Magic Cap? Go? WebTV: A type of internet appliance that used a TV, instead of a monitor, to display web pages. Initially popular with the tech-averse when it shipped in 1996, Microsoft would buy ...

Icon War: This is what happens at night when you shut off your computer. MSN starts it, and Diablo finishes it. Hysterical.

Use Targeted Keywords in URL: A month ago, I questioned the use of keywords in URLs. These folks did a test. They put a garbage word in the URL of a page. They used the word nowhere else on the page or in the linktext to that page. Before we ...

Is Microsoft Still a Monopoly?: Here's a really interesting article postulating that Microsoft, well, sucks. Well, maybe not that harshly, but the article argues that Microsoft isn't a monopoly anymore, and goes on to point out many areas where Microsoft isn't even close to the top of the game. But ...

Merrill Lynch boots outside ISPs: "Merrill Lynch on Friday will ban access to outside e-mail services from popular sites such as America Online, Yahoo and MSN, in response to regulatory requirements and to protect its network from viruses, according to a company memo."

I created a Microsoft Passport account some time ago so my son could play Asheron's Call on MSN's Game Zone (a fad which lasted about a day-and-a-half). With Passport, I could set it up so his account was a "child" account under my Password account, apparently giving me some control ...

TrackMeNot: Would this really make a difference? Probably not, but it's an interesting idea. TrackMeNot runs in Firefox as a low-priority background process that periodically issues randomized search-queries to popular search engines, e.g., AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. It hides users' actual search trails in a cloud of 'ghost' queries, ...

Website Attempts to Beat Microsoft's Ban on Free Speech: This is an old page, but an interesting one. Did you know that the quoted text was in the EULA for FrontPage 2002? You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or ...

Microsoft to Give Music a Whirl: This market is getting awfully crowded. Microsoft plans to introduce a song-downloading service next year that will compete with similar offerings from Apple Computer, Roxio's Napster and others. News of the service was first reported Monday by The Wall Street Journal. A company spokeswoman ...

Microsoft Live aims to kill off Skype: Yeah, good luck with that. (Oh, those are so famous last words, aren't they? Someone said that about IE back in 1997, I'm sure...) Microsoft today launches its final version of Windows Live Messenger software, as it lines up to challenge VoIP telephonist ...

The New State of Search: Here's a little table of all the search engine acquisitions and deals that have happened this year. I didn't realize that Overture bought AltaVista, then AllTheWeb, and then was acquired by Yahoo! along with Inktomi. Then Google picks up Prya Labs, and MSN lanuches the ...

Dogpile Search Comparison Tool: This is a well-done little promo app for Dogpile. It lets you put in a search, then it runs your term through Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, and tells you what results, if any, were common. Searching for "gadgetopia" apparently has only one common result between the ...

TV show 'Alias' features Trillian: I saw the episode in question, and I knew they IM'ed each other, but I never realized it was Trillian "I was surprised to see Jennifer Garner's TV mom and dad instant messaging each other with none other than Trillian. Not AIM, not MSN or ...

Mark recently reinstalled Windows XP on his laptop. He was kind enough to keep a running diary. My Apple bias not withstanding, I find this rather funny. "34. Update driver. 35. 'This driver is not digitally signed.' OK. 36. 'This driver may cause your computer to become unstable.' OK. 37. ...

The Onion | Gmail User Pities Hotmail User: Too funny. Recent Gmail convert William Ramsak, 23, said Monday that his "heart goes out to" friend Kelly Oldenburg, who still sends e-mail through an MSN Hotmail account. "I feel so bad for you, needing to squeeze into 250 MB of storage ...

MSN Sets Licensing Deadline for Third-Party IM: Microsoft is going to force licenses be purchased to access the Messenger network. "Last week, Microsoft began notifying some of the affected third parties about the change last week, but Gurry said the company doesn't know the full extent of other clients and ...

Gates gets serious about spam, security: This is new. Sounds Bayesian. Google News had no mention of it prior to seven hours ago. Gates also said both technology and legal efforts may help curb spam, the unsolicited e-mails that clog inboxes and create headaches for Information Technology departments. He said ...

Simple group chat for business: Campfire: The latest from 37 Signals. Just as pretty as all their other stuff. Instant messaging is great for one-on-one chats, but it's not optimized for group chats of 3 or more people. Further, instant messaging is network dependent -- if you are on AIM, ...

Google complains about Microsoft search engine: This argument is a tough sell. The New York Times reports that Microsoft's new Internet browser includes a search box in the upper-right corner that is typically set up to send users to Microsoft's MSN search service. Google contends that this puts Microsoft in ...

Search engines' new tools hasten info hunt: These were all released this morning. Has anybody tried them yet? [...] Ask Jeeves introduces preview tool Binoculars: Under each search result, you put your mouse over an image of binoculars and Jeeves displays a mini picture of the underlying Web site. The ...

Digging for Googleholes - Google may be our new god, but it's not omnipotent.: Interesting look at some problems with Google. "Search for 'apple' on Google, and you have to troll through a couple pages of results before you get anything not directly related to Apple Computer and it's ...

Windows Live Local: I've been hearing a lot about Windows Live Local, but never knew quite what it was. Turns out it's a lot like Google Maps, but with the twist of "Bird's Eye View" images, which are at a 45-degree angle, not directly overhead. This link will take you ...

Yeah, I know. What's new about that? MS lawyers jumped all over the administrators of digital.forest demanding that they immediately shut down the MacSlash site because someone posted what appeared to be a valid Longhorn serial number in a comment to a post there. (Story here.) From the logs, the ...

AN AUDIOBLOGGING MANIFESTO: This is an awfully good and funny bit of writing (and oration here's the MP3 version so you can hear the irony...). It's an argument against audioblogging, from both a practical and philosophical point-of-view. Ask yourself is the key to making your site more interesting ...

Vermeer Technologies Gives Birth To FrontPage: Joe's mention of "FrontPage crap" in his Cygwin post got me remembering the joy of having "_vti" directories scattered across my hard drive when working with the unabashed sucking that was early versions of FrontPage. (I was issued FrontPage 1.1 on five floppies by ...

I got this spam today. This guy really wants a date. To: Juror #3, Van Nuys Superior Court, Dept E, Los Angeles, CA, excused on November 13. This is Juror #4 and I would really like to say Hi and continue our conversation. You can reply to this email or ...

Why is it Catfight Thursday you ask? Well, for one, Apple's taking swipes at Microsoft's new MSN Music Service: "It's biggest problem may be that its downloaded songs can not play on the iPod," said Eddie Cue, Apple's vice president of applications. Gates fires back regarding Microsoft's focus on portable ...

Since arriving in Iraq, people have been amazed at the ease of which I am able to communicate with my friends and family. I have to admit, I have been amazed, too. I never thought I would have this much access to home. Internet and phone technology is in the ...