Latest Skype 5.5 Beta - Adds Facebook Integration - Chat with FB Friends on Skype now!

Skype is bringing several new Facebook features to its voice over IP service. 

In today's latest release, Skype for Windows 5.5 beta, users can "like" things, comment on friends' statuses, and message Facebook friends without ever logging into Facebook. There's even a dedicated Facebook contacts tab rolled into the VoIP software—ideal for heavily invested Facebookers.

Microsoft acquires Skype for $ 8.5 Billion

Microsoft announced a definitive agreement to buy Skype for $8.5 billion. The deal, announced today, would be a shot in the arm for cash-rich Microsoft in competing with strong rivals such as Google and Apple apart from strengthening its footprint in the consumer markets.

"The companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype, the leading Internet communications company, for USD 8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake," the two firms said in a joint statement.

Online Marketing is better than Television Marketing - Microsoft

Microsoft India is taking a strange stride to market their latest gaming hardware, the Kinect for the Xbox 360. They feel that usual advertising mediums won’t help them to reach their target audience successfully.

“The people who we are trying to reach, the people who will buy the Kinect from us, are all online, highly connected with the Internet. We are promoting the device through our social networks, and maintain a thriving online community, but unlike the launch of the Xbox in 2005, when we ran a sustained television campaign, today we feel that the community is already aware of the Xbox, is already enthusiastic, and we feel that we can reach them better without advertising” said Jaspreet Bindra, Regional Director for Entertainment and Devices - Microsoft India.

Most of the people are on Facebook and Twitter and on forums which discuss technology, they become familiar with the brand and the device, and then the conversion takes place when they use it themselves.

“On Facebook alone, we have a community of almost 50,000 fans now. These are people that are passionate about the games, identify with our brand and use the page, and our Twitter page and even other paths to connect with us directly” said by Sharan Tulsiani, Community Manager for Xbox 360 India.

What comScore says about Search Engines?! - A Quick Review

Google preserved its authority in search last month, capturing 66.3% of explicit core searches and 64.3% of total core searches, which includes Google Instant.

Well, Bing and Yahoo tracked behind, according to the comScore data Bing has got faintly uptime. comScore has continued it’s second month with the impact of Google Instant – which offers suggestions as someone types – when calculating its search engine rankings.

ComScore said last month that when people type something into Google, hit "enter," and then click on a link, it counts that activity in its "explicit core search" results. Results that show up in Google Instant as someone types will be included in "total core search" results if a user pauses on that for at least three seconds, comScore said.

As a result, Google had 66.3% of the open core search market in October 2010, up very slightly from 66.1% a month before. Yahoo came in 2nd with 16.5% of the market, losing 0.2%, followed by Microsoft sites with 11.5%, a 0.3% boost. Overall, more than 16.6 billion open core searches were conducted in October 2010, with Google capturing 11 billion searches, followed by Yahoo with 2.7 billion, and Microsoft with 1.9 billion.

Recently moved Ask.com – had 598 million searches, followed by AOL with 346 million. On the whole Google is only company in the hit list to make any gains month-over-month in a total core search, which includes Google Instant.

Recent article says that “Google had 64.3 percent of the market, up 1.4 percent from the previous month. Yahoo had 18.5 percent, down 0.7 percent, followed by Microsoft at 12.1 percent, down 0.4 percent.”

Internet Explorer 9 Beta - An Impressive 13 Million Downloads...

The recent launch of IE 9 has an impressive and tremendous number of downloads within a short span of time. Mozilla who strives to cross two million of their next version, Where IE 9 already has 13 million in just two months.

“We continue to see broad developer excitement and rapid user adoption of Internet Explorer Beta. Since the beta launch, we have already had over 13 million downloads of Internet Explorer 9 beta and it continues to be our fastest adopted browser to date,” published Microsoft’s Ziad Ismail.

Ismail appends “Download IE9 Beta today and see first-hand what a browser built for real-world performance can enable,”.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta Version is available for download on web.

Microsoft Windows turns 25

25 years ago on this november month, Microsoft published Windows. But over the years, it enhanced into a full-fledged Operating System, which has built one of the most recognizable brand names in the world that dominates the PC desktop.

Still Microsoft hits top with their exceptional deliveries to their customers. Though there were few mishaps with them, they're still proving their excellence in performance. Most of the people using MS-Windows. Approximately 9 out of 10 people using windows and its applications.

The recent launch of Windows 7 adds performance improvements, slightly faster booting and support for Windows, as well as some UI enhancements. Windows 7 made a stunning 150 million licenses have been sold, Microsoft says. It's a best and simple example, shows that giants performance.

Let's wish them a warm congratulations for its first quarter-century.

Microsoft's Docs.com Within Facebook Groups - Cooperate with each other

Microsoft's Docs.com announced yesterday that it now supports sharing documents within Facebook Groups. Microsoft's Fuse labs brought Docs.com to Facebook back in April, but the service hasn't necessarily taken off, in part because sharing documents with a specific group was unwieldy, as you had to add people manually.

Now Docs.com ensures integration into Facebook Groups, something that wasn't previously possible for third-party apps. Users can share documents within a Group for others to view or edit. Updates to Docs.com will post a story to the Group's Wall as well as to the newsfeeds of its members. And you can leave comments about documents on the Group Wall or within the document itself.

We don't need to have Microsoft Office installed to use Docs.com, but the system only supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF file uploads.

By: Audrey Watters

Source: Read Write Web

Bill Gates Home

A Million Dollar Residence

Bill Gates' house is a large earth-sheltered mansion in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. The 66,000 sq ft house is noted for its design and the technology it incorporates. It is nicknamed Xanadu 2.0.

Top View

Inside  

In 2009, property taxes were reported to be US $1.063 million on a total assessed value of US$147.5 million. The house is a modern design in the Pacific lodge style, with classic features such as a large private library with a dome shaped roof and oculus (light well).

The address of the mansion is 1835 73rd Ave NE, Medina, WA 98039.

The house also features an estate-wide server system running Windows and heated floors and driveways. Guests wear pins that upon entrance of a room automatically adjust temperature, music, and lighting based on the guest's preferences, according to the narration in the virtual tour below.

The lot was purchased in December 1988 for $2 million, and construction occurred over a period of seven and a half years with nominal completion in 1995. The house is located on the east end of the lot, which is located on a hill.

Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA.

Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion in computer programming, were seeking to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems's (MITS) Altair 8800 microcomputer. 

They developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, the interpreter worked flawlessly when they demonstrated the interpreter to MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 1975. 

Then, they officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as the CEO.

Starting from Operating System they expanded their business world wide. The Microsoft Business Division produces Microsoft Office including Microsoft Office 2010, the company's line of office software. The company expanded into new markets.