Last year the two technology giants Yahoo and Microsoft signed an agreement to collaborate on paid searches on Yahoo’s search engine. Just in time for the holiday advertising and shopping surge, this partnership is being fulfilled and it’s official that Microsoft’s Bing platform is now powering 100 percent of paid searches on Yahoo sites in the U.S. and Canada.
It’s a positive sign for advertisers who’re looking for something different from the Google offerings. The combined market for Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search is expected to be around 27.9% while the largest chuck is still fed by Google. Hopefully this new partnership will provide a fair play in the mighty ads business while giving the advertisers more options to explore.
According to Yahoo, the company “…remains focused on delivering unique consumer experiences … and on increasing user engagement in our owned-and-operated search products to help drive high-quality traffic into the combined marketplace. ” As part of the agreement with Microsoft, Yahoo started serving search results that were powered by Bing at the back-end a few months back but now there will be an official transition of accounts from Yahoo to Microsoft’s AdCenter.
PC Gaming has seen a transition in recent years, instead of buying physical copies of your video games most people have gone online. With services like Steam and Games for Windows Live, buying and downloading digital copies of your favorite video games is easy and fast. Starting November 15th, Microsoft will launch a browser.based version of the Games for Windows Live application that you can download and run from your Windows desktop.
The store is a part of the Games for Windows Live service and is a step forward towards the eventual cloud based game sharing and distribution model. The service will provide attractive bundle offers, easy navigation/search, discounts and Microsoft promises “ultra-fast” downloads. The users will be able to purchase the titles using credit card or Microsoft points associated with their Windows Live ID.
Of course the site will highlight games from Microsoft as well as their affiliate studios and at launch will contain over 100 titles. These will include Age of Empire online, Flight Simulator, Lost Planet 2, Max Payne, Microsoft Flight, Tycoon, Grand Theft Aut III, Gears of War and Halo.
According to the Senior Global Director of PC and Mobile and PC Gaming at Microsoft, Kevin Unangst, ”With Games for Windows Marketplace, we set out to create a digital store built for PC gamers end-to-end. And by integrating with our existing Xbox LIVE and Windows Live services, we’ve made it easier than ever for millions of gamers to see for themselves how easy buying PC games can be.”
Microsoft has been amongst the key players in promoting the Cloud Computing platform and has recently combined various cloud-based elements to create a new productivity suite – Office 365.
Office 365 combines Microsoft Office, Exchange Online, SharePoint online and Lync online as a single cloud service and will come as two different subscription packages.
Office 365 for Enterprise is targeted for large organizations and can be customized to provide different access levels to different teams. It includes all the advanced features such as internal social networking tools, Office Pro Plus, voice mail etc. The subscription charges vary between $2 and $27 per months depending upon the selected features.
The second option is Office 365 for Small Businesses which provides essential features and suitable for organizations with team sizes of one to 25 people. It supports limited features including e-mail sync, Web Apps and Lync. The subscription charges for this package are $6 per month.
The popularity of tablets such as the iPad combined with the improved functionality of smartphones, means more and more business productivity is happening away from the standard Windows desktop, making cloud-based productivity more relevant than ever for business.
Many consider this product to be a threat to Google and its hold on the web. Currently Google’s business product, Google Apps, costs $50 per user per year, a slightly more competitive price point from Microsoft. You can see more about Office 365 on their website.
When most people think of virtual web hosting they tend to associate it with VPS hosting, or cloud hosting. However a new wave of webmasters are now using virtualization software within their web servers to bring both the Linux and Windows operating system to a single web server. This practically eliminates many of the limitations previously associated with Windows and/or Linux web hosting by removing software restrictions and releasing the true power of a VPS or dedicated hosting plan. Using this for eCommerce can have profound effects by enhancing SEO efforts and allowing the webmaster to use any eCommerce software available, whether it be for Windows or Linux. If you are interested in the benefits of virtualized web hosting for eCommerce the you may want to consider the following information.
Unlimited Compatibility
Today’s virtualization software has unlocked new possibilities by unleashing any compatibility issues that may have previously been a problem when choosing a specific operating system for your web hosting plan. Now webmasters can install any software they’d like in their hosting account, as long as the hosting provider gives them the permissions to do so. It is important to note that virtualization software cannot be used in a shared hosting account because you’re not allowed to change the server configuration. If you’re planning on using visualization software like VMware then you need to shop around for a good VPS or dedicated hosting plan that gives you full control over the server’s software.
Cost Benefits
In the past, if you wanted a web server with Windows and Linux you would need to purchase two separate hosting accounts. However, with the advent of virtualized web server software, it is now possible to have both operating systems running simultaneously for half the cost. Now you no longer have to debate about the pros and cons of Windows web hosting vs Linux web hosting, because you can have the best of both worlds. Since Linux hosting costs less than Windows hosting, it would be ideal to purchase a Linux hosting plan and then install a partition of Windows within a virtualization software.
How Do Virtualized Operating Systems Work?
Virtualized operating systems are actually separate from the original operating system of the web server, Which means any damage done to a virtual operating system will not affect the native operating system. Think of it as a computer within a computer, both completely separate and unique. Some people use virtualized operating system to test out suspicious files that may contain viruses, as even the worse virus will not affect the native operating system or the rest of the computer. Virtualized hosting is also perfect for webmasters that need several operating systems to test and develop compatibility during the construction of new web based software.
It is important to note that you’ll need to consider the amount of RAM your server has when installing additional operating systems. Virtualization software does not enhance your server’s capabilities, it simply splits them up amongst several operating systems.
Browser Wars is a hot topic these days and it seems Internet Explorer is losing ground to the open-source community. According to the recent stats, the total market share of IE has finally dipped below 50%, but it still remains the most widely used browser. IE went down to 49.87% this September, down from 51.34% in August 2010.
This means Firefox and Google Chrome have seen growth in the same time period with Firefox claiming a 31.5% market share (0.5% growth) while Chrome stands at 11.54% market share (1% growth). The main reason IE has kept such a large market share is because it comes as the default browser with the Windows Operating System but advances with other browsers proved strong competition.
Hopefully the arrival of Internet Explorer 9 with its increased performance will keep IE users loyal but it does come too late for those who have already jumped ship to other browsers.
Over the last six years IE has seen a gradual 10% decline in market share because alternative browsers have advanced faster and this is the big test to see if IE is still competitive.
You can see the current share of browsers from Statcounter.
