Windows Live SkyDrive Updated

Windows Live SkyDrive Team has released few updates today:

SkyDrive has been made available in 24 additional locations, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela, Serbia, Indonesia, and Malaysia have been added. This brings the grand total to 62 countries and regions!

You can leave comments on any file in SkyDrive and see all of the recent comments people have left for you.

Now you can add captions and descriptions to your files and photos.

When you click on any file, you can speed through all the files in the folder. Its being called Browsing Widget.

Photo previews have been made bigger.

Some other features like Details view and Photo Thumbnails view have been provided and more bugs have been fixed.

Its nice that still the SkyDrive team is bringing improvements. I hope many more suggestions will be looked into.

Live Search cashback

When I opened the Live Search sometimes back, I saw the 'Get Cashback' put on top right, So was trying to explore it. Is it something to do with the new model Microsoft was going to announce at advance08 advertising conference  about which I had posted earlier  Microsoft to announce some major Search Initiatives .

Let us see what Live Search Cashback is from the Frequently Asked Questions :

"Microsoft Live Search cashback is "The Search That Pays You Back". Find great deals on millions of products from hundreds of brand name stores that you know and trust. You will be able to earn cashback savings based on a percentage of the product price. Your savings will be paid to you via your choice of a deposit to your PayPal account, direct deposit to your bank account, or a check in the mail. It's that simple!"

"Who is eligible for Live Search cashback?

You are as long as you:

• Provide us with a valid email address and password for account access.
• Are a U.S. citizen or legal resident, and at least 18 years of age.
• Have a valid mailing address (a P.O. Box won't work).
• Create or have an active Windows Live ID and cashback account.
• Adhere to the Microsoft Service Agreement."

"As you search on Microsoft Live Search (www.Live.com), look for this icon to let you know that cashback savings are available from Live Search. You can also search directly for cashback deals and participating stores at the Live Search cashback site. Your results will always clearly list the cashback amount and your bottom-line price."

After each purchase you make, the Store you purchase from will send Microsoft your purchase information which MS will use to process ones cashback. In the future, MS may also use ones purchase information to help personalize experience which may include displaying customized advertising and content.

For the complete FAQ, Please check: http://search.live.com/cashback/faq

Community Games on Xbox LIVE Beta

Game development has been democratized as the newly designed XNA Creators Club Online Web site and the highly anticipated beta of Community Games on Xbox LIVE are launched. This was announced by David "LetsKillDave" Weller Program Manager - XNA Community .

Here are some of the excerpts :

If you’re a already a premium member, you will be able to join us in the Community Games on Xbox LIVE Beta immediately, where you can submit your games and review others games, and enjoy playing them on Xbox LIVE! If you are not a member, sign up today and get involved in making game development history.

This effort represents, quite literally, several developer-years of work.

Here are a few cool things we encourage you to check out:

1)      The Quick Start Guide will take you on a tour of all the features of the new site plus a guided tour of how the community games distribution pipeline works.

2)      The new Education Content Catalog lets you find content quickly by type or development area

3)      The new Role Playing Game Starter Kit – sure to stimulate your need for creating your own “old school” RPG-style game

4)      The new Community Spotlight area, featuring interviews and articles from amazing community contributors (and sometimes a “celebrity interview”)

We encourage you, no matter what your game development expertise, to visit the new XNA Creators Club Online Web site, at http://creators.xna.com, to see the new changes for yourself!

Though I don't have a XBox , still the news is very exciting.

For full details read: XNA Team Blog

Silverlight based MSN Toolbar released

A new toolbar- MSN Toolbar, based on Silverlight has been released. It was under beta test since couple of months, and I was one of the beta testers. And I can say during this period, it kept improving and is different from regular toolbars. First of all its Silverlight based written in XAML and actually is a fully programmable platform whose SDK will be released later this year. So this makes it to add snap-ins in the form of panes coded by 3rd party developers, this will make it customisable. But this can be expected later.

Now coming to the present features :

You can see headlines from various MSN channels without leaving the page, has Windows Live Button to stay connected. Also has  Live Search Box to find whatever you are searching. Get Live Search results even when you use another search engine. Also it has a sort of 'Flip' toolbar whenever doing the search. And it again 'Flips' over for he regular toolbars. So these flips are termed as 'Panes' and these can be coded on the availability of SDK. So within one toolbar you can have many by just flipping them in the form of panes.

 

 

 

Also there's a cool effect when any Breaking News happens, the news button gleams. Check it out , its really nice.

          

 

You also have settings option to customise where you can have toolbar color change.

I know there are many who does not like toolbars, but this is different and you should give it a try. At present it works on Silverlight 1.0 and does not support 2.0 beta. You can download it from http://toolbar.msn.com/

If you want to see all the features in action then  check this video where Stefan Weitz gives a demo.

Grand Theft Auto IV Windows Live Messenger Theme Pack

Jazz up your Live Messenger with these GTA goodies! 

Customize your Windows Live experience with all new Grand Theft Auto IV Messenger emoticons, display pics, skins and Hotmail signatures.

Get the GTA IV Messenger Theme Pack Now

Get your Hotmail Signatures Now.

Grand Theft Auto IV is available for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and was released to stores worldwide on April 29, 2008.

 

Search Commands for Office 2007 from Office Labs

Microsoft Office Labs have launched their website at www.officelabs.com. This is a place for ideas that come from regular employees and interns who work anywhere in Microsoft. Its a prototype implementations of various ideas the Office Labs team is testing for viability.These ideas are great and very useful.

One of such tool is Search Commands. If you are using Microsoft Office 2007, then the Search Commands add-in is a must. This experimental add-in has been released by Office Labs. It helps to find commands, options, wizards and galleries in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for specific tasks.

Download Search Commands from here

After installing it, you can open Word,Excel or Powerpoint and Click on the Search Commands tab and in the Introduction section, click on Guided Help: 'Learn about Search Commands' to learn more about it.

 

Check search commands FAQs.

Please note that Search Commands is a prototype, so it is likely there are unknown issues plus there is no official support for Search Commands so its recommended not to install on production machines. I am bit late blogging about it but  I have been using it since its release and find it quite useful. I will be soon posting about some more goodies from Office labs.

Microsoft to announce some major Search Initiatives

With Microsoft recently issuing a statement, on Yahoo deal "...that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business.  Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo! ...".

What that means ? Does it mean Microsoft interested only in search ad business from Yahoo! ? One has to wait and see. Meanwhile, Kevin Johnson , President, Platforms & Services Division has sent a letter updating his team on an updated online and advertising strategy about which will be announced on 21 May at its advance08 advertising conference in Redmond (May19-21, 2008). This letter to his team is published by CNET News , some excerpts :

On Wednesday, we will be announcing a major new initiative that our search teams have been driving. We are getting better and better with our core algorithmic search, and at the same time, we are investing to differentiate in vertical experiences and to disrupt the current model. You'll hear more about our plans Wednesday.

advance08 will underscore our commitment to search and online advertising, and you'll continue to see announcements demonstrating our progress in this space. Earlier this week, I spoke to leaders across our online services business about our core strategy, the importance of acceleration and a set of actions we are taking, including:

1. Innovate and disrupt in search -- We will disclose some elements of our plans with this week's release of search and sharpen our focus on user experience and business model innovation. The work we have done over the last 4 years on search has established a solid foundation to build upon.

2. Win targeted distribution -- With this release of search, we are now ready to throttle up broader distribution initiatives.

3. Reinvent portal and deliver new experiences across PC, phone and web -- We are building our new releases of Windows 7, Windows Live wave 3, Windows Mobile 7, Internet Explorer 8, Search and MSN with an eye towards optimizing and unifying experiences and scenarios.

4. Fix our online branding -- Our brands are fragmented and confusing today, and we recognize a need to clarify and align our online branding. We are now driving forward to address this opportunity.

5. Win in display advertising -- We have an advantage in tools, agency assets/relationships and a team laser-focused on capturing the display ad platform opportunity. As we build from a position of strength, we will increase engineering resources to drive even more innovation.

6. Build on our strengths in Europe -- As measured by comScore in March, our online business in Europe is doing well. We have over 3 times the page view volume and nearly 7 times the minutes of usage compared to Yahoo!, and 68% reach to internet users throughout Europe. We will double down on our investments in Europe and expand on this strong position.

7. Expand strategic partnerships – In addition to our organic innovation agenda, we will expand strategic partnerships that increase inventory on our display ad platform, enable new paradigms in search and accelerate growth in key geographies.

8. Pursue small, targeted acquisitions – Looking forward, we will focus on small, targeted acquisitions that support our work in search, complement our value in the ad platform and help us grow scale in key geographies. Recent acquisitions including Rapt and YaData are examples of these types of acquisitions.

Yes some of these initiatives such as Fixing online branding is a welcome move as many of us users have been requesting about it.

Similarly a 'Next-Generation Search Experience' was also demonstrated at Microsoft CEO Summit 2008, recently where Jeff Teper, Corporate Vice President, Office Business Platform for Microsoft, demonstrated new enterprise search technology. Watch the demo video here .wmv file (4.6 MB) | .mpg file (46 MB). Also point to note that Microsoft completed the acquisition of FAST, a leader in Enterprise search  recently.

So its going to be exciting to hear about these announcements tomorrow. Watch this space.

(Source :Kevin Johnson's letter on Microsoft's updated online strategy )