Business

The head of Microsoft says he isn't getting overconfident about Bing' early success. CEO Steve Ballmer says he's prepared to be patient while building Microsoft's search business and says the firm may spend almost $5 billion a year on search ... technology. Speaking to the Executives Club of Chicago, Ballmer said "In our industry, the No. 1 mistake that people make is that they quit too early. If you look back at any great technology business, it took a while to build up." A good example: according to Ballmer, MS Windows (which was introduced in 1983) didn't become a mainstream hit until around ... (view more)

Buyers of Windows 7 beware: Microsoft is putting restrictions on downgrades for new PCs with Windows 7 preinstalled. Readers may recall that Windows Vista had major incompatibilities when it first debuted; as such, many users requested to downgrade ... to Windows XP. Windows 7 Downgrade Cut Off Dates With Windows XP approaching its ends of life, the downgrade rules for Windows 7 are as follows: If you purchase a PC after April 23, 2010 with Windows 7 pre-installed, Microsoft will only allow you to downgrade to Windows Vista. However, if you purchase a new PC with Windows 7 preinstalled before ... (view more)

Unconfirmed reports say Microsoft is charging manufacturers much more than expected for the netbook edition of Windows 7. The news comes as a major research analyst picks Google's Android operating system as having the potential to seriously ... challenge Windows on netbooks. According to reports, Microsoft is quoting prices of $45 to $55 for netbook producers to license the Starter edition of Windows 7. That's almost double the price of the equivalent edition to XP. Win7 Price Huge for Netbook OEMs The price difference is significant for low-priced machine like netbooks. In some cases it would ... (view more)

You might not expect it, given the company's highly anticipated operating system release and its virtual domination of several other markets, but Microsoft's having a tough time getting through this recession. Take reports of its latest employee ... policy, which only reimburses company workers if they purchase Windows Mobile-powered smartphones. According to reports from the Business Insider and a confirmation from a Microsoft spokesperson, the Redmond-based software giant will no longer reimburse employees who subscribe to smartphone plans with other tech companies, including Research in Motion ... (view more)

With the eyes of the world watching the mass marketing blitz of Microsoft's latest search engine Bing , many have suggested the company filter out adult content to keep it away from children and those who simply don't want to see it. It is no secret ... that this kind of content continues to top the charts when ranking the most popular online material being sought out using an Internet search engine. Subdomains: Microsoft's Answer to Online Porn Filtration When Bing first launched, Microsoft expressed their desire to filter out porn content. But many wondered how it would be able to pull off such ... (view more)

A mother and her two sons are on the wrong end of a $750,000 suit filed by Microsoft. The Redmond-based company claims the Vancouver, British Columbia family is responsible for an immense online scam using pay-per-click ads (also known as click ... fraud ). The civil complaint was filed in a Seattle federal court earlier this week. According to reports, Microsoft has been investigating the matter for over a year and names three individuals from the west coast Canadian city: Melanie Suen, Eric Lam, and Gordon Lam. Although there's no confirmation on it yet, Microsoft has stated that it believes ... (view more)

Four senators have written to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calling for an investigation into exclusive deals between cellphone manufacturers and network carriers. Though the letter doesn't name any particular companies, it appears ... that Apple's deal with AT ... (view more)

Last week Microsoft announced it would try its best to avoid antitrust charges in Europe by shipping Windows 7 without Internet Explorer 8 . Unfortunately, it seems few abroad are satisfied with that move. Some felt it was a gracious move by the ... Redmond-based company, which has been under antitrust investigation by the European Union since complaints were first made in 2001. EC: Still Not Enough Surprisingly, European regulators still aren't impressed. In a statement released over the weekend, the European Commission rejected Microsoft's offer, stating that it felt the move would not increase ... (view more)

Google is working on a way to search microblogging sites such as Twitter. But the news has led some experts to warn that such real-time searching might lead to a major flood of spam. Twitter already has its own service allowing people to search any ... term mentioned by any user. However, while these people get almost instant updates of posts from other users, messages don't appear in search results until around 20 minutes after their original posting. Google, which updates in seconds rather than minutes, sees this as a market gap. The independent site Google Operation System notes a line in some ... (view more)

According to a recent report, Microsoft's search engine ' Bing ' may be better designed for incorporating advertising than Google. The news comes amidst suggestions that the site's early success was merely the result of short term curiosity on the ... part of web users. Small Sample, Encouraging Results The ad research comes from User Centric, a Chicago-based firm which specializes in the way people interact with computers. It asked 21 people to carry out four searches both Google and Microsoft, then used eye tracking technology to see what they actually looked at. The research found that, on ... (view more)