It’s time for Digg. It has ad agreement with Microsoft, but Google want it. And not for ads, but for its concept and users.

Digg has very specific community of users/members, not invaded yet by commercial reasons. It is made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories, in a social and democratic spirit. Will Google be able to keep the actual structure and spirit of this social community?

Some of the Digg users consider that this is the beginning of the end.

TechCrunch says that Google intends to acquire Digg for $200 million.

It seems that Google is very interested in the Digg voting system and its users. Voting stories up and down is the site’s cornerstone function, respectively called digging and burying. Digg will be acuired by Google News, so we can suppose that Digg will be used to bring value to the news, based on the user votes.

Like I said in a previous post, the strategy of a big company like Microsoft to buy a big company like Yahoo!, cannot be based on a simple offer only. It takes into consideration multiple denies of the targeted company, and it can be foresee for several years, even 10 years, if needed. And, of course, it acts on multiple plans, not only on direct or indirect negotiations with Yahoo.

Late Saturday, Yahoo declined Microsoft’s last attempt to buy its online search engine. Carl Icahn is still active in this stage of the Microsoft strategy, trying to attract as many shareholders as possible.

Now, it’s a fight inside Yahoo!, especially between the board and shareholders, that is predicted to end this month, but nobody knows who will be the winner. I hope that the winner will be the Internet users.

(Source)

So, the next move in the Microsoft’s strategy is now to go on the partnership with Yahoo! (involving Yahoo carrying search advertisements from Microsoft, the Wall Street Journal said today), taking also into account to buy the full companies in the future.

A second battle-front was open by Microsoft through some investors of Yahoo!, especially Carl Icahn.

“Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments,” says Microsoft.

Microsoft says that there will be a “major new initiative“ in its search engine technology on May 21.

Dear Mr. Icahn:

We are in receipt of your letter with regard to your intention to seek control of Yahoo!’s board of directors.

Unfortunately, your letter reflects a significant misunderstanding of the facts about the Microsoft proposal and the diligence with which our board evaluated and responded to that proposal. A fair-minded review of the factual record leads to one conclusion: that Yahoo!’s ten-member board, comprised of nine independent directors along with Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang, remains the best and most qualified group to maximize value for all Yahoo! stockholders.

(See the full Press Release)

John Dvorak makes an overview of the Yahoo’s board:

• Jerry Yang, founder
• Roy Bostock, chairman of the board here and at Northwest Airlines, and director at Morgan Stanley
• Ron Burkle, finance guy and Bill Clinton pal ,expert in supermarkets and board member of Occidental Petroleum Corp
• Eric Hippeau
• Vyomesh Joshi, a VP at Hewlett-Packard Co. from the printing division
• Arthur Kern, the new-media guy
• Robert Kotick, chairman and chief executive of Activision Inc. OK
• Ed Kozel, background in technology as well as finance
• Maggie Wilderotter, connection to Microsoft as a former VP
• Gary Wilson, from Northwest Airlines,

and the Carl Icahn’s new group:

• Carl Icahn
• Lucian Bebchuk, corporate lawyer, expert in corporate governance
• Frank Biondi Jr., former Viacom Inc. executive sits on a lot of boards, including Seagate Technology’s
• John Chapple, little or no hook into Yahoo’s business
• Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner
• Adam Dell, VC and finance guy
• Keith Meister, Icahn’s personal economic hit man
• Edward Meyer, advertising
• Brian Posner
• Robert Shaye, a Hollywood mogul,

concluding that Carl Icahn will try to sell Yahoo! to Microsoft; If he will not succeed, he will bring Yahoo in disaster.

Microsoft researchers has been developing an interesting astronomy application, now as a public beta, allowing you to see pictures from several observatories. The service is free of charge and uses high-resolution images from the world’s best land- and space-based telescopes.

WorldWide Telescope is a rich, Web 2.0 application allowing people to easily explore the night sky through their computers, a compelling astronomical resource for students and lifelong learners, and as a way to make science fun for children.

“The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “By combining terabytes of incredible imagery and data with easy-to-use software for viewing and moving through all that information, the WorldWide Telescope opens the door to new ways to see and experience the wonders of space. Our hope is that it will inspire young people to explore astronomy and science, and help researchers in their quest to better understand the universe.”

WorldWide Telescope allows seamless panning and zooming around the heavens with rich image environments and stitches together terabytes of high-resolution images of celestial bodies and displays them in a way that relates to their actual position in the sky. This way, people can freely browse through the solar system, galaxy and beyond, or take advantage of a growing number of guided tours of the sky hosted by astronomers and educators at major universities and planetariums.

“WorldWide Telescope brings to life a dream that many of us in Microsoft Research have pursued for years, and we are proud to release this as a free service to anyone who wants to explore the universe,” said Curtis Wong, manager of Microsoft’s Next Media Research Group. “Where is Saturn in the sky, in relation to the moon? Does the Milky Way really have a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy? With the universe at your fingertips, you can discover the answers for yourself.”

WWT uses images provided by Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Spitzer Space Telescope and many other observatories. It is possible to view the locations of planets in the night sky in the past, present or future, or the universe through different wavelengths of light to reveal hidden structures in other parts of the galaxy.

Download WorldWide Telescope

Press Release

Sony Ericcson decided to join forces with Microsoft in order to realize a smart phone powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Xperia X1.

Xperia X1 will have a 3 inch touch screen and will include a full QWERTY keyboard within a quality metal-finish body, with a stylus and a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus.

“They’ve really got some great consumer brands that we’d love to partner with and bring to Windows Mobile,” Microsoft Vice President Pieter Knook said in an interview.

The phone was introduced by Sony Ericsson during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which heralded the advent of the XPERIA series. The first XPERIA phone was the Sony Ericsson X1. It has quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and 4 bands of HSDPA/HSUPA (850/1700/1900/2100MHz or 900/1700/1900/2100MHz) support. It includes also WiFi connectivity. Xperia X1 measures 110mm x 53mm x 17mm (4.3″ x 2.1″ x .7″) and weighs in at 145g (5.1oz) and it includes also GPS support.

Windows Mobile is a compact operating system combined with a suite of basic applications for mobile devices based on the Microsoft Win32 API. Windows Mobile 6, formerly codenamed “Crossbow”, is the latest version of Windows Mobile platform and was released on February 12, 2007 at the 3GSM World Congress 2007. It comes in three different versions: “Windows Mobile 6 Standard” for Smartphones (phones without touchscreens), “Windows Mobile 6 Professional” for Pocket PCs with phone functionality, and “Windows Mobile 6 Classic” for Pocket PCs without cellular radios.

It is possible to have soon Windows Mobile based smart phones manufactured by Nokia, Samsung and Panasonic.

Meanwhile, Techcrunch says that Microsoft has acquired Danger, a cell phone manufacturer with a revenues of $56.4 million (up 14 percent), and a net loss of $12.4 million (double from the year before) for the last fiscal year.

So, we will have soon Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android (where the founder of Danger, Andy Rubin, is now working for Google!), Sony Ericcson’s Xperia and, maybe, Microsoft’s Danger.

Do you feel the trend?

So, the decisive step is done: Microsoft Corp. has made a bid to buy Yahoo Inc. for $44.6 billion, in order to better compete with Google Inc. If Yahoo! agree, it will be the problem of the U.S. Justice Department to check if this deal complies with the antitrust rules, especially that Microsoft is already under federal oversight for a previous antitrust settlement six years ago.

Yahoo‘s stock was near a four-year low Thursday at $19.18. Microsoft‘s offer is $31 per share, a 62 percent premium. Friday morning, Yahoo shares rose 45 percent to $27.71, up $8.53. Microsoft shares fell to $30.80, off $1.80, or 5.5 percent. Google shares were trading at $515.70, which is a decline of $48.60, or 8.6 percent.

In accordance with SFGate, Microsoft said in the letter: “Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers and publishers.”

Yahoo said it will “evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.”

As it seems from the Microsoft stuff declarations, they appreciate a lot the Yahoo! brand, but there will be no Microhoo!, nor, Yasoft, and no more Yahoo!. Just Microsoft.

The Romanian gaming community is complaining against the discrimination of the manufacturers of the game consoles Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo WII that, although Romania is member of the European Union, the Romanian gamers do not benefit by the full online services and support for which they paid. They require to be enabled the full online services as for the other countries.

Here it is the online petition:

To: MICROSOFT CORPORATION, SONY CORPORATION, NINTENDO and EUROPEAN UNION REPRESENTATIVESWe, the ROMANIAN owners of gaming consoles, related products and services offered by MICROSOFT CORPORATION, SONY CORPORATION and NINTENDO, as full rights members of EUROPEAN UNION and users of the products and services you sold us, we kindly plead you to consider our petition for enabling full online services and support for ROMANIA. Through this document, we would like to request to be treated according to the EUROPEAN UNION laws, as equals in rights with all the other member countries where these services are available.

The products named here as MICROSOFT XBOX 360, SONY PLAYSTATION 3 and NINTENDO WII you sold us and are still selling in ROMANIA, like in any other European country, come with no warnings that the products bought have no support at all in our country. Therefore we would like to benefit from the full online services we paid for.

Dear EUROPEAN UNION REPRESENTATIVES, as members of the EUROPEAN UNION, we would like to petition for full rights as everyone else and be able to use the online services and support for the products we paid for. None of the three products named above allow us to use it online in ROMANIA, as there is no such support, although most of us have paid for a product or service that gives us one month, three months, six months or unlimited access to online services. Most of us have bought products (software and hardware) that require a connection to XBOX LIVE or PLAYSTATION STORE, which is impossible as there is no such service for ROMANIA.

Dear representatives at MICROSOFT, SONY and NINTENDO, when the products named above were launched, you promised us an experience like never seen before, with online multiplayer, online chat, online tournaments, news, downloads, updates and online support. How can we have that unbelievable experience if you don’t allow us to access those services?

So, we, the ROMANIAN owners of products you sold us, kindly ask you to give us what we paid for. We ask for nothing more than what you promised when we bought your products. We honestly believe this is a win-win situation for all of us. And as a proof to you that we are not just 5 or 10 people, we will sign below.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and listening to the gaming community from ROMANIA.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Virtualization is a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources. This includes making a single physical resource (such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device) appear to function as multiple logical resources; or it can include making multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) appear as a single logical resource.”

To compete with the leader in this field, Microsoft intends to partner with Citrix Systems and to buy Calista Technologies Inc., as well as to lower the price for Vista used on virtualized computers.

“This is a shot across VMware’s bow,” said analyst Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. “It basically means (Microsoft and Citrix) are going to gang up on VMware.”

In accordance with Mercury News, Microsoft said it sees the virtualization market in its early stages, with only 5 percent of new servers being outfitted with virtualization software. The company confirmed its plans to deliver its key Hyper-V virtualization software within six months of the launch of Windows Server 2008, which is expected this quarter. The Hyper-V is a so-called hypervisor, a software layer that enables applications programs to communicate with a machine’s hardware components. It is a key piece of Microsoft strategy.

Calista Technologies was founded in 2006, is headquartered in San Jose, California; first products are scheduled to ship in 2008.

The Calista Virtual Desktop (CVD) platform provides a traditional desktop quality experience, including rich media and 3D graphics, to virtual desktops. CVD is well suited to multi-core CPU and virtualized server trends and today’s densely populated datacenters.

In accordance with Techdirt, Microdoft just got the patent for the “wish list”.

In the US Patent dated January 1, 2008, the wish list is defined as “an electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall/online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and/or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database. The interface will extract data from one or all of the databases based on the amount of information in a gift list request and provide the best results. As records are removed from the databases, the interface allows for graceful degradation of the display, such that something is always displayed to the user.”

The “Inventors” of the wish list are Martineau; Teresa (Kirkland, WA), and Blinn; Arnold N. (Bellevue, WA), and the assignee is Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA) .