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Robert Andrews at paidContent.org reports an organizational change in Microsoft’s Search Business Group:
Microsoft is restructuring its Search Business Group to add a new group geared toward commercial search. It’s picked Multimap CEO Jeff Kelisky to be GM of this new Commercial Search unit, which covers Live Search cashback, MSN Shopping, local, consumer mapping, Virtual Earth and mobile. It’s part of the big plan to improve the performance of Live as a search and advertising platform. Kelisky will report to Search Business Group GM Brad Goldberg in Redmond but will remain based in London.
Goldberg: “We are increasing our focus on commercial search, including changes to the search leadership team and engineering team and in order to lead this market we need to bring all find, explore and commerce needs together. (Jeff) will direct this team to ensure Microsoft continues to innovate and deliver so that consumers choose us to find local information and services.” Goldberg said Kelisky understood particularly how to navigate search, local services, business search and mobile.
Microsoft’s Photosynth project today left the lab for the Web and was promptly overloaded which makes it rather difficult to kick the tires, but here’s the announcement from the Live Labs blog:
We’re pleased to announce the first full release of Photosynth, available now at photosynth.com. Photosynth takes a collection of regular photographs and reconstructs the scene or object in a 3-D environment. For those of you who have seen the videos or tried our tech preview, you could experience synths that we made in the lab and get a feel for what Photosynth is and how it works. But now, for the first time ever you can create synths from your own pictures and share them with your friends. Explore great synths from others or create a few of your own.
The only downside I have seen from the various punters who have already taken it for a spin is that it takes a while to get the hang of taking the number and type of photographs necessary for Photosynth to work its magic. Note that the 3-D environment building all happens online (hence the overload) after you upload your pictures, but Microsoft is providing each user with 20GB of storage.
Photosynth is based on technology Microsoft acquired with Seadragon Software and while it makes a great PR gimmick, there doesn’t appear to be a monetization plan.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky missed the rumored July start date of their $300 million "Microsoft is cool" advertising campaign, but Suzanne Vranica and Robert A. Guth at the WSJ have hints as to what to expect when it finally arrives on September 4th:
Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.’s advertising, is turning for help to Jerry Seinfeld.
The software giant’s new $300 million advertising campaign, devised by a newly hired ad agency, has been closely guarded. But Mr. Seinfeld will be one of the key celebrity pitchmen, say people close to the situation. He will appear with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in ads and receive about $10 million for the work, they say.
It’s always possible that this may be a stroke of genius, but somehow it doesn’t seem promising. Reinforcing that impression is the further rumor that the theme of the campaign is supposedly "Windows, Not Walls" and will stress "connecting people and ideas." I just hope they didn’t talk Mr. Gates into another goofy future digital lifestyle demo like he used to give at CES (cf. 2006 and 2007- they were hyping connected experiences then too), although that might work if they played it for laughs.
I would also observe that the original buzz was that the focus of the campaign was to be all of Microsoft’s consumer products, but this seems to be a Vista exclusive.
Microsoft and Novell want us to know that everything is going swell with the interoperability collaboration deal they announced two years ago. So swell, in fact, that Microsoft is kicking in an additional US $100 million:
Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. are announcing an incremental investment in their relationship to meet accelerating customer demand for their business model solution, which is designed to build a bridge between open source and proprietary software to deliver interoperability and intellectual property (IP) peace of mind for organizations operating mixed-source IT environments.
The investment focuses on enhanced programs from Novell to provide tools, support, training and resources for customers seeking an enterprise-class Linux* platform and specifically, the optimal interoperability solution between Microsoft Windows Server and SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server from Novell®. It also includes Microsoft’s commitment to purchase up to $100 million in certificates that those customers can redeem for expanded support from Novell that includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server support and support for moving toward an enterprise-class Linux platform. The investments will take effect Nov. 1, 2008, and between now and then Microsoft and Novell will solicit customer input and identify aspects of the support programs that will be most useful to organizations running mixed-source environments.
Customer response to the Microsoft-Novell model has been significant since it began in November 2006. As part of the initial five-year partnership agreement, Microsoft purchased $240 million of Novell certificates to sell to customers. Within 18 months, Novell invoiced more than $157 million in certificate revenues, or 65 percent of the original allotment. Customers who have already taken advantage of this opportunity to seamlessly run both Windows Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., HSBC Holdings, Renault, Southwest Airlines Co., BMW and many other leading companies around the world.
Joe Wilcox delivers an astringent assessment and observes:
For a company with net revenues of $232 million during its fiscal 2008 second quarter and profit from operations of $2 million, Microsoft’s 100 million bucks should be useful.
I’ll say!
The deal allows Novell to exist in the shadow of Windows Server, sustaining on its table scraps. Microsoft can offer customers that simply must have some Linux servers a sanctioned source for good tools ensuring interoperability with Windows Server.
Of course, the real objection to the original deal by Open Source fans was the "patent cooperation" part of the agreement which Microsoft felt bolstered their assertion that Linux infringed on their intellectual property despite Novell’s statements to the contrary. It looks like the lovebirds have gotten over that honeymoon spat now and I’m sure we can look forward to more subsidies for Novell in the future.
