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Today, Microsoft introduced Popfly, a simplified programming language based on Silverlight for the kind of social network mashup programming so beloved by the Web 2.0 crowd. Microsoft development tools CVP S. “Soma” Somasegar explains on his blog:
I am really excited to announce that the final release of ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 (aka “Atlas”) shipped this morning. You can download it here.
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ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 delivers a rich client-side AJAX library that provides cross platform, cross browser support for a core JavaScript type-system, JSON-based network serialization stack, JavaScript component/control model, as well as common client JavaScript helper classes. ASP.NET AJAX also delivers a rich server-side library that integrates AJAX functionality within ASP.NET, and enables developers to easily AJAX-enable existing ASP.NET 2.0 sites with minimal effort.ASP.NET AJAX is available for free, and can be used with ASP.NET 2.0 and VS 2005. It is a fully supported Microsoft product, and is backed by a standard 10 year Microsoft support license (with Microsoft Product Support available via phone 24 hours a day x 7 days a week).
…While the core ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 release is now officially shipped, we are definitely not slowing down. :-)
All of the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 features will be integrated directly into the next release of ASP.NET (codename: “Orcas”). Visual Studio “Orcas” will also provide client-side JavaScript intellisense, JavaScript compilation checking, and rich JavaScript debugging support for ASP.NET AJAX scenarios.
We are also already at work on the next ASP.NET AJAX release, and will continue to add new features and improvements to the supported ASP.NET AJAX core. You can already start using many of these new features with the ASP.NET AJAX Futures CTP (available for download now on the ASP.NET AJAX site – it also supports a “go live” license).
More details by following the link, but if this seems excessively geeky, think of it as Microsoft’s toolkit for building the spiffy modern Web site interfaces so beloved of the Web 2.0 crowd.
Spurred by the popularity of MySpace, News Corp. sites have overtaken Yahoo Inc. sites as the most viewed by U.S. Internet users, according to new industry data cited by News Corp. on Tuesday.
According to comScore Media Metrix data, News Corp.’s Fox Interactive unit said the total of its pages viewed by the U.S. Web audience jumped to 39.5 billion in November from 38.7 billion in October.
Meanwhile, Yahoo’s total pages viewed fell to 38.1 million in November from 41.6 billion in October. Microsoft ranked third, falling to 17.9 billion in November from 19.3 billion.
Yahoo countered that it still had a larger audience, even though Fox sites won the top ranking for number of Web pages viewed. The company also has far more ads, and its customers spend more time, on average, on Yahoo than MySpace, it said.
The big story here is less MySpace growth than Yahoo decline as is admirably shown in a chart at TechCrunch. Yahoo stated that a reason for part of the decline was its increasing use of AJAX Web 2.0 style interfaces and Microsoft could likely use a similar rationale. Google won’t need it however – their page views were up 5% and of course, that’s predominantly search where their interface is rather spartan.
Update Dec. 14: The original version of the above story had millions where it meant billions. I have corrected it above.
Last month Scott Guthrie laid out the roadmap (and nomenclature) for Microsoft’s Web 2.0 tooling and today he announced that the first milestone had been reached:
Today I am very pleased to announce the first official Beta release of Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX v1.0. You can download it now from the http://ajax.asp.net site. Available on the site are three download options:
1) The ASP.NET AJAX v1.0 “Core” download. This redist contains the features that will be fully supported by Microsoft Product Support, and which will have a standard 10 year Microsoft support license (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year). The download includes support for the core AJAX type-system, networking stack, component model, extender base classes, and the server-side functionality to integrate within ASP.NET (including the super-popular ScriptManager, UpdatePanel, and Timer controls).
2) The ASP.NET AJAX “Value-Add” CTP download. This redist contains the additional higher-level features that were in previous CTPs of “Atlas,” but which won’t be in the fully-supported 1.0 “core” redist. These features will continue to be community supported as we refine them further and incorporate more feedback. Over time we’ll continue to move features into the “core” download as we finalize features in this value-add package more.
3) The ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. This project contains 28 free, really cool, AJAX-enabled controls that are built on top of the ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 “Core” download. The project is collaborative shared source and built by a combination of Microsoft and non-Microsoft developers, and you can join the community or just download it on CodePlex today.
More details by following the link, but this will be a fully supported add-on to Visual Studio 2005. The next step is a release candidate and then shipment before the end of the year.
