Stuart J. Johnston

Microsoft is readying the first limited beta of its forthcoming Web analytics tool for release, it hopes, later this summer. Code-named Gatineau, the product aims to compete with Google Analytics, which is already on version 2. So Microsoft has some catching up to do with Google . Given that it’s coming late to the party, […]

Microsoft  plans to ship this week the second beta test releases of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5, according to a blog post by the head of the project. The company this week also began shipping an alpha test version of its IronRuby dynamic programming language, and said it plans to release the […]

UPDATED: Like the Terminator –just when the monster machine seems defeated, it always somehow rises again – Microsoft’s push for international standards status for its Office document formats refuses to die. Just last week, a committee charged with deciding whether or not to recommend that the U.S. vote in favor of adopting Microsoft’s Office Open […]

Microsoft is quietly preparing to ship the first ‘release candidate,’ or RC, of the initial version of its Silverlight cross-platform media player technology, perhaps as early as the end of July. However, getting it into users’ hands and onto their computers is just the first step – third-party developers will need to write compelling applications […]

Microsoft finally broke the $50 billion barrier for revenues in fiscal 2007 – and the company’s financial team is predicting more of the same in the current fiscal year. For the year, which ended January 30, the company brought in $51.12 billion, up 15 percent from last year’s $44.28 billion. For the fiscal fourth quarter, […]

A U.S. committee whose recommendation is viewed to be a bellwether as to whether Microsoft’s Office OpenXML (OOXML) document formats are likely to be adopted as a major international standard, failed last week to garner enough votes to move the proposed standard along, according to a private blog post by one committee member. The vote […]

Microsoft  and Nortel  are celebrating their first year “together” this week –- together as in unified communications, that is. A year ago this week, the software behemoth and the telecommunications titan announced their Innovative Communications Alliance , an initiative based around the vendors’ joint vision of a unified communications architecture that enables users to access […]

Microsoft announced its 2008 roadmap for its academic research endeavors, including grants and other funding for several research initiatives. The announcements were made this week as part of the software giant’s Microsoft Research (MSR) Faculty Summit at its Redmond, Wash. campus. The summit, which is in its eighth year, is part of MSR’s outreach to […]

REDMOND, Wash. — As Microsoft gets ready to report its fiscal 2007 earnings next week, the company’s seemingly endless building boom shows no signs of slowing, and neither does its penchant for acquiring more property. For instance, late last month, Microsoft  purchased two data centers with 250,000 square feet of raised floor space that it […]

Qwest Communications  announced that, as of Wednesday, it is offering Microsoft’s Windows Live services as an add-on to its residential broadband packages. The service is available in all 14 states that Qwest covers, following a “soft launch” in Colorado in May, a company official said. Qwest also said it is the first telecommunications carrier in […]

At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver today, Microsoft said September will mark the next release of its business process management server. The company also announced an early access program and pricing for its upcoming Live CRM offerings. Along with promising a firm ship date for BizTalk Server 2006 Release 2 (R2), the company also […]

Microsoft on Tuesday opened its toy box for partners gathered to attend the company’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, with the aim of helping them better serve their joint customers – and keeping them happy. Microsoft also announced that the company will launch Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 in […]