Tag Archives: Microsoft

Pottermore, New Website Based on the Hugely Popular Harry Potter Books, Uses Windows Azure to Scale Up to 1 Billion Page Views in First Two Weeks

By Guest PostJune 6, 2012Technologyazure, brittany talbot, cloud environment, elastic solution, elasticity, Facebook, fran dougherty, harry potter, harry potter fan, j k rowling, julian thomas, Microsoft, paas, pottermore, pottermore website, priscilla, san francisco, Technology, website, windows azure

Windows Azure offered Pottermore the flexibility required to build a massively scalable website in just three months.

REDMOND, Wash. – June 6, 2012 – Eagerly awaiting the launch of Pottermore (www.pottermore.com), the website based on the popular Harry Potter stories, Brittany Talbot and her sister, Priscilla, raced to sign up when the site went live on April 14, 2012.

They weren’t alone. Within hours, thousands of Harry Potter fans were flooding the site and just two weeks after the Pottermore website went live, it received one billion page views, making it one of the most popular sites on the Web. To date, 10 million unique visitors have visited the site, with 25,000 new users signing up every day.

With Harry Potter one of the largest entertainment phenomena of all time, fans of all ages couldn’t wait to experience the world-famous stories, social, and interactive experiences the site offered. “I like being able to go up there and do potions and spells, and walk around where Harry was,” Brittany says. “I read the first book in the first week because I was so excited.” (more…)

Microsoft Marks E3 with “Halo 4,” New Entertainment Experiences

By Guest PostJune 4, 2012Technologye3, electronic entertainment expo, Entertainment, fable, forza, game of thrones, gears of war, halo, halo 4, los angeles, master chief, Microsoft, south park, splinter cell, windows 8 pc, xbox 360, xbox live, xbox music, xbox smartglass, yusuf mehdi

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced a robust lineup of new Xbox 360 games, including a new installment of the blockbuster Halo franchise. The company also unveiled new content and entertainment experiences for Xbox LIVE and smart devices.

LOS ANGELES – The Xbox 360 console charged into its seventh Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) today buoyed by a bundle of blockbuster game releases led by Halo 4 and a set of new entertainment experiences that will push Xbox farther into the living room, and onto PCs, tablets and phones.

Microsoft also revealed a set of new Xbox content, partners and apps – including bringing Internet Explorer to the console for the first time. The company also introduced a new music service and Xbox SmartGlass, a new app that brings an immersive entertainment experience to all devices. (more…)

New Bing, Available Today, Takes You from Searching to Doing

By Guest PostJune 1, 2012Technologyatlanta, bing, bing summer, Chicago, cody simpson, days of doing, doing, dosomething, exchange ideas, Facebook, heart, hola, impulse research, lafayette park, los angeles, Microsoft, msft, nasdaq, new york, pizza party, recreation center, searching, social network, the hunt, Twitter, web

In celebration of new search experience, Bing launches the Bing Summer of Doing with DoSomething.org.

REDMOND, Wash. — June 1, 2012 — Do you ever feel like you’re spending too much time searching and not enough time doing? If so, you’re not alone. According to a recent survey conducted by Bing and Impulse Research, nearly 75 percent of people spend more time than they would like searching for information online. Time wasted searching is a thing of the past with the new Bing design, which brings together information from the Web, experts and enthusiasts, and your friends to help you do more — available today at https://www.bing.com.

Only Bing brings together the best search with people from social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. In celebration of this new search experience, Bing is joining forces with DoSomething.org to launch the Bing Summer of Doing, designed to inspire people to do amazing things, including giving back to their communities. (more…)

EU5 Map Usage via Smartphone Growing 7x Faster Than Classic Web

By Guest PostMay 31, 2012Technologybenchmarks, Comscore, eu5, european markets, france, Germany, google android, google maps, hesham al jehani, italy, maps, Microsoft, mobile, mobile phone, mobilens data, smartphone users, spain, united kingdom, viamichelin

UK Has Highest Penetration of Smartphone Map Users in EU5

LONDON, UK, 31 May 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of mobile and computer usage of Maps across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) using the comScore MobiLens and comScore MMX services. The study showed that 35.0 percent of smartphone users in EU5 reported accessing maps via their device in March 2012, compared to 49.6 percent of the internet audience accessing Maps sites on their computers. Across EU5 markets, the smartphone Map audience increased 55 percent over the past year while map access via computer grew just 8 percent.

“Smartphones are quickly becoming the primary platform for on-the-go services such as maps and navigation. With apps such as Google Maps coming pre-installed on many phones it’s becoming second nature for many of us to rely on the smart device in our pocket to show us the way. The days of checking routes in advance and printing maps to take with us will soon be in our rear view mirror,” said Hesham Al-Jehani, European mobile product manager at comScore. (more…)

comScore Releases April 2012 U.S. Online Video Rankings

By Guest PostMay 18, 2012TechnologyAds, brightroll, Comscore, espn, Facebook, Google, hulu, internet user, machinima, maker studios, Microsoft, online content, tubemogul, vevo, video, video ad platform, video network, Yahoo, YouTube

Video Ad Delivery Continues to Soar to New Heights, Representing 1 in 5 Videos Viewed

RESTON, VA, May 18, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 37 billion online content videos in April. Video ads saw another record-breaking month with nearly 9.5 billion, representing 1 in 5 videos viewed online in April.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in April with 157.7 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 53.6 million, VEVO with 49.5 million, Facebook.com with 44.3 million and Microsoft Sites with 42.8 million. Nearly 37 billion video views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 17 billion, followed by Hulu with 901 million and Yahoo! Sites with 742 million. The average viewer watched 21.8 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7.2 hours) and Hulu (3.8 hours) earning the highest average engagement among the top ten properties. (more…)

China Takes Action to Stop Software Counterfeiting

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Politics, TechnologyBeijing, China, chinese government, coas, copyright infringement, counterfeit software, counterfeiter, crime, david finn, dell, haidian district, hp, huang jingping, intellectual property, intellectual property rights, ipr, lenovo, Microsoft, peoples court, piracy, shang yajun, simplified chinese, wang changlin, windows 7, windows server 2008, windows xp professional

Counterfeiter sentenced to more than seven years for manufacturing and distributing fake Microsoft products.

REDMOND, Wash., and BEIJING — The Chinese government has dealt a strong blow against intellectual property crime, penalizing counterfeiter Shang Yajun for copyright infringement and the sale of illegally manufactured registered trademarks. The 1st Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing upheld the Haidian District Court’s decision that sentenced Shang to seven years and six months imprisonment, representing the longest-ever criminal sentence in China for selling and distributing counterfeit software products.

In its July 2011 raid of storage facilities belonging to Shang, the Haidian District Public Security Bureau in Beijing confiscated more than 360,000 partially finished certificates of authenticity (COAs). Although product names and product identification had not been added yet, it is estimated that when finished and packed, their worth would be approximately 513.5 million RMB, or $79 million (U.S.). (more…)

Introducing Genome from Yahoo!, a New Solution Capitalizing on Yahoo!’s Vast Data and Designed to Significantly Improve Online Marketing Campaigns

By Guest PostMay 14, 2012Technologyaccuen media, advertiser roi, aol, billy beane, genome, interclick, internet week, josh jacobs, michele morelli, Microsoft, moneyball, new york, omnicom, online advertising, osm, rich riley, solution, Yahoo, yahoo data

Data Driven Best-in-Class Technology Uncovers Optimal Targeted Audiences at Scale in a Premium Media Ecosystem

NEW YORK — At Internet Week New York, Yahoo!, the premier digital media company, today announces Genome from Yahoo! (www.genomeplatform.com), an online advertising solution that combines Yahoo! data with interclick’s third party data and advertisers’ first party data along with a premium media footprint to provide marketers with the most complete, custom audience solution in the industry. Anticipated to be available in July 2012, Genome is the culmination of a strategy that was put in place last year with the display ad agreement with Microsoft and AOL as well as the acquisition of interclick, which Yahoo! acquired in December 2011, to create a next generation audience buying solution with greater targeting and personalization capabilities.

Genome, designed to leverage data to improve advertiser ROI, can provide marketers with actionable insights enabling them to conduct campaigns that help meet their objectives, and overcome an ever-evolving set of industry challenges that include the proliferation of data, fragmentation of technology, and outdated planning and buying techniques. Genome can help marketers organize and navigate the chaos of the data ecosystem while delivering results that can build brand value, increase conversion rates, and grow revenue. Genome combines the best of the technology, data, analytics and media from Yahoo! and interclick; from Yahoo! — premium media and unmatched user data with proven targeting capabilities— and interclick — unified technology stack, third-party data partnerships and expertise in analytics and audiences. (more…)

The ‘New’ Bing: Transforming Search from Finding to Doing

By Guest PostMay 10, 2012Technologybing, derrick connell, Facebook, gartner analyst, Google, hawaii, la bernardin restaurant, Microsoft, new bing, new feature, new york city, online, online services division, qi lu, ray valdes, relevancy, robert dietz, sally salas, search, stefan weitz, Technology, Twitter, web, web page, web search

Bing’s new user experience surfaces the best from the Web, friends and experts to help people do more.

REDMOND, Wash. – May 10, 2012 – Microsoft today unveiled a major update to its Bing search engine that fundamentally transforms the way users search the Web. The update, the most significant since Microsoft launched Bing three years ago, is designed to help users act quickly by taking advantage of the Web’s evolving fabric.

With the new version of Bing, rolling out over the coming weeks and broadly available in the U.S. in early June, people can easily get advice and recommendations from friends and experts with the new social sidebar. They can also view useful, action-oriented information via the new snapshot feature. And they can find what they’re looking for faster, with more relevant results and a refreshed user interface. All of this is presented in a new, three-column design that focuses on helping users take the leap from finding information to making quick, informed decisions. (more…)