Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is plotting a competitor for the Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Store and the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store. Microsoft is developing a store that is tentatively called SkyMarket.

SkyMarket won’t be launched until 2009 when the Windows Mobile 7 operating system is released. The revealing of SkyMarket was discovered by a job posting with the following credentials:

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced today that they will be acquiring Greenfield Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRVY) for roughly $486 million. Greenfield Online is an online survey company that collects opinions on products and services.

Greenfield is based in Wilton, Connecticut and also owns Ciao, a price comparison shopping website. Greenfield and Ciao will be integrated into Windows Live Search. Ciao has consumer reviews of books, DVDs, music, gadgets, mortgages, appliances, ISPs, etc. Ciao generates about 26.5 million unique visitors per month.

Microsoft will buy Greenfield through the purchase of all of Greenfield’s shares at $17.50 per share. Greenfield’s current stock price is $17.37 per share. Greenfield’s stock was at about $15.98 right before the announcement.

Greenfield has an Internet survey company that Microsoft intends to sell after the acqusition closes. Microsoft already found an unnamed buyer for the business. This is may have something to do with the news about Microsoft thinking of selling Avenue A/Razorfish to WPP.

Microsoft beat Quadrangle LLC to the acquisition of Greenfield. Quadrangle made an offer to acquire Greenfield at $15.50 per share. Greenfield published a press release stating that:
“Immediately prior to entry into the merger agreement with Microsoft it
had terminated its previously announced merger agreement with
affiliates of Quadrangle Group LLC.”

Greenfield will have to pay $5 million to kill the deal with Quadrangle.

Related Links:
1. Yahoo! Finance
2. Greenfield
3. Ciao

Zune Boards is a forum and blog that is run by 15 year old, Hansup Yoon. Zune Boards is a community site that is dedicated to promoting the news of the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Zune. J. Allard should be proud.

Zune Boards generated about $1,000 per month profit before being sold. The forum has about 60,000 users. The forum was bought for $62,000 by CrowdGather, Inc. CrowdGather is a Woodland Hills, Calif. based community built around forums. To date, CrowdGather has bought over 70 forum sites.

Yoon created the forum a few months before Microsoft introduced the Zune to the market.

“It was the most perfect time to start a Web site about Zune, and I was
one of the first few to create a Zune-related site,” stated Yoon. Yoon built the forum using MyBBoard and then later switched to vBulletin and Joomla. The forum was sold on SitePoint.

“Bidding was getting close to the Buy It Now price, and I didn’t want
to lose (ZuneBoards) over a few thousand dollars,” stated CrowdGather’s
founder, Sanjay Sabnani.

Related Links:
1. ZuneBoards
1. paidContent
2. OC Register

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has invested in Move Networks, Inc. to help support the company’s initiative to develop video technology using Microsoft Silverlight.  The official announcement should be released soon on Microsoft PressPass.

Although it is not known how much was invested by Microsoft, a source claims that it was an add-on investment on a $46 million Series C that closed last summer.   Other investors that participated in Move’s Series C includes Comcast, Cisco Systems, Benchmark Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and Steamboat Ventures.  Move is now valuated at around $150 million.

Related Link:
1. PEHub

WPP Group plc (NASDAQ:WPPGY) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) are currently in talks about the sale of aQuantive’s Avenue A/Razorfish.  When Microsoft acquired aQuantive, Inc. last year for about $6 billion, the software giant company also absorbed the Avenue A/Razorfish subsidiary.

Avenue A/Razorfish has the ad-serving technology that powers WPP’s subsidiary, 24/7 Real Media.  Microsoft is considering exchanging Avenue A/Razorfish to WPP in exchange for access to 24/7’s Open AdStream services and cash.

“There remains a limit to the available talent that can be hired to pursue the rapid increase in interactive marketing-communications programs that customers are demanding,” stated John Prunier, co-founder of Petsky Prunier,  an M&A advisory company.  “In order to meet that need, agency holding companies and other marketing-communications businesses are going to have to acquire businesses/agencies that possess those skills.”

Of all of aQuantive’s subsidiary companies, Avenue A/Razorfish generates 60% of the revenue.  Given aQuantive’s revenue of $345 million over the last year, Avenue A accounted for about $69 million.  And based on the assumption that digital ad agencies are typically valuated at 10 times the amount of their annual revenue, Avenue A becomes worth close to $800 million.  For that price, it does not become worth selling.  This is why Microsoft is considering sharing assets with WPP rather than just cash and stock options.

To make the deal even more complicated, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has a multi-year advertising partnership with 24/7 Real Media.  And Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) also has an advertising partnership with Yahoo!  Throw Microsoft in the mix as a potential 24/7 Real Media partner and that just makes things more interesting for WPP.

Related Link:
1. AdAge

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has a $300 million budget for their advertising budget.  Microsoft signed Jerry Seinfeld as their advertising spokesperson for Windows Vista in a deal worth $10 million.  Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also known for hiring celebrity spokespeople.  When Vista was released, Apple celebrity spokesmen, John Hodgman acted as a PC and Justin Long acted as a Mac to satire Microsoft.

Seinfeld will appear in commercials with Bill Gates.  The slogan of Microsoft’s campaign is “Windows, Not Walls” as a point that Windows is used to help break down wall barriers in connecting with others.  The campaign is set to debut on September 4.  Windows Vista has a negative perception in the media and Microsoft wants to reverse it.

Supposedly Microsoft considered other celebrities such as Will Ferrell and Chris Rock.

Last month Steve Ballmer sent out an e-mail to Microsoft employees.  “In the weeks ahead, we’ll launch a campaign to address any lingering doubts our customers may have about Windows Vista.” Microsoft plans to provide “a more comprehensive effort to redefine the meaning and value of Windows for our customers,” added Ballmer.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky came up with the new advertising campaign.  Microsoft cancelled their deal with McCann Erickson to handle the campaign.  McCann is now working directly the promotion of the XBox.

Related Link:
1. WSJ

As Li Ning was about to rise to the Bird’s Nest during the Olympics opening ceremony, a Windows blue screen appeared.  The blue screen only appeared for a second because a techie switched to the backup immediately.  A Gizmodo commenter confirmed that it indeed happened. 

“CONFIRMED: I found it on my HD DVR recording of the Opening Ceremonies. Angle and color are correct. It’s a blue-white smudge on the ceiling at about 4 hours and 24 minutes into the NBC broadcast version. Right after the torch lighting, they have a shot with some women in red dresses, holding flags. It’s right above the white flag.”

Windows blue screens occures when a kernel or driver runs into an unrecoverable error and requires a power shut-down.  This usually happens when Windows believes an illegal operation took place.  Read more on Wikipedia.

Picture Credit:
1. Gizmodo

Steve Berkowitz announced in Feb. 2008 that he plans to leave Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).  Berkowitz was the SVP of Microsoft’s Online Services Group, responsible for marketing & sales for MSN.com and Windows Live.  Before Berkowitz worked at Microsoft, he was the former CEO of Ask.com.

According to CNET, Berkowitz has joined TheLadders.com, a job search engine with a focus on $100K salaries.

“Steve is an experienced and visionary leader whose proven record of success leading online services makes him an ideal person to join our board,” stated TheLadders.com CEO Marc Cenedella.

Before Berkowitz was the CEO of Ask.com, he was COO and President of IDG Books.  Berkowitz oversaw the expansion of the “Dummies” series books and IDG’s acquisition of CliffNotes, Frommer’s, Betty Crocker Cookbooks, and Lasser’s Tax Guides.  Berkowitz attended State University of New York in Albany.

Related Links:
1. Microsoft PressPass
2. CNET via Yahoo!

In the last 8 months, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has had to deal with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Carl Icahn.  A lot of time and money has been spent figuring out a solution to Microsoft’s unsolicited bid.  Coming up with a solution required spending time with banks and lawyers.

In a filing with the S.E.C., Yahoo! stated that $36 million was spent in the first two quarters of 2008 to hire outside advisers in dealing with Icahn and Microsoft.  A good amount of that cost was most likely paid to Moelis & Company, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH).  Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom was Yahoo!’s team of legal eagles.

According to The New York Times DealBook, the $36 million does not include the fees charged for the 2008 Annual Shareholders meeting on August 1 where Yahoo!’s board persuaded shareholders to vote for keeping the current board.  The $36 million also does not include the “sunk time” and “pure distraction” spent dealing with the situation.

Related Links:
1. paidContent
2. Yahoo! 10-Q filing via SEC

The K Group of Milan, Italy has created a new widget for the Windows Sidebar.  The widgets helps Olympic fans track the number of gold, silver, and bronze medals won by the top 5 countries participating in this year’s Olympic Games.  The screen shot of the widget is shown above.

When clicking on any of the countries in the widget, a new window will open with a link to the medal count on MSN Sports Italy.  Since I spend more time on my computer than in front of the TV with the Olympics on, this widget will help me keep tracking of how the USA is performing.  Number 3 ain’t bad and Michael Phelps is doing a great job representing University of Michigan-Ann Arbor at the Olympics this year.

The widget is available for download at:
http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=62858bc2-6d11-4812-ac11-9ac76e2c2cc4

Related Link:
1. Rob Margel’s blog
2. K Group

DoubleClick, the digital advertising firm that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) bought for $3.1 billion in March 2008 has announced today that they will be powering online media advertisements on NBCOlympics.com.  DoubleClick has the ability to embed ads within the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Silverlight 2 player. 

This feature is called DoubleClick In-Stream.  In-Stream supports Flash, Real Media, and Windows Media player.

“With hundreds of advertisers, multiple platforms and large site traffic spikes, we needed to work with a partner that could provide an integrated, scalable, robust solution,” said Steven Gold, Vice President, Sales Planning and Operations, NBC Universal Digital Media. “Thanks to DoubleClick In-Stream’s new support for Silverlight 2, we are able to monetize our groundbreaking online video coverage on the same platform we already use for display and mobile advertising. This lets our sales and operations teams work together really efficiently.”

Words from Google and Microsoft spokespeople

“Microsoft has always had a strong commitment to working closely with partners and the industry to enable them to leverage our tools and platform to deliver great user experiences. With Silverlight, we’ve extended that commitment to the advertising space,” stated Scott Guthrie, Corporate VP of Microsoft’s .NET Developer Division. “We’re pleased to see the investment DoubleClick has made to enable customers such as NBCOlympics.com to take advantage of Silverlight to offer compelling packages to their advertisers.”

“DoubleClick’s vision is to help publishers grow their revenues by creating great user experiences and providing compelling value to advertisers,” said Google Group Product Manager Ari Paparo. “By expanding the capabilities of DoubleClick In-Stream to work with Silverlight 2, we can make it possible for clients to create unique entertainment and advertising experiences without increasing their workload or creating new complex processes.”

Related Links:
1. Google press release
2. InformationWeek

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Live.com has launched a new homepage.  The new homepage has wallpapers that have designated hot spots that link to relevant and interesting search results.  For example, if the mouse is rolled over certain areas, the following links appear:

1.) Windows Live Maps of Okavango Delta, Botswana
2.) Information on mosquitos will appear when moving the mouse over the plants
3.) Animals in Botswana

“Extensive user research and exploration of many concepts with our customers pointed us in the direction for this design. We want the page to be a great place to start a search and also to intrigue and inform as well,” stated The Live Search team. “We think hotspots will help users discover parts of Live Search they might not know while not distracting from the core purpose of the page — searching.”

I really like this search engine idea.  It gives search more of a cultural and “human experience.”  When visiting the new Live.com, we are immediately exposed to facts that we did not know before.  If Pulse2.com wasn’t my homepage, I would definetely make my new homepage Live.com.

Related Link:
1. Mashable

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) sent their legal eagles after an iPhone application developer.  ModMyiFone user, ebl4287 wrote a post saying “DUE TO A BIG FAT LEGAL LETTER THAT WAS SENT FROM MICROSOFT, I WILL NO LONGER BE MAKING/DISTRIBUTING VISTA THEMES.”  ebl4287 created a Windows Vista emulator theme for the iPhone called VistaPerfection.  ebl4287 was planning on releasing version 3.0.

The emulator’s Windows Gadgets, start menu, task bar, and all the icons matched up with the Microsoft operating system.  The emulator is very impressive.  If I was Microsoft, I’d attempt to hire the developer rather than sending him a cease and desist letter.

On the other side of the table, there have been iPhone OS emulators created for some Windows Mobile powered phones.  I haven’t heard any cases where Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sent cease and desist letters on those developers.  One of the most popular posts I’ve written on Pulse 2.0 is the ability for an HTC Mogul 6800 to look and act like an iPhone.

Related Links:
1. Guardian UK
2. 9to5Mac

In an effort to convince skeptical Vista users that the operating system isn’t that bad, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) conducted a blind taste test experiment called The Mojave Experiment.  The subjects of the experiment was 120 computer users that preferred using Mac, Linux, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.  The 120 subjects were told that they would be able to test out the next Microsoft operating system called Mojave.

Over 90% of the subjects liked Mojave.  Later they found out that Mojave was actually Windows Vista.  The Mojave Experiement will have footage of the experiment on their website next week at: http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/.

If the experiment went so well, why isn’t the consumer version of Vista getting the same type of fanfare?  The subjects were probably not subjected to activities such as having to find drivers, application compatibility, and the much-hated user account controls according to HotHardware.

Another Microsoft marketing experiment conducted last month was called I’m Talkathon.  Microsoft promoted using Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail in the name of philanthrophy with a fake character named Parker Whittle.

Related Links:

1.) Mojave Experiment
2.) HotHardware

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is working on a new project called BrowseRank.  Given the success of the Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) PageRank on the web today, Microsoft is aiming to advance and distinguish an algorithm of their own.

Google PageRank determines the importance of a web page by the number of other web pages that link to it.  Microsoft’s BrowseRank will focus on the number of visits made by users and the amount of time spent on websites.

“The more visits of the page made by the users and the longer time periods spent by the users on the page, the more likely the page is important. We can leverage hundreds of millions of users’ implicit voting on page importance,” stated BrowseRank researchers.

As Microsoft is trailing Google in the market for web search, the company is trying different methods to one-up Google.  Microsoft recently acquired PowerSet, a semantic web search engine company.  Microsoft also just made an agreement with Facebook to have Live Search integrated into the social network.

Microsoft addressed Google PageRank’s shortcomings in a research paper.  The shortcomings were that PageRank has a hard time penalizing spam link farmers and that it doesn’t account for the time spent on a particular website.

Even if Microsoft discovers “a better algorithm,” they will continue to struggle in an uphill battle to take away market-share from Google.  Google users have too much loyalty to switch now.  Until something faster and better comes out, it’ll continue to be that way.  It happened to Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and it’ll eventually happen to Google.  There is some high school kid out there that will build the next latest and greatest search engine in a few years.  Then Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! will be trying to find out ways to take him or her on.  It’s all cyclical.

Related Links:
Google Blog
CNET
Techmeme Discussion