eBay passes on Passport

eBay's decision to stop using Microsoft's Passport service has prompted a raft of stories focusing on the current state of the Redmond company's user authentication and identity system. See coverage by the Associated Press, Reuters, and the Los Angeles Times.

Although the original idea behind Passport was to create something akin to a universal login for many types of sites, the focus has been narrowed more to Microsoft's own sites and to those of its partners. But the company says that shift isn't anything new, and it still plans to pitch the service for use by non-Microsoft sites in situations where it makes sense. Adam Sohn, an MSN director, described the situation this morning as "an evolution of our thinking over the past couple years."

'The iPod Store'

Macworld's Philip Michaels writes about his visits this Christmas season to some Apple Stores in Southern California. Among other things, he observes, "[E]ven after glancing at sales figures and reading news stories, you don’t actually grasp how big a deal the iPod is, until you wander into an Apple Store and watch other customers make a beeline toward the music player."

That observation resonated with me based on a comment I overheard during a visit earlier this week to the Mac Store, an Apple reseller formerly known as the Computer Store, just off the freeway in Seattle's University District. One of the customers asked a salesman if they carried a particular accessory she had seen at "the other iPod store" -- apparently referring to the official Apple Store on the other side of the neighborhood.

Update: This morning's Insider column expands on this subject.

Top 10 lists galore

With 2004 drawing to a close, there are tons of top-10 lists wrapping things up and looking ahead to next year. In addition to research firm Directions on Microsoft's list of Microsoft's top 10 challenges for 2005, there's this list of top 10 resolutions for Microsoft competitors, from Joe Wilcox of Jupiter Research, and PC World's list of the top 10 tech stories of 2004, including the Sun-Microsoft settlement and the Redmond company's European Union antitrust case.

Microsoft and Take-Two

A story in today's Wall Street Journal, on the prospect of consolidation in the video-game industry, includes this interesting piece of speculation toward the end:

Microsoft will come under increasing pressure to fill in the dearth of games as it prepares its next-generation Xbox for sale late next year. One possible target would be Take-Two, the maker of the blockbuster "Grand Theft Auto" series, whose newest versions appear first on Sony's PlayStation 2 game console before they are made available on other machines. ... With a market capitalization of $1.54 billion, Take-Two is valued more highly than many investors think Microsoft would be willing to pay for a game maker. But with "Grand Theft Auto" under its own roof, Microsoft could have one of best-selling games of all time for its Xbox and pull the rug from beneath its chief rival, Sony, which has a market capitalization of about $35 billion.

Don't know whether this supports or undermines that theory, but you may recall that Take-Two is the same company to which Microsoft recently sold its sports video-game development studio, Utah-based Indie Built.

More on EU decision

Excerpts from some of the coverage and commentary following Wednesday's European court decision requiring Microsoft to, among other things, offer a version of Windows in Europe without Windows Media Player pre-installed:

• Bloomberg News: "This is a very serious setback for Microsoft,'' Nicholas Economides, an economics professor at New York University, said in an interview. "It's the first time that a court has told them what they can and can't include in Windows. It's like telling General Motors what features it should have in their cars.''

• BusinessWeek Online, Jay Greene: "[T]he ruling's real damage is far more subtle. Microsoft had hoped that it would win a modest point, a setback for the European Commission that would bring it back to the negotiating table. But its victory was so sweeping that the EC has little impetus to resume talks. And that means Microsoft will continue to slog this case out in court." (Link via Watching Microsoft Like a Hawk)

• The Times (U.K.): Industry observers said the likelihood of talks with European regulators was questionable. Philip Carnelley, a director of Ovum EuroView, the technology research group, said: "Microsoft’s hope that it could negotiate a settlement with the EU is clearly now unrealistic."

• Boston Globe: "Right decision, wrong continent," said [Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas] Reilly. "But with the markets as fluid as they are, it might work out anyway. It's going to be very difficult for them to keep these unbundled versions off the American shelves in the long term. Somehow, some way, they will get here."

• Financial Times: [Judge Bo] Vesterdorf's decision is likely to boost the European Union's top antitrust office, which had staked much of its reputation on the fierce six-year battle with Microsoft.

• CNet News.com: The European Union ruled on Wednesday that Microsoft must make Windows Server protocols available for license, but competitors showed little initial interest in the program. ... [Linux vendor] Mandrakesoft CEO Francois Bancilhon said he would rather "die than purchase a Microsoft license." Instead, the company will work on interoperability with Microsoft software through existing standards efforts.

• eWeek, David Coursey: "It would be interesting to see an analysis of how the outcome would have been different if the Department of Justice's case against Microsoft could have been tried in the EU courts. Or merely if Microsoft had done business while taking such a prospect into account. The kinder-and-gentler Microsoft we're seeing as of late may be a reflection of this and of the increased importance of non-American legal systems."

• Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research research director, explains "why product integration is so important to Microsoft." On the Microsoft Monitor weblog, Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox adds, "Microsoft appears to be accelerating the amount of integration at just about every technology and product level."

• Technology Pundits, Rob Enderle: "The long term problem for Microsoft is the increased introduction of government oversight and direction into their development process. This could block them from adding additional features to the product in the future and some of these, like virus checking and anti-spyware, could be critical to the continued reliability and security of the product."

• NPR, Chris Arnold: "The case is a reminder of the growing power of the EU, which most Americans probably think of as little more than a curiosity involving a new currency. In fact, with 25 member countries and 450 million people, the EU courts now can make trade rulings affecting a huge area."

Microsoft's 'frat house'

BusinessWeek magazine profiles Bungie Studios, the internal Microsoft video-game development group best known for the Xbox game "Halo" and its best-selling sequel.

MSN Search and antitrust

First Internet Explorer, now Windows Media Player. Will Microsoft's next big bundling battle with antitrust enforcers revolve around the incorporation of MSN Search features into future Windows versions? This internetnews.com article says no:

Microsoft is developing its next-generation Windows, code-named Longhorn, and, in parallel, a new file system, WinFS, that will allow users to easily search for all kinds of files -- as the desktop search tool does. The company hopes to avoid the Media Player's [antitrust] problems with MSN search, [product manager Justin] Osmer said. "It's not our intention to have the toolbar suite preinstalled on anything," he said. It will remain something that users must download separately. Neither will there be a pre-installed product in the browser or desktop flagged as MSN Search.

Microsoft 2005 challenges

Here are Microsoft's top ten challenges for 2005, as assessed by Kirkland-based research firm Directions on Microsoft and republished by silicon.com.

EU court keeps penalties

The European Union Court of First Instance this morning denied Microsoft's request to suspend the landmark EU antitrust ruling pending the outcome of the company's appeal. The court (download pdf of news release) said its president, Bo Vesterdorf, found that Microsoft "has not shown that it might suffer serious and irreparable damage as a result of implementation of the contested decision."

See this page on the court's Web site for a link to the full text of the ruling.

Microsoft's initial statement says, in part, "While the Court did not find immediate irreparable harm from the Commission’s proposed remedies, the Court recognized that some of our arguments on the merits of the case are well-founded and may ultimately carry the day when the substantive issues are resolved in the full appeal."

The company's statement reiterates its desire to reach a settlement with the European Commission but says Microsoft is prepared to comply with the court order. That would mean, among other things, selling a version of Windows in Europe without Windows Media Player.

See coverage by the Associated Press, Reuters, and CNet News.com.

Update, 8:30 a.m. Here's a transcript of Microsoft's European news conference call, and a statement from the Computer & Communications Industry Association. See also the statement below from RealNetworks:

"The Court’s denial of Microsoft’s attempt to continue the unlawful conduct condemned by the European Commission is a victory for the Commission and consumers. By allowing the Commission’s remedy to take effect, the Court has taken an important step toward promoting robust competition in digital media, fostering technological innovation and giving consumers real choice. RealNetworks will continue to cooperate with the Commission’s efforts to stop Microsoft’s unlawful attempt to control how music, movies and other digital content will be delivered in the future.

"RealNetworks will vigorously pursue our case in the U.S. to obtain injunctive relief against Microsoft that will lead to similar freedom of choice for consumers everywhere. In the meantime, we will continue to compete against Microsoft’s products by innovating, diversifying our business and giving consumers and businesses genuine choices in digital media."

Update, 11:20 a.m. See the video of the European Commission press conference on the decision via this page. (Find and click on the 12h17'35' label on the left of the screen.)

Awaiting the EU ruling ...

With a critical ruling in Microsoft's European antitrust case expected in a matter of hours, Mary Jo Foley of Microsoft Watch opines that unbundling Windows Media Player from the Windows operating system "just might be the bitter pill Microsoft needs." She draws parallels to the Internet Explorer case and asks her readers, "Would Microsoft become more of an innovator again if it were forced to compete on the merits of its technologies, rather than on the spoils of its monopoly?"

The ruling from the European Court of First Instance is expected early Wednesday morning, Pacific time. (See this earlier post for more backround and links.) Microsoft is asking the court to suspend key elements of the European Commission's antitrust ruling, including the provision requiring the company to sell a version of Windows in Europe that doesn't come with Windows Media Player pre-installed.

Slate's prospects at Post

Financially, under Microsoft, the Slate online magazine has struggled to move past the break-even point. But the Washington Post Co., which earlier today announced a deal to buy Slate, could be in a better position to get it further into the black. Here's what Microsoft's Scott Moore, general manager of the MSN Network Experience, had to say on that subject when I spoke with him earlier today:

"MSN has evolved its content strategy to be more focused on the really large categories of information that people are interested in on the Web. Slate is obviously a bit more of a niche category. ... One of the reasons that we did think a sale would be good for Slate was that MSN is having tremendous growth in our online ad business, but Slate is a particular kind of sale that we're just not geared to excel at right now. We feel like there’s a lot of untapped potential, revenue-wise, that the Washington Post will be well-suited to take advantage of. ...

"If you thought of Slate as a magazine it might be similar to the New Yorker. That's a very different ad sale than say, Time magazine or Newsweek or People or some other mass-market publication. Our sales staff and our distribution means are really geared for that more mass market, both in terms of the audience generation and particularly in terms of ad sales."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Slate editor Jacob Weisberg told the Associated Press that the amount was "a very respectable, impressive price."

EU decision this week

A court decision is expected Wednesday on Microsoft's request to suspend the European Commission's antitrust ruling pending the outcome of the company's broader appeal. Business Week calls it the tech sector's "most closely watched court ruling since U.S. Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the breakup of Microsoft" more than four years ago. The Financial Times explains one of the reasons it's so anticipated:

In principle, Bo Vesterdorf, the president of the European Court of First Instance, only has to rule whether the sanctions would cause irreparable harm to the company should Microsoft win its appeal against the Commission ruling four or five years down the line. But he is also expected to give a preliminary examination of the merits of Brussels' case against the company, which it built up in an investigation lasting more than five years.

See additional coverage by Reuters and the Associated Press.

A Microsoft holiday poem

Microsoft's Chris Anderson and Don Box have penned "'Twas the Year Before Longhorn," the classic Christmas poem adapted to focus on the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn.

Microsoft platforms chief Jim Allchin stars as "St. Jim," who is referenced in the stanza below, along with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. (By way of translation, a PUM at Microsoft is a product unit manager, and WinFS is the delayed Longhorn file system.):

And then, with a reorg, there came such a hum,

The prancing and pawing of each newly coined PUM.

As I checked in my code, and was running my suites,

A new ship date, St. Jim, says we all now must meet.

He had scenarios, experiences, and use cases few,

For the home user, aye, but MBAs too;

A bundle of features he had thrown off the list,

Just the basics, my boy, lest our ship date get missed.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

And SteveB was pleased with our revenues less airy!

With heads down we code on our features now prime

To WinFS, yes, but perhaps not this time.

Anti-spyware deal

Microsoft this morning announced the acquisition of a New York-based anti-spyware company, Giant Company Software Inc. Microsoft said it plans to offer a preliminary version of an anti-spyware program, based on Giant's technology, within the next month. The deal raises new questions about Microsoft's long-term plans in the security software market, particularly in the context of its earlier purchase of anti-virus technology from a Romanian company, GeCAD Software Srl.

See coverage by Mary Jo Foley, Joe Wilcox, Paul Thurrott, Reuters, and CNet News.com.

'Find anything, anywhere'

Following up on the earlier discussion about MSN's desktop search tool and Apple's Spotlight technology, an alert Neowin reader (among others) points out that the real similarity is between the MSN Desktop Search and Apple Spotlight marketing mottos. In fact, but for a slight change in punctuation, they're exactly the same. (See the images below.)

Not to revisit yesterday's debate, but it's at least clear in this case that Apple has been using the line -- or some close approximation -- since unveiling the Spotlight technology in June. (See the quote in this post, for example.) The MSN Toolbar Suite and desktop search program debuted this week.

Update: Turns out it's not the most original motto in the world. This yellow pages Web site applied for a trademark that would have included the same phrase a few years back (image below) although its application has since been suspended.

Pocket change for Gates

Whatever Bill Gates' reasons for joining his friend Warren Buffett on the Berkshire Hathaway board, rest assured it wasn't the money.

Here's the compensation the world's richest man can expect in his new role. According to its proxy statement, Berkshire Hathaway's directors receive "a fee of $900 for each meeting attended in person and $300 for participating in any meeting conducted by telephone," in addition to reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses related to attending meetings, and an extra $1,000 quarterly for directors on the audit committee.

By comparison, according to Microsoft's proxy statement, directors other than Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer received the following compensation in fiscal 2004:

• An annual retainer of $50,000
  
• An additional annual retainer of $10,000 for each board committee chair
  
• A fee of $1,000 per meeting for attendance at special meetings of board committees
  
• A stock award grant for 4,000 shares, vesting over 5 years

As noted previously, Gates received $901,667 in executive salary and bonus last fiscal year. He and Ballmer receive no compensation, except reimbursement of expenses, for their roles as directors.

MSN vs. Apple 'Spotlight'

For purposes of comparison, many people are sizing up MSN's new desktop search program and toolbar suite against Google's previously released desktop search program. But a Macintosh convert, Eric Longstaff, points out the similarities between MSN's new program and "Spotlight," the desktop search feature that Apple plans to incorporate into Tiger, the next version of the Mac OS X operating system. The MSN tool is "a ripoff," he writes.

Actually, it's the other way around, insists one Windows-related publication. On the Windows SuperSite, in the intro to a glowing review of the new MSN software, Paul Thurrott asserts that Apple and Google were inspired to pursue their own desktop search strategies after seeing Bill Gates demonstrate the desktop search features the company was planning for Longhorn, the frequently delayed next version of Windows.

"[S]ince announcing its Longhorn desktop search intentions, Microsoft's worst fears were realized," Thurrott writes. "Other companies began copying the Microsoft desktop search strategy, knowing that the never-ending Longhorn delays would help them get to market sooner and appear to be nimbler and even more innovative, though it's sort of astonishing how transparent that latter claim is. Chief among these competitors are Apple and Google."

He calls the Spotlight feature "a rough subset of the desktop search features Gates discussed in late 2003, but presented to the user with Apple's standard graphical excellence."

There's probably no hope of settling this disagreement. But regardless of who is copying whom, or whether anyone is copying anyone, there are clearly some common elements between the two tools, at least conceptually, particularly when you look at the desktop toolbar features. For example, compare publicity shots of the MSN desktop toolbar, above, and the planned Apple Spotlight search function, below.

Gates on Google

Steven Levy in the latest edition of Newsweek:

"Bill Gates has a Google thing. When I asked him about the search competition last summer, he turned on the sarcasm. 'We'll never be as cool as them. Every conference you go to, there they are dressed in black, and no one is cooler!' Clearly Gates's dander was up, not only because the Google upstarts were eating his lunch, but they were press darlings as well. Behind the rant was a taunting subtext: watch me. Bill, you see, had been busy figuring how to get his lunch back."

(Link via John Battelle)

Lawsuit target speaks out

The Triangle Business Journal in North Carolina has the story of one of the companies sued by Microsoft two weeks ago over allegedly counterfeit certificates of authenticity, commonly known as COA labels. The company, Warp Systems/Computers, insists it did nothing wrong and says the suit could put it out of business. Microsoft said when it filed the suits that each of the eight defendants continued trading in the counterfeit labels even after being asked to stop.

MSN desktop search

Microsoft announced a preview version of its new MSN Desktop Search program this morning, during a conference call with reporters. The program comes with a suite of MSN toolbars for the Windows desktop, Windows Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, and Internet Explorer, as originally predicted by Neowin last month. The free download is available here.

Today's Microsoft Notebook explores the broader strategy behind the approach. The MSN offering will compete with an existing desktop search program from Google, and an upcoming one from Yahoo. More details to come.

Update: Here's the MSN news release. Microsoft's Channel 9 site has video interviews with the MSN Toolbar Suite development teams in Silicon Valley and Redmond. And here's the related post on the MSN Search weblog.

Update II: Some commentary and coverage from around the Web:

• Charlene Li, Forrester Research: "Overall, I found MSN’s desktop search to be fast and complete, if somewhat complex to manage."

• CNet News.com: "For search companies such as MSN, Yahoo and Google, the desktop could also eventually become a venue for delivering contextual or personalized advertising. Christopher Payne, a vice president at MSN, said the company will not immediately display ads on the desktop, but if people perform a Web search, it will deliver sponsored search ads."

• Joe Wilcox, Jupiter Research: "The new MSN desktop search utility feels like Microsoft cobbled together three disparate technologies, sort of a Swiss Army Knife, that don't function as smoothly as they could -- or should."

• Search Engine Watch: "Microsoft has launched its long anticipated desktop search application, and it's packed with promising features and tools that make it a strong contender coming out the gate."

Update III: Meanwhile, Google announced its own new initiative this evening, and it's a big one. From Tuesday's New York Times: "Google is Adding Major Libraries to its Database." John Battelle also comments on the effort, calling it "truly an amazing project."

Yahoo desktop search

News tonight in the desktop search arena: Yahoo announced plans to release a preview version of its desktop search program, a free tool for searching computer hard drives, in early January. Yahoo's program, based on technology from hard-drive search company X1 Technologies, will compete with an existing desktop search program launched by Google in October.

Next up: Microsoft's MSN division plans to unveil its own desktop search program sometime this month. Neowin last month offered an apparent preview of that MSN service, with leaked screenshots and other details. (Microsoft didn't confirm or deny the report.)

Those three companies won't be the only players in the desktop-search area. For example, in writing about the Yahoo announcement, John Battelle notes that the search company Ask plans to launch its own desktop search program next week.

On the Yahoo desktop-search news, here's a slide that the company sent reporters outlining the areas where it considers its service better than others. Additional coverage: Financial Times, CNet News.com, the Associated Press and the Washington Post.

More on security issues

Walter Mossberg takes an overarching look at computer security and usability issues in his Personal Technology column in today's Wall Street Journal. The column is almost a state-of-the-union address for the personal-computer industry. A key passage:

Obviously, we've come a long way since 1991. Personal computers, software and peripherals are much more stable and far simpler to operate. New products, like digital cameras, PDAs and music players, have come along as welcome additions, often integrating with computers.

But for the vast part of the public whose computers aren't bought and deployed by corporate computer departments, things have gotten much worse lately. For these consumers and small businesses, the burden of using personal computers has grown dramatically heavier in the past couple of years because of the plague of viruses, spyware and other security problems that now afflict the dominant Windows platform.

Security news and notes

• Salt Lake Tribune: "If Rich Kaplan had his way, 2004 would be seen as the year Microsoft began to reverse its reputation for poorly secured operating systems and servers."

• Ottawa Business Journal: "Faced with a growing number of viruses hitting his network, small businessman Ralph Piche decided to switch to a Linux-based operating system for his desktop, rather than upgrade to the latest Windows offering. By doing so, the president of Webcrew.ca joined a growing number of users looking to a Linux-based platform as an alternative to the Microsoft gorilla. 'I haven't experienced a virus in about a year and that's one of the potential downsides that I simply don't worry about anymore,' said Mr. Piche."

• Microsoft is one of the companies involved in a new anti-phishing group, along with the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Secret Service, among others.

• eWeek: "In the year since Microsoft Corp. made its controversial decision to begin releasing patches on a monthly basis, the policy has had a profound effect on enterprise security—changing forever the way companies deploy updates and helping to hasten the end of the manual patching process."

• Reuters: "Netsky worm was worst virus of year."

• Silicon.com: "2005: The year of the security professional"

On a related note, I've been talking lately with a reader who says it's no longer possible to prevent a message from downloading in preview mode when accessing her Hotmail account via Outlook Express.

The concern is that this could allow malicious code or script in the e-mail to run unchecked on her computer. Her attempts to work with Microsoft product support to reactivate the feature that blocks the download have been unsuccessful. (Deselecting the automatic download option doesn't work for her anymore.) I'm curious: Has anyone else encountered this problem?

More on Ken Jennings

Turns out that his new role as Encarta spokesman wasn't the only Microsoft job potentially available to Ken Jennings, the all time "Jeopardy!" champ. Gretchen Ledgard, one of the recruiters who writes the Technical Careers @ Microsoft weblog, notes that, a few months ago, she e-mailed Jennings, a software developer from Utah, about the possibility of working as a software development engineer for the company. She never heard back. She writes on the blog:

I don’t blame him … being a spokesman for a product is probably a cool job. But wouldn’t he get even more satisfaction from actually developing the product … not just talking about it? :)

Eolas hearing this week

IDG News Service sets the stage for a court hearing to be held this Thursday to consider Microsoft's appeal of a $520 million verdict in the Internet Explorer patent-infringement case brought by Eolas Technologies.

Q&A with Xbox boss

Business Week has a Q&A with Microsoft's chief Xbox officer, Robbie Bach, on the company's broad consumer-electronics strategy, including some vague references to how the next generation of the Microsoft game console will fit into it.

MSN eyes social selling

Microsoft employees, plus invited family and friends, have a closed, online marketplace called MicroNews Ads where they can buy and sell items amongst themselves. (See this Wired News story from last year for more background.) Now, it looks like MSN is prepping a service for its users based on a somewhat similar concept.

Neowin reports on a series of upcoming MSN services and features, including one reportedly called Messenger Marketplace, for buying and selling within a social network. Neowin says it will be "like eBay except with people that you already know and trust directly (or a few degrees out)."

Encarta taps quiz champ

Ken Jennings, the recently dethroned all-time "Jeopardy!" champion, will be a spokesman for the Microsoft Encarta Reference Library. (This was noted in some of the coverage of his loss last week but formally announced today.) In this Q&A with Jennings on the Microsoft site, he credits Encarta with helping him prep for his unprecedented game-show run.

BetaNews (via Mary Jo Foley) has additional details.

More on 'Halo' and Excel

The "Halo 2" Excel Workbook, detailed in today's Microsoft Notebook, appears to be one of the first -- if not the first -- Excel spreadsheet to use the built-in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) capabilities of the Microsoft spreadsheet program for the specific purpose of bringing in data contained in RSS feeds. It's unusual because RSS feeds are a form of XML typically used by news sites and weblogs to send out data streams containing headlines and content. It's much less common for RSS feeds to include the kind of data that would warrant bringing the feeds into a spreadsheet. (See one Excel expert's take on the "Halo 2" RSS Excel application here.)

Sam Radakovitz, who created the application, explained that it goes through some parsing behind-the-scenes to separate the raw game statistics from the html code that's included in the RSS feeds. That html code is there for the benefit of the newsreading programs in which the feeds were originally meant to be viewed. Radakovitz has talked with people at Bungie Studios about the possibility of offering additional data streams in pure XML, eliminating the need for that additional parsing in the "Halo 2" Excel application.

In the meantime, after playing some "Halo 2" over the weekend, I had more of a chance to analyze my own stats in the spreadsheet. I ended up agreeing with Microsoft's Sean Alexander on one point: For me, it's basically a way to more fully comprehend how bad I am at the game.

I hesitate to do this, but putting my shame aside in the interest of illustration, here's a basic summary of my results from a few days' worth of Rumble Slayer, a type of "Halo 2" game that pits you against up to seven other players. If nothing else, if you play the game, this is sure to make you feel better about your own stats. Note especially my kill-to-death ratio: I'm dying more than twice as often as I'm killing someone else. Sheesh! Seriously, I'd challenge anyone out there to come up with stats worse than these.

Sun deal: Reality check

Despite last week's effort by Sun Microsystems and Microsoft to show the ways they're working together, corporate IT managers don't have big expectations from the collaboration, ComputerWorld reports.

More 'Spaces' reaction

Since most people using the MSN Spaces service are are just getting their weblogs up and running, it's not easy to tell what a full-fledged blog on the site will look like. But here's one example. The blog is by Microsoft's Mike Torres, a member of the MSN Spaces team. (Link via Robert Scoble.)

Meanwhile, Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox of Microsoft Monitor calls the preliminary MSN Spaces release "the glitchiest public beta I have seen from Microsoft, even worse than the recent MSN Search test." He describes some of the problems he and others encountered while using the service on its first day.

Despite some negatives, some people say they are liking MSN Spaces enough to seriously consider switching their blogs from other services, such as Google's Blogger.com.

And finally, the BoingBoing weblog explores Microsoft's apparent effort to automatically censor certain off-color language from MSN Spaces titles. Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor says the move will make Microsoft "an object of derision in the blogosphere." He adds, "Better to do it right, and let people say what they want to say."

MSN Spaces reaction

Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble has an exhaustive roundup of the reaction to the new MSN Spaces Web publishing and blogging tool, plus a link to a video interview of the MSN Spaces development team on Microsoft's Channel 9 site. Scoble's own reaction is that he isn't inclined to switch to MSN Spaces from his existing blog software, Radio UserLand. He offers a list detailing the limitations of MSN Spaces, starting with the fact that he wouldn't be able to completely customize his Spaces site by adjusting the underlying code.

I explored that topic a little bit in our story this morning. In fact, MSN executives make exactly the point that Scoble makes, but they point out the upside. They say the service isn't meant to appeal to the relatively small number of technically oriented people already enthused about blogging -- but it is meant for everyone else. During a briefing with MSN executives earlier this week, I asked about the reaction from Microsoft employee bloggers who had seen previews of the service. They acknowledged that those employees offered, ahem, "a lot of feedback."

"This isn't for them," said Blake Irving, MSN corporate vice president. "Those are folks that are going to be using existing services. ... But to actually produce something that everyone can use, where they can't get themselves into trouble [technically], but can have almost the same amount of power -- not the same amount of flexibility, but the same amount of publishing power -- is a coup for users. Users are going to go crazy for this kind of thing."

At the same time, Irving made it clear that this is just the first version, and a beta at that. For example, I asked whether someone could go beyond the provided templates and use a photo to personalize the background of an MSN Spaces site. "Not yet," he said, suggesting that it may be possible in the future.

Joe Wilcox of Jupiter Research also weighs in on this topic on the Microsoft Monitor blog.

I've been trying out MSN Spaces a little bit this morning just to see how it works. It is relatively simple. Here's my space. So far I've posted links to a few of my favorite Web sites, plus a slide show of some photos I've taken around the Seattle region.

WSJ on PMCs

Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walter Mossberg offers a critical review of the initial Portable Media Centers, audio/video devices that run Microsoft software. Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research analyzes Mossberg's review and offers an alternate take in this post. (Via Joe Wilcox on Microsoft Monitor).

Prediction: Xbox 2 in '05

Research firm In-Stat/MDR: "The first next-generation console should hit the market in the fourth quarter of 2005 with the introduction of Microsoft’s Xbox 2. Sony, however, is not likely to give Microsoft too much lead-time before launching its PS3 console, which should occur by mid-2006. Nintendo will try to launch its next-generation GameCube 2 console either before, or simultaneously with Sony, which Nintendo considers to be its primary competition."

(Link via the Unofficial Xbox 2 Weblog.)

Microsoft, Sun and Nixon

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems will hold a conference call this afternoon to give an update on how they're working together following their antitrust settlement and cross-licensing agreement earlier this year. The San Francisco Chronicle set the stage and reported some interesting details in this profile yesterday of Greg Papadopoulos, Sun's chief technology officer. The story includes this quote from Papadopoulos on what it's like to be a Sun executive working in cooperation with Bill Gates:

"It feels a bit like Nixon going to China," he said.

Update: Here's a transcript of the conference call and an outline of the progress the companies reported.

Mario's worst nightmare

KUOW Seattle's Tuesday evening business/politics program, "The Works," had an entertaining interview last night with Steven L. Kent, author of "The Ultimate History of Video Games" and a video-game reviewer for newspapers including this one. You can access the full online audio here. The discussion ranged from next-generation consoles to violence in new games such as "Halo 2" for Microsoft's Xbox and "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" for Sony's PlayStation 2.

About that latter game, program host John Moe observed, "This is not like 'Frogger' and 'Asteroids.' This is much harsher reality."

"Yeah," Kent agreed, chuckling. "I don't think Mario even has nightmares like 'Grand Theft Auto'."

Translating Ballmer, again

New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, posting on his new weblog about Microsoft's Steve Ballmer: "Someone get this man a public-speaking coach, will you?"

Microsoft and antivirus

Forbes.com: Credit Suisse First Boston said McAfee expects Microsoft to enter the consumer antivirus market in mid-2005. McAfee has a relationship with the software giant for MSN 9.0, but Microsoft has not contacted the company in regards to extending the relationship to MSN 10.0, CSFB said. McAfee believes that Microsoft could use MSN as its first channel to address the consumer market, the research firm said. (Via Watching Microsoft Like a Hawk.)

Background from the P-I archives:

• June 2003: Microsoft acquires antivirus technology
  
• March 2004: Microsoft is new player in security market
  
• April 2004: Microsoft feels pressure of antivirus issue