Live in Europe

Announcing our new European Search Technology Centre!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:36:41 GMT

Last week in Cannes we announced the of a new Search Technology Centre – a dedicated engineering resource in Europe. This is great news in terms of really accelerating the development of our Live Search products and business across EMEA. It has not yet been decided exactly where the main centre will be and there are several candidates, but there is likely to be a hub in a major European city with several smaller spokes including major markets such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

This is really great news for our Live Search business in Europe. Search is definitely a local business with users having different expectations and experiences wherever they are in the world. Having a centre in Europe will allow us to embed the product more deeply in the local cultures, innovate more quickly and give Live Search customers an even more relevant and differentiated search experience. Having a Centre here will also help in the competition to attract the best engineering talent to the business by more easily tapping into the wealth of expertise in the region as well as bringing over some of our best Microsoft minds from Redmond The Centre is based on the STC in China which opened in 2005 and has really allowed them to make rapid progress in the Asian product. From our perspective the announcement of the Search Technology Centre is also another great indication of Microsoft’s long-term commitment and investment in Europe and in disrupting the Search and advertising business – as per the US Live Search Cashback announcement a few weeks ago.

- Peter Maxmin (Search & MSN)

Photo Of Europe

Wed, 21 May 2008 16:58:08 GMT

Explore different views of Europe with our online contest “Photo of Europe”!

For all you budding photographers out there, we are running an online competition for the best panoramic picture in Europe. Panoramas are not only about landscapes, they can also depict cityscapes, group shots and abstracts. So get your imagination going and show everyone a view of Europe they’ve never seen before. Besides, with the help of Windows Live Photo Gallery, creating great panoramic images just got easier – download it for free and see for yourself. If you don’t have pictures to share, but simply love photography, why not check out our online gallery. “Photo of Europe” is now live in Belgium (NL & FR), Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

- Era McCormack (Marketing Executive)

Microsoft Switches on Messenger TV

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:47:37 GMT

The following is the official press release for Messenger TV:

Premium Video on demand now available through Windows Live Messenger

London 12th MAY 2008. Microsoft today launches Messenger TV, a European innovation that brings together two of the most popular activities online – watching videos and chatting on Windows Live Messenger. As Messenger TV launches, Microsoft also announces new video content agreements in the UK with Channel 4 and EMI along with the signing of European advertisers including Twentieth Century Fox and Pepsi.

The new service will enable hundreds of millions of Windows Live Messenger customers to choose from an ever-growing range of premium content from MSN Video and watch it at the same time as their friends through Windows Live Messenger, all whilst being able to chat as part of their instant messaging conversation.

John Mangelaars, Vice-President, EMEA, Consumer and Online, Microsoft, said, "Online video has exploded in popularity over the last year, but to date it has been something people watch on their own. Messenger TV is set to change all that. Watching video online can now be a social experience, as people watch videos together, make comments and share reactions – all over Windows Live Messenger."

According to ComScore Video Metrix, watching videos is now the third most popular online activity behind search and shopping. Jack Flanagan, Executive Vice President, ComScore, said, "In the past year, the emergence of online videos has exploded throughout Europe. In the UK alone, over 87% of the online population accounted for nearly 10 billion minutes.

"By bringing together the interactivity of messenger usage with the ability to view videos online with other people and interact while this occurs, creates a new best of breed application. The launch of Messenger TV harnesses the power of social connectivity and interaction into a new state of the art application that is likely to resonate very strongly in the online world for media companies, advertisers and consumers."

Video usage figures are comparable in European markets, where watching online video attracts 84% of the online population in France and 81% in Germany.

Compelling Content
Messenger TV users can choose content from the entire MSN Video channel. Viewers can enjoy some of the most popular content on the web from MTV shows such as ‘Pimp My Ride' and ‘Punk'd' to a wide selection of videos and exclusive footage from Sony BMG's vast roster of superstar and emerging artists.

Gideon Bierer, MTVNI, Digital Media, SVP, said, "We are always looking for new ways to deliver our content, whenever and wherever our audience wants to be. With hundreds of millions of users worldwide, Windows Live Messenger is a great opportunity, and MSN and MTV are a great partnership. Our content – short-form, animation, comedy and music-orientated – is perfectly suited for MSN's audience while our brands are helping drive audiences to MSN's video sites."

Celebrating the launch of Messenger TV, Microsoft is also announcing content partnerships with Channel 4 and EMI to provide new video content on MSN Video in the UK. Content from Channel 4 includes clips of Skins, Peep Show and How to Look Good Naked amongst others. Content from EMI will include music videos from across all of EMI's frontline labels as well as its extensive back catalogue. Music fans will be able to check out the likes of Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" and Kylie's "In My Arms," as well as iconic music videos from Queen, Radiohead and Blur.

John Mangelaars, Vice-President, EMEA, Consumer and Online, Microsoft, said, "Our vision for MSN is to provide what we call the social portal, combining content that informs and entertains with Windows Live services such as Windows Live Messenger, which foster community and engagement. Video is a key part of this strategy and we continue to forge strong alliances with leading publishers and content owners."

Advertiser Opportunities
Messenger TV opens up a range of exciting new opportunities for advertisers, who can now reach their target audience via this pioneering social media platform, seamlessly integrating their brand into Windows Live Messenger conversations. Already, big brand advertisers including Pepsi, Twentieth Century Fox and Mazda have signed up to run campaigns on Messenger TV in European markets.

Bettina Sherick, Vice President of Digital Marketing for Twentieth Century Fox International said, "We are always looking for innovative ways to reach entertainment consumers who are actively watching video online. Messenger TV speaks to that need. We are confident that the combination of premium video content and the highly engaged Windows Live Messenger audience will help deliver a high impact advertising campaign to promote the latest M. Night Shyamalan film, ‘The Happening'. We are delighted to be the first brand to advertise on Messenger TV across multiple countries. We believe Messenger TV combines the best of online content with consumer conversation, creating a very attractive brand proposition."

Using Messenger TV is easy:

Ensure your browser language is set to your country
Start a regular text chat in Windows Live Messenger with a friend
Start Messenger TV from the list of activities within Windows Live Messenger
Browse the library of content on MSN Video
Choose your favourite clips and create a playlist from the vast selection of news, music, movie trailers, celebrity gossip and much more.

About MSN Video
MSN Video player provides an extensive array of videos, from breaking news to the latest in entertainment such as movie trailers and celebrity interviews and sports action. MSN video also offers user-generated content via its Soapbox service. The player features a split screen format that allows viewers to search for the next video to watch while concurrently watching a video.

About MSN and Windows Live
MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. With localised versions available globally in 42 markets including 18 in EMEA. MSN is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide. Windows Live™, a comprehensive set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

About Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)
Microsoft has operated in EMEA since 1982. In the region Microsoft employs more than 16,000 people in over 64 subsidiaries, delivering products and services in more than 139 countries and territories.

#########

This material is for informational purposes only. Microsoft Corp disclaims all warranties and conditions with regard to use of the material for other purposes. Microsoft Corp shall not, at any time, be liable for any special, direct, indirect or consequential damages, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the material. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any kind of warranty.

- Brian Groth (Windows Live product manager)

Announcing Messenger TV for Windows Live Messenger

Mon, 12 May 2008 18:51:16 GMT

Microsoft’s consumer and online division in Europe is excited to announce the official release of Messenger TV to 21 countries (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom).

While the European team created Messenger TV, it has been a world-wide effort to build. Working with Microsoft teams around the world, we have shared the efforts to design, develop, test, localise, host, market, and sell ads for Messenger TV. Not only did the European team build it, but the idea initially came from Italy who created an early version last year and was the motivation that got the rest of Microsoft excited by the possibilities of using MSN Video content within Windows Live Messenger.

With Messenger TV, we are bringing two of the most popular activities online – watching videos and chatting on IM. This new service lets you watch MSN Videos with a friend as you have live text conversations about the videos you are watching together. Similar to watching television with your friends, you can watch videos and chat about them as you both see the same video at the same time. But the best way to understand Messenger TV is to visit http://MessengerTV.msn.com or to start the activity while chatting to a friend in Windows Live Messenger. With Messenger TV, you can select any of the videos that are available from MSN Video, build your playlist, and watch the videos with a friend.

With Messenger TV, you can also:

1. Blog about the videos you see and like by clicking the “Blog to Spaces” button. Clicking this opens your browser with your Windows Live Spaces blog already written, complete with a thumbnail of the video and a link to watch it so all you have to do is click “publish” from within Spaces to share the video with your friends and family who visit your Spaces site.

2. Send e-mail to offline friends with links to the videos you see and like by clicking the “Email Video” button. Clicking this creates a new e-mail in your default e-mail client, such as Windows Live Mail, with a link to the video so all you have to do is click “send” to share the video with your friends and family.

3. Search for other videos to watch online by entering a word or two in the “Search for videos online” box. The search results open in your browser with search results displayed on http://video.msn.com where you can continue watching videos that are found as a result of your search.

Not only is Messenger TV a fun experience for consumers, but it is a great example of software+services. On the desktop, it uses the peer-to-peer capabilities of Windows Live Messenger that runs on your Windows PC so you and a friend can watch videos together. In other words, it uses web services to configure Messenger TV and to stream videos from our MSN Video servers to each client.

I believe we can build a highly competitive business around online video by providing premium content (we also announced new deals in the UK with Channel 4 and EMI in celebration of the Messenger TV launch today), engaging our audience through Windows Live services – integrated with the content (i.e with services like Messenger TV) and creating great advertising opportunities.

- John Mangelaars (Vice President, EMEA)

URL Blocking Problems

Sun, 11 May 2008 20:48:38 GMT

Over the last couple of days you may have noticed a few URLs being blocked during your text-chats on Windows Live Messenger. This was the result of something a partner of Microsoft's did and has now been corrected. Please see the "Inside Windows Live Messenger" blog for more details. Please keep in mind that we block URLs for everyone's safety (viruses, spam, and so on), and we do that via this partner. Apparently something went wrong and we will try to keep it from happening again. I know Dharmesh, who posted the blog entry on "Inside Windows Live Messenger", and I am confident that he will help resolve and improve this.

- Brian Groth (Windows Live product manager)

Wanna be a superhero?

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:03:27 GMT

...and impress your friends? That will be piece of cake - thanks to the "Messenger Heroes". This new emoticon pack has more guts than Superman and Schwarzenegger together - all in a very cartoon-like style. If you're a fan of "The Incredibles", you'll love the Messenger Heroes too!

You can download the "Messenger Heroes" straight into your Windows Live Messenger - there are 30 of them and all for free!

The Messenger Heroes are live in Belgium (NL & FR), Denmark, Germany, UK, Norway & Sweden. Click on of these countries to get these free emoticons! If you're brave enough...

- Carole Vincke (Marketing Executive)

Check your StarFactor on Facebook!

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:17:55 GMT

Always wanted to know how popular you are on the Internet? With StarFactor you'll be able to find out with one click.

StarFactor is a Facebook application that calculates your StarFactor by using Live Search results. The more results Live Search finds on the web about you, the higher your StarFactor. Once you know your own StarFactor, you can check out your friends’ StarFactor by inviting them. And try to beat them!

In case someone else with the same name shows up in your StarFactor results, you can easily refine them so that only relevant search results are showing up linked to your profile. Not satisfied with your StarFactor? Try to boost it by sharing stories, pictures or videos on the world wide web.

This is my StarFactor for the moment...I bet it won't be difficult to beat this? Just add StarFactor now if you're curious...

- Carole Vincke (Marketing Executive)

Add your online friends to Messenger

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:38:54 GMT

If you are active on Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn then you can use www.Invite2Messenger.net to invite your friends from those social networks to Windows Live Messenger. Angus Logan's blog has a great list of screenshots.

The Windows Live team in The Netherlands created the first version (thanks to LiveSide for acknowledging that) and now it is available everywhere as explained in a blog entry on the Windows Live Dev blog by John Richards. John was also at Mix08 on a panel discussion related to this that you can watch called "Social Networks: Where Are They Taking Us?"

As you can see, our efforts around social networking aim to put you (our customers) at the centre of your online experience by making it easy for you to take your ID, your contacts, and your data with you as you move around the web.

- Brian Groth (Windows Live product manager)

Asus & Windows Live at Cebit

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:38:04 GMT

At Cebit last week to do a press launch with the ASUS EPC team and T-Mobile. The ASUS EPC is a great little laptop that will now come with Windows Live services pre-installed – I did a demo of Windows Live Mail, Messenger and Photo Gallery to the assembled media. In Germany, the machine will come with a bundle of wireless Internet access.

To prepare my demo, I borrowed an ASUS EPC for a couple of weeks. It was running Windows XP with the Live Suite and worked extremely well. My three kids were entranced by this “mini PC”. I got Windows Live Family Safety settings up and running and left them with it for a couple of hours – they decided to play with the machine rather than watch the Simpsons, so I think ASUS are on the right track here.

Live in Europe: CEBIT 08

These photos are of the booth that Windows Live and ASUS had set up to allow visitors to use Windows Live applications on the new machines. There was a great deal of consumer and press buzz about this stand (Cebit is a really a monster of an event – like a large prairie farm in middle America but with technology instead of tractors in the grain barns).

- Alex Dale (Marketing Director)

Zoom in on rock & roll memorabilia

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:09:04 GMT

Today at Microsoft's MIX08 conference, Hard Rock demonstrated their Hard Rock memorabilia site that uses Microsoft Silverlight and other technologies originally from Microsoft Research. LiveSide and others explain it in more detail, but the photo I have here I got to by navigating to Location then Europe. The car is a Trabant from East Germany that was used by U2 during their Zoo TV tour.

- Brian Groth (Windows Live product manager)

NEW Birds Eye for Europe!

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:44:35 GMT

Last night (our time) our colleagues from the Virtual Earth / Live Maps team announced an update to the service including a lot of new cities in Europe that now have Birds Eye view and also some that have 3D view. The new and updated Birds Eye Cities include London, Mulhouse, Parma, Nancy, San Marino, Porto, Lisbon, ... see below for the full list. For the 3D view the cities are Vannes (France) and Southampton (UK).

Here's a Birds Eye view from our office in London for instance. If you don't know what Birds Eye or 3D looks like, then take a look around London for instance on http://maps.live.com and you'll see notifications on the map when Birds Eye or 3D are available for the map you're looking at. Enjoy!

Here's the full list of New/Updated Birds Eye Cities in Europe:

London, UK
Medway Towns Urban Area, UK
Islwyn, UK
Leighton-Buzzard, UK
Londonderry, UK
Galway, Ireland
Reims, France
Besancon, France
Chalon, France
Strasbourg, France
Belfort, France
Colmar, France
Metz, France
Mulhouse, France
Nancy, France
Troyes, France
Parma (integration), France
BustArsizio/Legnano, Italy
Alghero, Italy
Como, Italy
Empoli, Italy
Enna, Italy
Frosinone, Italy
Gorizia, Italy
Isernia, Italy
Mantova (integration), Italy
Nuoro, Italy
Oristano, Italy
Foligno, Italy
Marsala, Italy
Modica, Italy
Siracusa, Italy
Varese, Italy
Vittoria, Italy
Rieti, Italy
San Marino, Italy
Urbino, Italy
Verbania, Italy
VibValentia, Italy
Lisbon, Portugal
Faro, Portugal
Aveiro, Portugal
Braga, Portugal
Coimbra, Portugal
Guimaraes, Portugal
Leiria, Portugal
Porto, Portugal
Setubal, Portugal
Austria
Innsbruck, Austria
Klagenfurt, Austria
Linz, Austria
Salzburg, Austria
St. Polten (Sankt Pelten), Austria
Villach, Austria
Wels, Austria
Lüdenschied, Germany
Bergen, Norway
Stavanger, Norway
Herning, Denmark
Horsens, Denmark
Silkeborg, Denmark
Vejle, Denmark
Arrecife, Spain
Santa Lucia de Tiranjana, Spain
Hamnlinna, Finland
Mouscron (Mouskroen), Belgium

- Kris Hoet (Marketing Manager)

If you fancy a kickabout on Windows Live Messenger, try out the Messenger League!

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:05:21 GMT

The Messenger League is a football game played in Windows Live Messenger. The game was initially developed by the Italian marketing team during the World Cup in 2006. Due to its phenomenal success, the game then was made available in another 10 countries in Europe. The League aspect exists in the fact that top scorers per country are posted in a league table with a national and international ranking. Currently the top of the league is being dominated by 2 French players. Overall the Messenger League has been played more than 7M times in all these countries since its launch in September last year.

If you want to join the fun, go to the Messenger League micro site and hit the “Play now” button in the left corner of the page. You can then select a friend against who you want to play, pick your own shirt design and team name before you start playing.

Click on any of the following links to go to the Messenger League home page in your country: Belgium (FR), Belgium (NL), Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Netherlands, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

If your browser settings are set to one of the countries mentioned above, then you should be able to play the Messenger League directly from Messenger. Simply start a conversation with a Messenger buddy, then click on the games icon and select Messenger League:

Why don’t you give it a try right away and who knows you’re the one to beat the French? ;-)

- Carole Vincke (Marketing Executive)

SkyDrive launched in 38 countries

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:45:53 GMT

Four days ago, we made the announcement that SkyDrive - our online storage service - was coming out of beta and launched in another 36 additional countries! Not only that, the storage is now five times bigger - that's 5GB of free online storage for you.

Here is the full list of countries. In addition to Great Britain, India, and the U.S., we’re live in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.

Check it out right here: http://skydrive.live.com/

- Kris Hoet (Marketing Manager)

"Scott is a fool"

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:35:56 GMT

When I wrote about my experience at the LIFT08 conference in Geneva I used a plugin developed by Scøtt Lovegrove to add the picture to the post. More specifically a plugin that enables easy embedding of a picture from your own Spaces photo album. When Scøtt got in touch we me shortly after that on Messenger I thought it would be a nice idea to interview Scøtt and tell you a a little bit more about his interest in Windows Live. Oh and as for the title of this post, Scøtt's nickname is scottisafool, but I'll let him tell you where that is coming from.

Hello Scott, tell us a bit more about yourself? Who is Scott Lovegrove? And how do I get to write the that O in your name as it's supposed to be? ;)

Well, I'm a Software Test Engineer for a UK Software firm, and have been for just over a year now. I've always been into computers, and did a short lived stint at University doing Software Engineering, but during that time I lost interest in software development, although over the last couple of years, that has come screaming back and I'm now loving firing up Visual Studio and sticking my head in some code. I'm also a keen tester (which shows by what job I'm in), and have been testing Microsoft products since Office 2003, although with Microsoft products recently I have spent less time testing them, and more time developing *for* them, using the APIs that are currently available. Over the last 18 months I have also been a regular poster on LiveSide (www.liveside.net) which is a community site dedicated to Windows Live and Microsoft's Online Services. My main area on LiveSide is developing against Windows Live, and any news that comes out relating to the Windows Live Platform.

As for the ø, it's alt+0248 on the number pad ;)

First things first, we've taken this title for a reason as you know. You're nickname is scottisafool, where does that come from?

When I first wanted to create my email address, I wanted something that people would remember, something they wouldn't have to write down to remember, so that combined with my own random sense of humour gave me scottisafool, and you know what, no-one ever had to write it down ;)

So Scott, you're a Windows Live Platform MVP. I can imagine not everybody is familiar with that term, can you tell us what that means?

Sure, Windows Live Platform is the renamed competency that used to be Windows Live Developer. The MVPs in this category are those who have helped people out when it comes to developing using Windows Live services, whether it's Search, Contacts, Virtual Earth, or any of the many other services that can be developed against; I myself am very prominent when it comes to writing Windows Live Writer plugins.

MVP stands for Microsoft Valuable Professional. How do you get to become an MVP?

To become an MVP you have to have been helping out within the technical community. What do I mean by this? Helping out in forums, newsgroups, writing articles, help guides, giving talks/presentations, organizing user groups. Things like that. Now doing those doesn't guarantee you an MVP status, and Sean O'Driscoll who headed up the MVP program until recently once said you can't work towards being an MVP, it's just something you are in terms of mentality. But you won't get anyway if you're not helping out in the community in some way :)

So far you have developed quite a few things on the Windows Live Platform already. I count 15 Windows Live Writer plugins and a Windows Live Toolbar button. How do you get to develop these? Where are the ideas coming from?

The ideas for some of my plugins come from the most random of places at times. Sometimes I will see a new technology that I want to learn, and so I have found the easiest way for me to learn it is to build a plugin around them, an example of that is the Feed Reader plugin, where I wanted to learn about using XML in C#. Some plugins come as requests (like the IMMe Plugin that Angus Logan requested), and some come from me reading someone's blog and thinking, "they do <something> quite often," and then I'll think if that could be made into a plugin.

The toolbar button actually came from me just wanting to have a look at what you have to do to create your own button so that I could write a blog post about it for LiveSide, and at the time, like most people, I was using Facebook a lot, so decided that would be the best way to combine the two things.

What's your most popular plugin so far?

Without a doubt it's the video plugin, which currently has had over 11,000 downloads off Live Gallery alone, let alone the downloads of it I had before I put them on Gallery. What I'm proud of with my video plugin, is not only that it was the first video plugin to really use some of the Live Writer APIs, but since beta 3 of Live Writer, the program actually comes with its own Video plugin yet the downloads of my own plugin are still very much in the ascendancy. The plugin that has been more popular than I thought it would is my Google Translate plugin, which seems to get quite a few downloads every month.

Since you're an MVP and you have this experience with the platform, does that mean you get to feedback to the development teams in Redmond as well?

I don't give my feedback directly to the developer teams in Redmond (well, I do with Live Writer, but then anyone who posts a suggestion on the Live Writer Forum will do, as Joe Cheng is one of the developers who frequents that forum). Most of the feedback I give back to the Platform guys goes through Angus Logan and he usually does an excellent job of passing across any suggestions or problems I encounter with any of the Platform services.

The annual MVP summit in Redmond is soon, will you be going? Have you been there already in the past? What is exciting about the summit?

Aye, I will most certainly be there. I have only been to the one summit thus far, which was last year, my first year of being an MVP. Back then I was a Windows Live Messenger MVP, so will be interesting this year seeing some of the more developer orientated things. The most exciting part of the summit is being able to meet up with some of the people you speak to on a near daily basis on email/IM and actually speak face to face. Of course, the trip to the company store isn't a bad thing either ;)

Do you have any projects with the Windows Live Platform that you're working on now? That you can share with us?

I am one of the developers working on a project called LiveNet, which I'm writing with Luke Smith, which is basically a .NET wrapper for Windows Live APIs. Currently LiveNet supports Windows Live Spaces Photos API and Silverlight Streaming API, but we will be adding more along the way, currently we're working on the Live Contacts API.

I have also recently finished writing an article for Code Magazine about developing plugins for Live Writer which will be published in a special Windows Live edition of the magazine that is being done for Mix08.

Well thanks a lot Scøtt, great to talk to you! I'm hoping to see a lot more of your development on Windows Live and in the meantime enjoy the summit in Redmond. You can all find Scøtt's blog here on Spaces, or check out one of his plugins in the Windows Live Gallery. More information on the Windows Live APIs can be found at http://dev.live.com/

As a final question, we asked Scøtt to pass on this interview to someone else and he mentioned 'dwergs' from (http://www.mess.be) and Stephan Welcher (http://www.live-writer.de/) - both also MVPs - so expect to hear something from these 2 soon ;)

- Kris Hoet (Marketing Manager)

Free software development tools for students in Europe

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:42:24 GMT

Over on Channel 8, the video blog for students, Bill Gates just announced free software for students in a program called DreamSpark. From the DreamSpark site:

DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.

We are kicking this off in 11 countries/regions, giving DreamSpark to millions of students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium.

The InsideMicrosoft blog does a good job of listing all the software and has already gone through the process of downloading it.

After you setup Microsoft's latest and greatest software development and design tools, please take a look at the Windows Live APIs and controls so you can start building your own great mashups and solutions based on Windows Live.

- Brian Groth (Product Manager)

Share your photos with Messenger

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:48:55 GMT

There is a great feature in Windows Live Messenger that makes it fun and easy to instantly share photos with a friend. It is called MSN Photo Swap. To start it, simple enter a text chat with a friend in Messenger, then click on the activities icon and select MSN Photo Swap:

You can then add photos from your PC and instantly start a slide show for your friend, who can save the photos to their own PC. Click on any of the following links to start sharing photos in Messenger today with a friend in your country:

Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium (FR), Belgium (NL), Finland, Portugal, Switzerland (DE), Switzerland (FR), and the UK.

- Brian Groth (product manager)

Want to join us at Mix08?

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:32:24 GMT

Are you going to Mix08 in Las Vegas this year? If you haven't heard of it, MIX is for creative, technical, and business people and offers an opportunity for all of us that fit into those categories to talk to Microsoft employees about redefining the boundaries between Content & Commerce, PC & TV, and Windows & the Web. Kris and I will be there and if you would like to meet up with us, please send us an e-mail. Even as an employee with (sometimes) inside information, I am looking forward to seeing all of the great demos and hearing from our top executives. Of course, I hear the parties are good too.

If you would like to get together during the conference, please contact us at Kris Hoet (KrisHoet@Live.com) and Brian Groth (BrianGroth@Live.com) and we can figure out when and where to meet up.

- Brian Groth (Product Manager)

Generation Y at LIFT08

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:30:47 GMT

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I attended the LIFT Conference in Geneva last week. The conference was about the challenges and opportunities of technology in our society so not only about web technology. If you're interested in the presentations than I suggest you take a look here, as all the presentations have been filmed and are there for your viewing.

While the presentations in the main room where on Thursday and Friday, the conference started already on Wednesday with some workshops, and it's one of these workshops that I wanted to talk about a bit more here. The afternoon workshop that I selected was called 'Teenagers / Generation Y and technology' and about 20 people joined me in the room, including some of the speakers of the other 2 days like Stephanie Booth (former teacher, now free-lancer) or Robin Hunicke (game designer for EA) for instance.

Taken from Live in Europe: LIFT08

David Brown (co-founder of Buyat.com which just got acquired by AOL) lead the workshop (since he suggested it) and we were joined by Chloe, Luisa, Elliot and Liam (not sure if I spelled their names right) from the International School in Geneva.

We talked about social media, online video, IM, advertising, creative commons, ... and much more during the 3 hour workshop. With questions related to the use of email with Facebook vs. regular webmail, or about the difference between 'online' friends and 'real' friends and whether there's actually still a difference for them.

Most curious learning's for me:

Wikipedia is not seen as a very good/valuable source in school when it comes to usage in school work.
They don't like to buy online much and as a result don't do it very often, whereas especially for these kids finance is not really a problem. It's a trust issue.
Although they consider their online friends and real friends to be the same (even if that's talking about 300 people), the 'real world' is very important for them and don't want to spend too much time online.
Facebook is definitely still very hot! It's used for planning of the immediate future and also for homework. Email within Facebook is used, but for totally different reasons as regular webmail such as Windows Live Hotmail.

Last stunning fact: The images you find within the results of an image search are free to use for whatever reason, why else are they there? That's the reaction when someone talked about Creative Commons. So we told them these images still are owned by someone and have some kind of copyright applied to it.

PS: Since I uploaded some images of the conference to the photo album of Live In Europe first, I wanted to add them from there in this post and to do so I stumbled upon this Windows Live Writer plugin that was created by our friend Scott. Good stuff!

- Kris Hoet (Marketing Manager)

The most popular Messenger game in Europe

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:39:41 GMT

To be honest, Uno, Checkers and Minesweeper move around the top 3 spots, but in January Checkers was the most popular game played in Windows Live Messenger in Europe. To play it, simply enter a text chat with a friend in Messenger, then click on the games icon and select Checkers:

You can then read the instructions and start playing against your friend and two computer players. Click on any of the following links to start playing Uno with a friend in your country:

Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium (FR), Belgium (NL), Russia, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland (DE), Switzerland (FR), and the UK.

- Brian Groth (product manager)

The second most popular Messenger game in Europe

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:41:10 GMT

Uno is the second most popular game played in Windows Live Messenger across Europe. To play it, simply enter a text chat with a friend in Messenger, then click on the games icon and select Uno. We have localized versions in Europe for the following counties: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium (FR & NL), Turkey, Switzerland (DE & FR), and in the UK.

Brian Groth (product manager)

Photo Album: CEBIT 08

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:31:53 GMT

CEBIT 08

Cebit

Photo Album: MIX08

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:19:02 GMT

MIX08

Pre-Conference

High Rollers

High Stakes

Wrong Bet

Roulette

Las Vegas Panorama

Stratosphere

Kris & Hans

More Photos...

Photo Album: LIFT08

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:36:10 GMT

LIFT08

Generation Y Workshop

Venture Night

Stephanie Booth during open stage

Interactive wall

The lobby

OLPC

+200 liters of Fondue

LIFTers

The main room

Presentation

Photo Album: MSN Video Event

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:56:46 GMT

MSN Video Event

MSN Video

MSN & MTV

MSN Video Presentation

Blog list: Product Teams

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:38:28 GMT

Product Teams

Soapbox & MSN Video
MSN Video and Soapbox
Live Search
Live Search blog
Live Gallery
Gadgets and Personalization
Live Search Maps
Live Maps blog
OneCare
OneCare team blog
Family Saftey
OneCare Family Safety
Agents
Windows Live Agents
Games
Messenger Games
Alerts
Windows Live Alerts
Mobile
Windows Live Mobile
Domains
Admin Center (Custom Domains)
Development
Windows Live Development
Spaces Development
Windows Live Spaces Development
Live ID
Windows Live ID
adCenter
Microsoft adCenter
Folders
Windows Live Folders
SkyDrive
SkyDrive Team Blog
Mail (desktop) Support
Mail (desktop) Support
Email Support
Technical help
Mail
Mail (desktop) blog
Hotmail
Hotmail team blog
Writer
Writer team Blog
Photo Gallery
Photo and Video blog
Spaces
Official Spaces Blog
Messenger
Messenger Blog
Live Wire
Everything about Windows Live

Blog list: European Blogs

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:59:23 GMT

European Blogs