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Tag: Bing

  • “We’re In” Meetup App Launched by Bing

    Bing announced the release of a new Windows Phone app today, called “Wer’e In”. It’s basically a way to plan get-togethers with friends.

    “We’re In makes organizing get- together’s, carpooling and trying to find people in a crowd a breeze,” says Bing in the announcement. “Any time you want to see where your friends are—We’re In can help you. It’s simple, invite your friends, and when they join, they’ll see your location and you’ll see theirs. When the invite expires, so does the shared location – no complicated process to worry about.”

    “We’re In is a great way to save time and frustration when planning your roadtrip or meeting your friend at the mall – helping you connect with your friend faster,” Bing adds.

    The user picks their friends from the contact list, or enters their phone number, and says what the event is. Users can also specify how long they want to share location info. Then the friends receive text messages with the details. The friends can use the app fi they have it or they can join using the mobile site.

    Friends’ locations appear on a map once they elect to join. I guess this is so you can track them until they get to the place you’re meeting.

    Bing We're In app

    Further messages can be added in case plans change or somebody’s running late.

    While it’s only a Windows Phone app at first, the company says it will be bringing it to more devices.

  • Bing is the Future of Your Living Room (According to Microsoft)

    In June, Microsoft announced it would be bringing Bing search to the Xbox this year, though the announcement was exactly for the full Bing search engine.

    Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications at Microsoft talked a bit more about it today in a blog post, sharing a video with BIng for Xbox in action. I’m having trouble getting the embed to work (you can see the video here), but basically, it shows people saying, “Xbox, Bing this,” and “Xbox, Bing that.” and Xbox surfacing games, movies, etc. through voice search.

    It searches through games, music, video, and apps on the Xbox to retrieve available results. This is not searching the web, as you would traditionally do with BIng.

    Here’s another video demo from E3:

    “Our philosophy is pretty simple: All the entertainment you want, with the people you care about, made easy… This video brings that philosophy to life, while showing off what the combination of Xbox, Kinect, Bing and voice recognition can do for your entertainment experience,” says Shaw.

    “As you can see, integration of products and services like Xbox, Kinect and Bing is at the heart of our strategy. This is just one more example of how Bing is more than just Microsoft’s search engine, competing to win against Google – Bing is also a strategic asset that makes many other Microsoft products better and more attractive to our customers. Thanks to Bing, Kinect and our voice recognition technology, we envision a future where the words ‘Hey, where’s the remote?’ are as outdated as eight-track tapes and rotary telephones.”

    That’s all fine and good for Xbox users, of which there are many, but if you ask me, in terms of that competing with Google thing, Microsoft is still missing a huge opportunity here to get more search market share, by not simply providing access to the Bing web search engine via Xbox.

    Microsoft already has a huge advantage over Google in the living room, thanks to the popularity of the Xbox (a major factor in Microsoft’s revenue). Google TV hasn’t worked as well as Google hoped. At least so far. The Motorola Mobility acquisition could help with that though. They make set-top boxes (among other things).

    Perhaps Microsoft should put a little more emphasis on full web search from the TV sooner rather than later.

  • Yahoo Traffic Data Comes to Bing Webmaster Tools

    Yahoo Traffic Data Comes to Bing Webmaster Tools

    Bing announced that it is now integrating Yahoo traffic data into Bing Webmaster Tools. It’s a little surprising that they’ve waited this long to do so, as the Search Alliance between Bing and Yahoo has been in place since last fall, but better late than never.

    “The changes affect the numbers shown only,” says Bing’s Duane Forrester. “No actual rankings will be affected by the combining of data within Bing Webmaster Tools. As a visual reminder that data is now combined, you will see both the Bing and Yahoo logos directly above the graphs shown on these pages.”

    Most areas and data within webmaster accounts, will not be affected, he says. In the Traffic Summary and Page Traffic reports, you should see an increase in impressions, clicks, and hopefully clickthrough rate, as a result of the combined data numbers.

    Bing and Yahoo Data Combined in Webmaster Tools

    “Impressions data will rise because we will now be showing you combined impressions for your listings across both search engines,” says Forrester. “For each query term in the list within the report, your impressions represent the combined number of times your result showed, based on queries initiated by searchers at both Bing and Yahoo.  Clicks data will follow the same pattern.  CTR data is a factor of the first two items, and will rise or fall based on searcher click activity at each search engine.”

    The data will only be combined, and not selectable, at least at first. It will be updated in all markets where Bing is powering Yahoo Search.

    The actual data integration starts from August 12, and Bing says it took about four days from then for the data to completely populate across accounts. In other words, you can look forward to September as the first complete month for the combined data.

  • New Bing Shopping Features Launched

    Bing revealed some new features it’s rolling out today for Bing Shopping. These include the ability to refine your searches faster, product-level deals, product page filters and shopping list improvements.

    “As the number of available products increase, we want to make sure you’re able to quickly find the information that is most relevant to you,” Bing says on its search blog. “Today the site includes filters on the left side of the page to help narrow down your search results by category, brand and price point. While these filters are great, you have to click through to the results page before you can start using them. To solve this problem, we removed a step and added the refinements directly to the search box. Now you can select as few or as many of the refinements as you want.”

    That would look something like this:

    Bing Shopping Updates

    “In addition to ‘refining on the fly’, we have also added product-level deals to the site,” Bing says. “Now when you search for products on the site, if a discounted price is available, you will see it next to the listing. To help you find deals, we added a ‘price reduced’ filter under the price refinement allowing you to quickly filter results to only show the products with price reductions.”

    Bing Shopping Updates

    To complement that, Bing has added a filter to product pages sorting products by stores. When the user views a product they can find related items.

    Bing is also letting users have more than one shopping list, any of which can be shared via Facebook, a la Bing’s previously announced Facebook integrations. If friends comment on Facebook, you can see the comments from Bing.

    Additionally, Bing redesigned its browse pages:

    Bing Shopping Updates

  • Google Still Dominates Search

    Water’s wet, sky’s blue, and Google is still king of the search engine industry. So much so, in fact, the amount of search queries conducted on Google more than double Yahoo and Bing (one and the same now?) their combined output.

    In the latest study from Experian Hitwise, Google’s position as top search engine dog was confirmed in black and white with the following quote:

    Google accounted for 66.05 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending July 30, 2011. The combined Bing-powered search comprised 28.05 percent of searches for the month, with Yahoo! Search and Bing receiving 14.49 percent and 13.19 percent, respectively.

    The remainder of search engine industry, which Experian states is at 73 engines, only account for less than six percent of all Internet searches.

    Again, considering Google’s financial success, this news should come as no surprise, although, the spin Experian offers is perfect example of twisting statistics to fit a theme. Take the following for instance:

    Yahoo! Search and Bing achieved the highest success rates in July 2011. This means that for Yahoo! Search, more than 81.36 percent of searches executed resulted in a visit to a Website. Google achieved a success rate of 68 percent, an increase of 1 percent in July 2011. The share of unsuccessful searches highlights the opportunity for both the search engines and marketers to evaluate the search engine result pages to ensure that searchers are finding relevant information.

    That’s all fine and good for Bing/Yahoo, but when you consider the sheer number of Google’s search volume compared to Bing/Yahoo, it stands to less successful searches were conducted. Once again, the sample size in the statistics need to be considered. Smaller sample sizes lead to higher degrees of variability, something stated quite clear in Wikipedia’s entry concerning Sample size determination:

    Larger sample sizes generally lead to increased precision when estimating unknown parameters.

    With less people using Bing/Yahoo, but more clicking over to sites, in order to make this a little more reliable, the same amount of Google users would have to use Bing/Yahoo. If the site-visiting results were similar, then you’d be onto something.

    As it stands, sorry International Business Times, the findings about site click-overs comes across as meaningless, as well as skirting the “correlation does not imply causation” territory as well.

  • Bing: Here Are the 4 Reasons You Want Links

    Bing’s Duane Forrester has followed up his recent post about how Bing evaluates content quality with one about how Bing looks at links. He says you want links for a few reasons, and lists 4 of them:

    1 – because they alert us to your website when its new, or to new content
    2 – because they are a vote of confidence in your site – quality websites tend to link to other quality websites
    3 – because those links can send you direct traffic
    4 – because over time, they can help establish a footprint that points to your authority on a topic (think guest blogging)

    The main point from the post is pretty much: links are not everything when it comes to ranking in search engines. Nothing new there. Still, it never hurts to listen to the policies as they’re explained by the search engines themselves.

    You love links. We love links. Build for the right reasons. – From an early stage people are taught that links are i… http://ow.ly/1e7uc9 2 days ago via HootSuite · powered by @socialditto

    On how many links you need, Forrester says, “Not as many as you may think.  Again, as with so many other areas of search optimization, there’s no exact number here.  On popular phrases with lots of query volume, to rank well will require more links from trusted, quality websites to boost your rankings.  Less popular phrases can often require many less links pointed at your site to see the same lift in rankings.  This is where a targeted link building approach can pay off for you.”

    The take-aways of the post, Forrester says, are: don’t buy links, great content builds links, prove to users you’re a trusted authority (and links will follow), and social media can help grow links.

    Here’s where Bing gives its advice for link building.

  • Bing’s Take on Content Quality

    Since the Google Panda Update first launched back in February (and really for some time before that), there has been a lot of discussion about search quality throughout the industry – the quality of the content that search engines are returning in their results.

    This is the whole reason the Panda update exists. It’s all about improving the quality of results. Some will dispute the success of that, but it is the reason for better or for worse.

    But what about Bing? It doesn’t command nearly the search market share that Google does, but as it powers Yahoo search, it’s really the only major competitor in town.

    Bing talked a bit about its own views on content quality this week, and content producers might do well to check take notice of that as well – especially those who may have been hit by the Panda update, but are still doing ok in Bing.

    Whereas Google had a list of questions one could ask themselves to asses the quality of their site, Bing has published a list of things to avoid, which reads as follows:

    • Duplicate content – don’t use articles or content that appears in other places.  Produce your own unique content.
    • Thin content – don’t produce pages with little relevant content on them – go deep when producing content – think “authority” when building your pages.  Ask yourself if this page of content would be considered an authority on the topic.
    • All text/All images – work to find a balance here, including images to help explain the content, or using text to fill in details about images on the page.  Remember that text held inside an image isn’t readable by the crawlers.
    • Being lonely – enable ways for visitors to share your content through social media.
    • Translation tools – rarely does a machine translation tool leave you with content that reads properly and that actually captures the original sentiment.  Avoid simply using a tool to translate content from one language to the next and posting that content online.
    • Skipping proofreading – when you are finished producing content, take the time to check for spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and for the overall flow when reading.  Does it sound like you’re repeating words too frequently?  Remove them.  Don’t be afraid to rewrite the content, either.
    • Long videos – If you produce video content, keep it easily consumable.  Even a short 3 – 4 minute video can be packed with useful content, so running a video out to 20 minutes is poor form in most instances.  It increases download times and leads to visitor dissatisfaction at having to wait for the video to load.  Plus, if you are adding a transcription of your video, even a short video can produce a lengthy transcription.
    • Excessively long pages – if your content runs long, move it to a second page.  Readers need a break, so be careful here to balance the length of your pages.  Make sure your pagination solution doesn’t cause other issues for your search optimization efforts, though.
    • Content for content’s sake – if you are producing content, be sure its valuable.  Don’t just add text to every page to create a deeper page.  Be sure the text, images or videos are all relevant to the content of the page.

    The rest of Bing’s advice basically boils down to focusing on creating a good user experience and letting Bing know about your content. “Whether you call them rich snippets or by their proper names, the act of marking up your content to tell the engines more details about the content is a wise investment,” says Bing’s Duane Forrester. “By following the plan outlined at Schema.org, you can embed meta tags around your content. Visitors won’t see them, but the search engines will, enabling us to understand your content and use it in unique ways to create more engaging search experiences.  Take some time and review this idea to see if you can leverage the great content you’re creating in new ways.”

    If you’re living up to Google’s definition of quality, you probably won’t be doing too bad in Bing either, and if you’re doing well in Google, you’re probably getting a lot more search referrals from Google than you could ever get from Bing anyway, but it’s still helpful to get a look into Bing’s own thinking on this issue.

  • Bing Adds Mall Maps to Mobile Search

    Bing Adds Mall Maps to Mobile Search

    Bing has added mall maps and map search to Bing for Mobile. Microsoft’s search engine currently has over 400 shopping malls available in map form.

    “Venue maps are a great way to save time and frustration when planning your next summer vacation or that last minute shopping trip – getting you in and out the door faster. Additionally, we now also provide the capability to search on the map,” says the Bing Maps team. “We’ve made locating mall maps an easy task from your desktop or m.bing.com. Just search for the mall name on Bing or Bing Maps, then click on the Mall Map link in the search results contact card.”

    “You can also view different levels of a specific venue by clicking the ‘Level’ button at the top of the screen and then selecting the correct level from the provided list,” the team says.

    Bing Mall Maps for Mobile

    Bing has also added the ability to search from Bing Maps itself. Search results utilize the split view syncing a list and map view in a single view.

    “Pan the map and hit refresh and the results in the list will change based on the position of the map,” the Bing team says. “The map highlights the business locations as you scroll through the list making it easy to see where all the options are located.  Clicking on a list item such as a business listing will move the map to focus on that business.  Similarly, clicking on a point of interest on the map updates the list.”

    The features are supported on iPhone, Android and RIM devices. They can be accessed from m.bing.com.

  • Yahoo-Microsoft Search Alliance Is Backfiring, According to Analyst

    When Microsoft and Yahoo partnered in a search alliance just over 2 years ago, there were some naysayers, but there was also some optimism. The companies hoped that it would put them in a better position against Google.

    Bing began powering Yahoo Search, Yahoo became the exclusive search advertising provider for Bing, and Microsoft’s adCenter began operating the self-service advertising division for both companies. Although the combined companies make up almost 30 percent of search market share, both Yahoo and Bing reported declining revenues in their recent earnings reports.

    Is the Yahoo-Microsoft Search Alliance falling through? What do you think?

    In a recent interview with Mark Ballard, the Senior Analyst at the Rimm-Kaufman Group, he told us that the partnership was backfiring on the companies. He said that it was hurting Yahoo more than Microsoft but that both companies were struggling.

    Before the Alliance, Yahoo was much more liberal in how it matched ads to search queries. Ballard told us that it previously brought in around 60 percent of broad matched traffic and that it only brings in around 40 percent of broad matched traffic now that Bing is powering it.

    “It really seems that Bing’s not doing a great job at figuring out which ads to show for certain queries… there are so many queries out there and we can only have so many keywords in our account that we rely upon the engines to do some smart matching,” he said.

    Yahoo has definitely felt the heat from these results and, in its April earnings report, openly blamed Microsoft for its struggles. While Ballard believes some of the fault lies with Microsoft, he also pointed out that Yahoo should have considered this type of outcome before it agreed to an Alliance.

    Microsoft has also been blasted for its failure to bring about significant improvements through the partnership. Reuters analyst Robert Cyran even suggested that Microsoft sell Bing and indicated that Facebook or Apple could do more with the search engine.

    “Even though their revenues are growing, they’re still bleeding money on Bing,” said Ballard. “I think Microsoft probably is willing to take a loss on Bing because they see it as part of a larger strategy. Whether or not that larger strategy makes sense – I guess that’s for the C-level folks at Microsoft to decide.”

    In a post he wrote on this topic, he pointed out that Bing could pull in more revenue by bringing on more search partners. This, however, would not be good for advertisers, since partner traffic is usually very poor quality.

    Ballard believes that Bing needs to make technological changes and open their broad match to make it smarter. In addition, he told us that Bing needed to invest in ad innovations that are more appealing to users, which would deliver higher click-through-rates for advertisers. For example, Google has enhanced its ad formats in ways that go beyond the normal text ad.

    He would also like to see Bing add more real estate for ads on Bing.com. If the search engine makes these adjustments, Ballard thinks both Yahoo and Bing would see a noticeable difference.

    “We’re rooting for Bing and Yahoo,” he said. “They have the traffic, and we’d like to take advantage of it.”

    Can Yahoo and Microsoft turn their Search Alliance around and on the right track?

  • Yahoo Microsoft Search Alliance To Launch in Europe This Week

    Yahoo Microsoft Search Alliance To Launch in Europe This Week

    Yahoo issued an update today indicating that its “Search Alliance” with Microsoft will get underway in Europe as soon as August 3rd. That goes for Yahoo UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

    It won’t be a full-on transition to the way it is here in the states, at least at first. Yahoo will switch to Bing results for organic search results only. Yahoo says advertisers should continue to manage their Yahoo Search Marketing accounts as usual, and that it will provide ample notice before the paid search transition in each respective market.

    “Search ad inventory from Yahoo!, Microsoft, and their respective partners will be combined into a new, unified search marketplace, giving advertisers of all sizes access to a combined audience of 607 million unique searchers worldwide,” the Search Alliance explains on its UK site. “In the UK and France, Yahoo! and Microsoft will combine their existing marketplaces. In other markets throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America, this transition will be seamless as Microsoft is already an existing Yahoo! partner, drawing from the Yahoo! marketplace.”

    “We have adjusted the planned timing of the paid search transition for the UK, France, and Ireland,” it says. “Yahoo! advertisers with accounts in the UK and France will not transition to adCenter in 2011. Advertisers should continue to manage and optimise their campaigns on Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft Advertising adCenter separately. We will provide advertisers with updated timing information well in advance of when transition activities begin, with further details to help them plan and prepare.”

    For the time being, Yahoo is advising businesses to compare organic search rankings on Yahoo Search and Bing for keywords to help determine the potential impact on traffic and sales, and then to decide if they’d like to modify their paid campaigns. They’re also telling businesses to review the Bing webmaster tools and optimize for the Bing crawler.

  • Windows Phone Mango Goes to Manufacturers

    Windows Phone Mango Goes to Manufacturers

    The next version of the Windows Phone operating system – Mango – has been released to the first manufacturers who will produce devices built around it.

    “This marks the point in the development process where we hand code to our handset and mobile operator partners to optimize Mango for their specific phone and network configurations,” says Microsoft’s Terry Myerson Here on the Windows Phone team, we now turn to preparing for the update process. The Mango update for current Windows Phone handsets will be ready this fall, and of course will come pre-installed on new Windows Phones.”

    “We can’t wait to get Mango in your hands so you can experience all the new features for yourself and give us feedback on where to go next. As we reach additional milestones we will be back to share more but until then, thank you for your support of Windows Phone.”

    Microsoft revealed Mango in May, adding hundreds of new features to the Windows Phone operating system. “When we looked ahead to the next release, we wanted to stay true to the principles of Windows Phone 7 – that software should get out of your way and quickly connect you to the things that matter most,” said Greg Sullivan, senior product manager of mobile communications at Microsoft. “Mango builds on the work that we did in Windows Phone 7 and extends a lot of key scenarios around communications, apps, and Internet experiences – with even more capability and a deeper level of integration.”

    Windows Phone “Mango” Released to Manufacturing: http://bit.ly/n8HM2N (via @windows) 2 hours ago via bitly · powered by @socialditto

    Mango includes an “App Connect” feature, which connects apps to search results, and is designed to surface apps “when and where they make sense”. For example, if you search Bing (the default search engine of course) for a movie, you may get results delivered in the form of show times and theater locations actually from the Fandango app.

    “It’s like having a great butler or a valet that you’ve known for 30 years who can anticipate your every need instead you doing all the work yourself,” Sullivan said. “Windows Phone stitches all of this together for you and connects the applications you have on your phone, or that we have in the marketplace, to the rest of what you’re doing, in a way that’s much, much deeper than any other platform. So you can go from Binging to buying in seconds.”

    More features are discussed here, but we find the ways that the operating system is integrating search with other apps quite interesting, particularly for search marketers. If this becomes a trend in mobile search, it places emphasis on the need for visibility among popular mobile apps.

    According to reports, Fujitsu and KDDI (in Japan) will be the first to launch Mango-based phones.

  • Should Bing Make Paid Search Ads Blend Into Organic Results?

    Emily Kirk, a Rimm-Kaufman Group analyst spotted a feature Microsoft is testing with Bing: paid results in the middle of organic results. Yep.

    Ordinarily on Bing, paid ads appear above and below organic results, and they’re easily identifiable in a blue box:

    Bing Search Ads

    The test feature eliminates the blue box and sticks them in the middle of the results, making them far less distinguishable as ads, though there is still a an “ads” label off to the right.

    Bing Ad Test

    Image credit: RKGz

    Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land obtained the following statement from Microsoft, “We’re constantly testing and experimenting on Bing, and with that, we carefully measure user engagement and reaction to these changes. We have nothing further to share at this time.”

    I’d be very surprised if this moved from testing to become an actual feature, because there would be a fair amount of negative publicity I think. It’s become pretty well established throughout the industry that paid search results should be very clear to the user. That said, perhaps Microsoft considers the small “ad” label to be sufficient.

  • Microsoft Posts Record Revenue Thanks to Xbox

    Microsoft reported record fourth-quarter revenue for its Fiscal Year Q4 at $17.37 billion for the quarter, up 8% from the same quarter last year.

    “Throughout fiscal 2011, we delivered to market a strong lineup of products and services which translated into double-digit revenue growth, and operating margin expansion,” said Microsoft CFO Peter Klein. “Our platform and cloud investments position us for long-term growth.”

    “A strong year of double-digit increases in revenue and earnings is a real credit to all of our Microsoft employees and partners around the world. We continue to see strong business demand across all of our products, from small businesses all the way up to the largest global enterprises,” said COO Kevin Turner. “Our move to cloud services continues with the release and momentum of Office 365 and growth in Windows Azure. We’re providing our customers seamless and powerful ways to move to the cloud, and we are well positioned for the coming year.”

    Microsoft’s business division revenue grew 7% for the quarter and 16% for the full year, but the Entertainment & Devices Division (Xbox, Kinect) grew 30% for the quarter and 45% for the year, showing once again where the real money lies for Microsoft.

    The Online Services Division, which includes Bing, was up 17% for the fourth quarter and 15% for the year.

    Here’s the release in its entirety:

    REDMOND, Wash. — Jul. 21, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today announced record fourth-quarter revenue of $17.37 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, an 8% increase from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $6.17 billion, $5.87 billion, and $0.69 per share, which represented increases of 4%, 30%, and 35%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period.

    For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, Microsoft reported record revenue of $69.94 billion, a 12% increase from the prior year. Operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share for the year were $27.16 billion, $23.15 billion, and $2.69, which represented increases of 13%, 23%, and 28%, respectively, when compared with the prior year.

    “Throughout fiscal 2011, we delivered to market a strong lineup of products and services which translated into double-digit revenue growth, and operating margin expansion,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “Our platform and cloud investments position us for long-term growth.”

    Microsoft Business Division revenue for the fourth quarter grew 7% and 16% for the full year. Office 2010 continues to be the fastest-selling version of Microsoft Office in history with over 100 million licenses sold. In June, Microsoft released Office 365 with familiar Microsoft Office collaboration and productivity tools delivered through the cloud.

    Server & Tools revenue grew 12% for the fourth quarter, the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, and grew 11% for the full year. Windows Server, System Center, and SQL Server continued to drive revenue growth in the segment.

    Windows and Windows Live Division revenue declined 1% for the fourth quarter and revenue for the full year decreased 2%. Excluding the impact of the prior year Windows 7 launch and revenue deferral, we estimate full-year revenue growth was in line with PC market growth of 2% to 4%. Windows 7 has sold over 400 million licenses and business deployments continue to accelerate. During the quarter, Microsoft unveiled a preview of the next version of Windows, codenamed Windows 8, featuring a new user interface and application experience.

    Online Services Division revenue grew 17% for the fourth quarter and 15% for the full year, primarily driven by increases in search revenue. Bing’s U.S. search share increased 340 basis points year-over-year to 14.4% this quarter. Microsoft also released new features that incorporate the Facebook social graph to help users make better decisions based on their social connections.

    Entertainment & Devices Division revenue grew 30% for the fourth quarter and 45% for the full year, due to the ongoing momentum of the console, Kinect, and Xbox Live. Xbox 360 has been the top-selling game console in the U.S. over the past twelve months. At E3 in June, Microsoft highlighted its upcoming game lineup, Xbox Live content partnerships, and enhanced content discovery using Bing and Kinect.

    “A strong year of double-digit increases in revenue and earnings is a real credit to all of our Microsoft employees and partners around the world. We continue to see strong business demand across all of our products, from small businesses all the way up to the largest global enterprises,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “Our move to cloud services continues with the release and momentum of Office 365 and growth in Windows Azure. We’re providing our customers seamless and powerful ways to move to the cloud, and we are well positioned for the coming year.”

    Business Outlook

    Microsoft reaffirms fiscal 2012 operating expense guidance of 3% to 5% growth from 2011, or $28.0 billion to $28.6 billion.

    Webcast Details

    Peter Klein, chief financial officer, Frank Brod, chief accounting officer, and Bill Koefoed, general manager of Investor Relations, will host a conference call and webcast at 2:30 p.m. PDT (5:30 p.m. EDT) today to discuss details of the company’s performance for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The session may be accessed athttp://www.microsoft.com/investor. The webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on Jul. 21, 2012.

    About Microsoft

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

    Forward-Looking Statements

    Statements in this release that are “forward-looking statements” are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors such as:

    • execution and competitive risks in transitioning to cloud-based computing;
    • challenges to Microsoft’s business model;
    • intense competition in all of Microsoft’s markets;
    • Microsoft’s continued ability to protect its intellectual property rights;
    • claims that Microsoft has infringed the intellectual property rights of others;
    • the possibility of unauthorized disclosure of significant portions of Microsoft’s source code;
    • actual or perceived security vulnerabilities in Microsoft products that could reduce revenue or lead to liability;
    • improper disclosure of personal data that could result in liability and harm to Microsoft’s reputation;
    • outages and disruptions of services provided to customers directly or through third parties if Microsoft fails to maintain an adequate operations infrastructure;
    • government litigation and regulation affecting how Microsoft designs and markets its products;
    • Microsoft’s ability to attract and retain talented employees;
    • delays in product development and related product release schedules;
    • significant business investments that may not gain customer acceptance and produce offsetting increases in revenue;
    • unfavorable changes in general economic conditions, disruption of our partner networks or sales channels, or the availability of credit that affect demand for Microsoft’s products and services or the value of our investment portfolio;
    • adverse results in legal disputes;
    • unanticipated tax liabilities;
    • quality or supply problems in Microsoft’s consumer hardware or other vertically integrated hardware and software products;
    • impairment of goodwill or amortizable intangible assets causing a charge to earnings;
    • exposure to increased economic and regulatory uncertainties from operating a global business;
    • geopolitical conditions, natural disaster, cyberattack or other catastrophic events disrupting Microsoft’s business; and
    • acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances that adversely affect the business.

     

    For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Microsoft’s business, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of Microsoft’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Microsoft’s Investor Relations department at (800) 285-7772 or at Microsoft’s Investor Relations website at http://www.microsoft.com/investor.

    All information in this release is as of July 21, 2011. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company’s expectations.

    For more information, press only:

    Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070,[email protected]

    For more information, financial analysts and investors only:

    Bill Koefoed, general manager, Investor Relations, (425) 706-3703

     

    Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Shareholder and financial information, as well as today’s 2:30 p.m. PDT conference call with investors and analysts, is available at http://www.microsoft.com/investor.

    MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    INCOME STATEMENTS
    (In millions, except per share amounts) (Unaudited)
    Three Months Ended June 30, Twelve Months Ended June 30,
    2011 2010 2011 2010
    Revenue $  17,367 $16,039 $  69,943 $62,484
    Operating expenses:
    Cost of revenue 3,708 3,170 15,577 12,395
    Research and development 2,393 2,350 9,043 8,714
    Sales and marketing 3,916 3,602 13,940 13,214
    General and administrative 1,179 987 4,222 4,063
    Total operating expenses 11,196 10,109 42,782 38,386
    Operating income 6,171 5,930 27,161 24,098
    Other income 148 94 910 915
    Income before income taxes 6,319 6,024 28,071 25,013
    Provision for income taxes 445 1,506 4,921 6,253
    Net income $    5,874 $  4,518 $  23,150 $18,760
    Earnings per share:
    Basic $      0.70 $    0.52 $      2.73 $    2.13
    Diluted $      0.69 $    0.51 $      2.69 $    2.10
    Weighted average shares outstanding:
    Basic 8,429 8,712 8,490 8,813
    Diluted 8,521 8,821 8,593 8,927
    Cash dividends declared per common
    share
    $      0.16 $    0.13   $      0.64 $    0.52

     

    MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    BALANCE SHEETS
    (In millions) (Unaudited)
    June 30,
    2011
    June 30,
    2010
    Assets
    Current assets:
    Cash and cash equivalents $        9,610 $     5,505
    Short-term investments (including securities loaned
    of $1,181 and $62)
    43,162 31,283
    Total cash, cash equivalents, and short-term
    investments
    52,772 36,788
    Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful
    accounts of $333 and $375
    14,987 13,014
    Inventories 1,372 740
    Deferred income taxes 2,467 2,184
    Other 3,320 2,950
    Total current assets 74,918 55,676
    Property and equipment, net of accumulated depreciation
    of $9,829 and $8,629
    8,162 7,630
    Equity and other investments 10,865 7,754
    Goodwill 12,581 12,394
    Intangible assets, net 744 1,158
    Other long-term assets 1,434 1,501
    Total assets $    108,704 $    86,113
    Liabilities and stockholders’ equity
    Current liabilities:
    Accounts payable $        4,197 $     4,025
    Short-term debt 0 1,000
    Accrued compensation 3,575 3,283
    Income taxes 580 1,074
    Short-term unearned revenue 15,722 13,652
    Securities lending payable 1,208 182
    Other 3,492 2,931
    Total current liabilities 28,774 26,147
    Long-term debt 11,921 4,939
    Long-term unearned revenue 1,398 1,178
    Deferred income taxes 1,456 229
    Other long-term liabilities 8,072 7,445
    Total liabilities 51,621 39,938
    Commitments and contingencies
    Stockholders’ equity:
    Common stock and paid-in capital – shares authorized
    24,000; outstanding 8,376 and 8,668
    63,415 62,856
    Retained deficit, including accumulated other
    comprehensive income of $1,863 and $1,055
    (6,332) (16,681)
    Total stockholders’ equity 57,083 46,175
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $    108,704 $    86,113
           

     

    MICROSOFT CORPORATION              
                 
    CASH FLOW STATEMENTS
    (In millions) (Unaudited)
                   
      Three Months Ended June 30,   Twelve Months Ended June 30,
    2011 2010 2011 2010
    Operations              
    Net income $    5,874 $  4,518   $  23,150 $18,760
    Adjustments to reconcile net income
    to net cash from operations:
         
    Depreciation, amortization, and
    other
    689 718   2,766 2,673
    Stock-based compensation
    expense
    544 482   2,166 1,891
    Net recognized losses (gains) on
    investments and derivatives
    15 114   (362) (208)
    Excess tax benefits from
    stock-based compensation
    (3) (7)   (17) (45)
    Deferred income taxes 326 (483)   2 (220)
    Deferral of unearned revenue 11,896 9,682   31,227 29,374
    Recognition of unearned revenue (7,746) (7,055)   (28,935) (28,813)
    Changes in operating assets and
    liabilities:
         
    Accounts receivable (4,886) (4,144)   (1,451) (2,238)
    Inventories (303) (260)   (561) (44)
    Other current assets (772) 374   (1,259) 464
    Other long-term assets (110) (80)   62 (223)
    Accounts payable 293 755   58 844
    Other current liabilities 28 597   (1,146) 451
    Other long-term liabilities 97 393   1,294 1,407
    Net cash from operations 5,942 5,604   26,994 24,073
    Financing      
    Short-term debt repayments,
    maturities of 90 days or less, net
    0 (545)   (186) (991)
    Proceeds from issuance of debt,
    maturities longer than 90 days
    0 1,575   6,960 4,167
    Repayments of debt, maturities
    longer than 90 days
    0 (1,088)   (814) (2,986)
    Common stock issued 180 912   2,422 2,311
    Common stock repurchased (1,256) (3,839)   (11,555) (11,269)
    Common stock cash dividends paid (1,350) (1,130)   (5,180) (4,578)
    Excess tax benefits from
    stock-based compensation
    3 7   17 45
    Other 0 10   (40) 10
    Net cash used in financing (2,423) (4,098)   (8,376) (13,291)
    Investing      
    Additions to property and equipment (642) (758)   (2,355) (1,977)
    Acquisition of companies, net of
    cash acquired
    (2) 0   (71) (245)
    Purchases of investments (8,286) (4,174)   (35,993) (30,168)
    Maturities of investments 1,905 1,005   6,897 7,453
    Sales of investments 6,112 2,420   15,880 15,125
    Securities lending payable (37) (2,612)   1,026 (1,502)
    Net cash used in investing (950) (4,119)   (14,616) (11,314)
    Effect of exchange rates on cash
    and cash equivalents
    20 (37)   103 (39)
    Net change in cash and cash
    equivalents
    2,589 (2,650)   4,105 (571)
    Cash and cash equivalents,
    beginning of period
    7,021 8,155   5,505 6,076
    Cash and cash equivalents, end of
    period
    $    9,610 $  5,505   $    9,610 $  5,505

     

     

    MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Segment Revenue and Operating Income (Loss)
    (In millions) (Unaudited)
    Three Months Ended June 30, Twelve Months Ended June 30,
    2011 2010 2011 2010
    Revenue
    Windows & Windows Live Division $    4,740 $  4,781 $  19,024 $19,494
    Server and Tools 4,643 4,149 17,096 15,378
    Online Services Division 662 568 2,528 2,201
    Microsoft Business Division 5,777 5,375 22,186 19,076
    Entertainment and Devices Division 1,485 1,144 8,913 6,168
    Unallocated and other 60 22 196 167
    Consolidated $  17,367 $16,039 $  69,943 $62,484
    Operating income (loss)
    Windows & Windows Live Division $    2,943 $  3,066 $  12,281 $13,034
    Server and Tools 1,774 1,560 6,608 5,539
    Online Services Division (728) (688) (2,557) (2,337)
    Microsoft Business Division 3,618 3,219 14,124 11,504
    Entertainment and Devices Division 32 (172) 1,324 618
    Corporate-level activity (1,468) (1,055) (4,619) (4,260)
    Consolidated $    6,171 $  5,930 $  27,161 $24,098

     

    MICROSOFT CORPORATION

    FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

    (Unaudited)

    Summary

    (In millions, except per share amounts and percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
        Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010           2011     2010      
    Revenue   $ 17,367     $ 16,039     8%     $ 69,943     $ 62,484     12%
    Operating income   $ 6,171     $ 5,930     4%     $ 27,161   $ 24,098     13%
    Diluted earnings per share   $ 0.69     $ 0.51     35%     $ 2.69     $ 2.10     28%

     

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Revenue increased primarily due to strong sales of Server and Tools products, the 2010 Microsoft Office system, and the Xbox 360 entertainment platform. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had an insignificant impact on revenue.

    Operating income increased reflecting an increase in revenue, offset in part by higher operating expenses. Key changes in operating expenses were:

    •     Cost of revenue increased $538 million or 17%, primarily due to higher costs associated with our online offerings, including traffic acquisition costs and royalty costs relating to Xbox LIVE digital content, higher expenses from providing Enterprise Services, and increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles sold.

    •     Sales and marketing expenses increased $314 million or 9%, primarily as a result of higher headcount-related expenses and increased fees paid to third party enterprise software advisors.

    •     General and administrative expenses increased $192 million or 19%, due primarily to new Puerto Rican excise taxes and higher headcount-related expenses.

    Diluted earnings per share increased reflecting higher revenue, lower income tax expense, and repurchases of common stock, offset in part by higher operating expenses.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Revenue increased primarily due to strong sales of the Xbox 360 entertainment platform, the 2010 Microsoft Office system, and Server and Tools products, offset in part by lower Windows revenue. Revenue also increased due to the fiscal year 2010 deferral of $254 million of revenue from earlier versions of the Microsoft Office system sold with a guarantee to be upgraded to the newest version of the Microsoft Office system at minimal or no cost (“Office Deferral”) and the subsequent recognition of the Office Deferral during fiscal year 2011. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had an insignificant impact on revenue.

    Operating income increased reflecting the change in revenue, offset in part by higher operating expenses. Key changes in operating expenses were:

    •     Cost of revenue increased $3.2 billion or 26%, due to higher costs associated with our online offerings, including traffic acquisition costs, and increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles and Kinect sensors sold.

    •     Sales and marketing expenses increased $726 million or 5%, primarily reflecting increased advertising and marketing of the Xbox 360 platform, Windows Phone, and Windows and Windows Live, higher headcount-related expenses and increased fees paid to third party enterprise software advisors.

    •     Research and development expenses increased $329 million or 4%, due mainly to higher headcount-related expenses.

    •    General and administrative expenses increased $159 million or 4%, due mainly to higher headcount-related expenses and new Puerto Rican excise taxes, partially offset by prior year transition expenses associated with the inception of the Yahoo! Commercial Agreement.

    Diluted earnings per share increased reflecting higher revenue, repurchases of common stock, and lower income tax expense, offset in part by higher operating expenses.

    SEGMENT PRODUCT REVENUE/OPERATING INCOME (LOSS)

    The revenue and operating income (loss) amounts in this section are presented on a basis consistent with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. and include certain reconciling items attributable to each of the segments. Certain corporate-level activity has been excluded from our segment operating results and is presented separately. Prior period amounts have been recast to conform to the way we internally managed and monitored performance at the segment level during the current period, including moving Microsoft’s PC hardware business from Entertainment and Devices Division to Windows & Windows Live Division, Windows Embedded from Entertainment and Devices Division to Server and Tools, and Office for Mac from Entertainment and Devices Division to Microsoft Business Division, as well as implementing intersegment cost allocations between all segments related to the collaborative investment in mobile platform development.

     

    Windows & Windows Live Division

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
      Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010         2011     2010      
    Revenue   $ 4,740   $ 4,781     (1)%   $ 19,024   $ 19,494     (2)%
    Operating income   $ 2,943   $ 3,066     (4)%   $ 12,281   $ 13,034     (6)%

     

    Windows & Windows Live Division (“Windows Division”) develops and markets PC operating systems, related software and online services, and PC hardware products. This collection of software, hardware, and services is designed to simplify everyday tasks through efficient browsing capabilities and seamless operations across the user’s hardware and software. Windows Division offerings consist of multiple editions of the Windows operating system, software and services through Windows Live, and Microsoft PC hardware products.

    Windows Division revenue is largely correlated to the PC market worldwide, as approximately 75% of total Windows Division revenue comes from Windows operating system software purchased by original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) which they pre-install on equipment they sell. The remaining approximately 25% of Windows Division revenue (“other revenue”) is generated by commercial and retail sales of Windows and PC hardware products and online advertising from Windows Live.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Windows Division revenue reflected relative performance in PC market segments. We estimate that sales of PCs to businesses grew approximately 8% this quarter and sales of PCs to consumers declined approximately 2%. The decline in consumer PC sales included an approximately 41% decline in the sales of netbooks. Taken together, the total PC market increased an estimated 1% to 3%. Revenue was negatively impacted by the effect of higher growth in emerging markets, where average selling prices are lower, relative to developed markets, and by lower recognition of previously deferred Windows XP revenue. This quarter, we experienced increased attachment of Windows to PCs shipped, particularly in emerging markets.

    Windows Division operating income decreased as a result of decreased revenue and higher sales and marketing expenses. Sales and marketing expenses increased $52 million or 7% reflecting increased advertising of Windows and Windows Live.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Windows Division revenue reflected relative performance in PC market segments. We estimate that sales of PCs to businesses grew approximately 11% this year and sales of PCs to consumers declined approximately 1%. The decline in consumer PC sales included an approximately 32% decline in the sales of netbooks. Taken together, the total PC market increased an estimated 2% to 4%. Revenue was negatively impacted by the effect of higher growth in emerging markets, where average selling prices are lower, relative to developed markets, and by lower recognition of previously deferred Windows XP revenue. Considering the impact of Windows 7 launch in the prior year, including $273 million of revenue recognized related to the Windows 7 Deferral, we estimate that Windows Division revenue was in line with the PC market.

    Windows Division operating income decreased as a result of decreased revenue and higher sales and marketing expenses. Sales and marketing expenses increased $224 million or 8% reflecting increased advertising of Windows and Windows Live.

    Server and Tools

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
      Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

                 
        2011     2010         2011     2010      
    Revenue   $ 4,643   $ 4,149     12%   $ 17,096   $ 15,378     11%
    Operating income   $ 1,774   $ 1,560     14%   $ 6,608   $ 5,539     19%

     

    Server and Tools develops and markets technology and related services that enable information technology professionals and their systems to be more productive and efficient. Server and Tools product and service offerings include Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Windows Azure, Visual Studio, System Center products, Windows Embedded device platforms, and Enterprise Services. Enterprise Services comprise Premier product support services and Microsoft Consulting Services. We also offer developer tools, training and certification. Approximately 50% of Server and Tools revenue comes primarily from multi-year volume licensing agreements, approximately 30% is purchased through transactional volume licensing programs, retail packaged product and licenses sold to OEMs, and the remainder comes from Enterprise Services.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Server and Tools revenue increased reflecting growth in both product sales and Enterprise Services. Product revenue increased $382 million or 11%, driven primarily by growth in Windows Server, SQL Server, and Enterprise Client Access License (“CAL”) Suites, reflecting continued adoption of Windows platform applications. Enterprise Services revenue grew $112 million or 14%, due to growth in both Premier product support and consulting services.

    Server and Tools operating income increased due to revenue growth, offset in part by higher operating expenses. Sales and marketing expenses increased $149 million or 13% reflecting increased corporate marketing activities and fees paid to third party enterprise software advisors. Cost of revenue increased $133 million or 18%, primarily reflecting a $114 million increase in expenses from providing Enterprise Services.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Server and Tools revenue increased reflecting growth in both product sales and Enterprise Services. Product revenue increased $1.4 billion or 11%, driven primarily by growth in Windows Server, SQL Server, Enterprise CAL Suites, and Windows Embedded, reflecting continued adoption of Windows platform applications. Enterprise Services revenue grew $337 million or 11%, due to growth in both Premier product support and consulting services.

    Server and Tools operating income increased due to revenue growth, offset in part by higher operating expenses. Cost of revenue increased $366 million or 13%, primarily reflecting a $323 million increase in expenses from providing Enterprise Services. Sales and marketing expenses increased $264 million or 6% reflecting increased fees paid to third party enterprise software advisors and increased corporate marketing activities.

    Online Services Division

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
      Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010         2011     2010      
    Revenue   $ 662   $ 568     17%   $ 2,528   $ 2,201     15%
    Operating loss   $ (728 )   $ (688 )   (6)%   $ (2,557 )   $ (2,337 )   (9)%

     

    Online Services Division (“OSD”) develops and markets information and content designed to help people simplify tasks and make more informed decisions online, and that help advertisers connect with audiences. OSD offerings include Bing, MSN, adCenter, and advertiser tools. Bing and MSN generate revenue through the sale of search and display advertising. Search and display advertising generally accounts for over 85% of OSD’s annual revenue.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    OSD revenue increased primarily as a result of growth in online advertising revenue. Online advertising revenue grew $100 million or 20% to $597 million, reflecting continued growth in search and display advertising revenue, offset in part by decreased third party advertising revenue. Search revenue grew due to increased volumes reflecting general market growth, relative share gains in the U.S, and our Yahoo! alliance, offset in part by decreased revenue per search primarily related to challenges associated with optimizing the adCenter platform for the new mix and volume of traffic from the combined Yahoo! and Bing properties. As of June 30, 2011, according to third-party sources, Bing organic U.S. market share grew over 31% to approximately 14%, while Bing-powered U.S. market share, including Yahoo! properties, was approximately 27%.

    OSD operating loss increased due to higher cost of revenue, offset in part by increased revenue. Cost of revenue grew $165 million, driven by costs associated with the Yahoo! search agreement and increased traffic acquisition costs.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    OSD revenue increased primarily as a result of growth in online advertising revenue. Online advertising revenue grew $358 million or 19% to $2.3 billion, reflecting continued growth in search and display advertising revenue, offset in part by decreased third party advertising revenue. Search revenue grew due to increased volumes reflecting general market growth, relative share gains in the U.S., and our Yahoo! alliance, offset in part by decreased revenue per search primarily related to challenges associated with optimizing the adCenter platform for the new mix and volume of traffic from the combined Yahoo! and Bing properties. As of June 30, 2011, according to third-party sources, Bing organic U.S. market share grew over 31% to approximately 14%, while Bing-powered U.S. market share, including Yahoo! properties, was approximately 27%.

    OSD operating loss increased due to higher operating expenses, offset in part by increased revenue. Cost of revenue grew $641 million driven by costs associated with the Yahoo! search agreement and increased traffic acquisition costs. General and administrative expenses decreased $157 million or 60% due mainly to transition expenses in the prior year associated with the inception of the Yahoo! Commercial Agreement. Research and development increased $117 million or 11% due to increased headcount-related costs.

    Microsoft Business Division

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
      Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010         2011     2010      
    Revenue   $ 5,777   $ 5,375     7%   $ 22,186   $ 19,076     16%
    Operating income   $ 3,618   $ 3,219     12%   $ 14,124   $ 11,504     23%

     

    Microsoft Business Division (“MBD”) develops and markets software and services designed to increase personal, team, and organization productivity. MBD offerings include the Microsoft Office system (comprising mainly Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync), which generates over 90% of MBD revenue, and Microsoft Dynamics business solutions. We evaluate MBD results based upon the nature of the end user in two primary parts: business revenue, which includes Microsoft Office system revenue generated through volume licensing agreements and Microsoft Dynamics revenue; and consumer revenue, which includes revenue from retail packaged product sales and OEM revenue.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    MBD revenue increased reflecting sales of the 2010 Microsoft Office system, which was released primarily during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010. Consumer revenue decreased $93 million or 8%, primarily driven by a decline in consumer PC sales in developed markets. Business revenue increased $494 million or 12%, primarily reflecting licensing of the 2010 Microsoft Office system to transactional business customers, growth in multi-year volume licensing revenue, and a 19% increase in Microsoft Dynamics revenue.

    MBD operating income increased due mainly to revenue growth as well as decreased sales and marketing expenses, offset in part by higher cost of revenue. Sales and marketing expenses decreased $74 million or 6%, due mainly to decreased advertising and marketing activities. Cost of revenue increased $83 million or 22%, primarily driven by higher online costs and services.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    MBD revenue increased primarily reflecting sales of the 2010 Microsoft Office system, the $254 million Office Deferral during fiscal year 2010, and the subsequent recognition of the Office Deferral during fiscal year 2011. Business revenue increased $2.0 billion or 13%, reflecting licensing of the 2010 Microsoft Office system to transactional business customers, growth in multi-year volume licensing revenue, and a 10% increase in Microsoft Dynamics revenue. Consumer revenue increased $1.1 billion or 33%, approximately half of which was attributable to the launch of Office 2010 and half of which was attributable to the Office Deferral during fiscal year 2010 and subsequent recognition of the Office Deferral during fiscal year 2011. Excluding the impact associated with the Office Deferral, consumer revenue increased $620 million or 17% due to sales of the 2010 Microsoft Office system.

    MBD operating income increased due mainly to revenue growth, offset in part by higher operating expenses. Cost of revenue increased $335 million or 26%, primarily driven by higher online costs and services. Sales and marketing expenses increased $97 million or 2%, primarily driven by an increase in corporate and cross-platform marketing activities. Research and development costs increased $79 million or 4%, primarily as a result of capitalization of certain Microsoft Office system software development costs in the prior year.

     

    Entertainment and Devices Division

     

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
      Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010         2011     2010      
    Revenue   $ 1,485   $ 1,144     30%   $ 8,913   $ 6,168     45%
    Operating income (loss)   $ 32   $ (172 )   *   $ 1,324   $ 618     114%

     

    *       Not meaningful

    Entertainment and Devices Division (“EDD”) develops and markets products and services designed to entertain and connect people. EDD offerings include the Xbox 360 entertainment platform (which includes the Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment console, Kinect for Xbox 360, Xbox 360 video games, Xbox LIVE, and Xbox 360 accessories), Mediaroom (our Internet protocol television software), and Windows Phone. In November 2010, we released Kinect for Xbox 360 and the latest version of Windows Phone.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    EDD revenue increased primarily reflecting higher Xbox 360 platform revenue. Xbox 360 platform revenue grew $293 million or 29%, led by higher Xbox LIVE revenue and increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles sold. We shipped 1.7 million Xbox 360 consoles during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, compared with 1.5 million Xbox 360 consoles during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010.

    EDD operating income increased primarily reflecting revenue growth, offset in part by higher cost of revenue. Cost of revenue increased $118 million or 15% primarily reflecting higher volumes of Xbox 360 consoles, and increased royalty costs resulting from increased sales of Xbox LIVE digital content.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    EDD revenue increased primarily reflecting higher Xbox 360 platform revenue. Xbox 360 platform revenue grew $2.7 billion or 48%, led by increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles, sales of Kinect sensors, and higher Xbox LIVE revenue. We shipped 13.7 million Xbox 360 consoles during fiscal year 2011, compared with 10.3 million Xbox 360 consoles during fiscal year 2010.

    EDD operating income increased primarily reflecting revenue growth, offset in part by higher cost of revenue. Cost of revenue increased $1.8 billion or 49% primarily reflecting higher volumes of Xbox 360 consoles and Kinect sensors sold, and increased royalty costs resulting from increased sales of Xbox LIVE digital content. Research and development expenses increased $119 million or 12%, primarily reflecting higher headcount-related costs. Sales and marketing expenses grew $90 million or 12% primarily reflecting increased Xbox 360 platform marketing activities.

    Corporate-Level Activity

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
          Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010             2011     2010      
    Corporate-level activity   $ (1,468 )   $ (1,055 )   (39)%       $ (4,619 )   $ (4,260 )   (8)%

     

    Certain corporate-level activity is not allocated to our segments, including costs of: broad-based sales and marketing; product support services; human resources; legal; finance; information technology; corporate development and procurement activities; research and development; and legal settlements and contingencies.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Corporate-level expenses increased due mainly to new Puerto Rican excise taxes, certain revenue related sales and marketing expenses, and increased headcount-related expenses.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Corporate-level expenses increased due mainly to new Puerto Rican excise taxes, certain revenue related sales and marketing expenses, and increased headcount-related expenses. These increases were offset in part by lower legal charges, which were $332 million in fiscal year 2011 compared to $533 million in fiscal year 2010.

    OPERATING EXPENSES

    Cost of Revenue

    (In millions, except percentages) Three Months Ended
    June 30,
    Percentage
    Change
    Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
    Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010             2011     2010      
    Cost of revenue   $ 3,708   $ 3,170     17%       $ 15,577   $ 12,395     26%
    As a percent of revenue   21 %     20 %   1ppt       22 %     20 %   2ppt

     

    Cost of revenue includes: manufacturing and distribution costs for products sold and programs licensed; operating costs related to product support service centers and product distribution centers; costs incurred to include software on PCs sold by OEMs, to drive traffic to our Web sites, and to acquire online advertising space (“traffic acquisition costs”); costs incurred to support and maintain Internet-based products and services, including royalties; warranty costs; inventory valuation adjustments; costs associated with the delivery of consulting services; and the amortization of capitalized research and development costs.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Cost of revenue increased primarily due to higher costs associated with our online offerings, including traffic acquisition costs, and higher expenses from providing Enterprise Services, as well as increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles sold and royalty costs relating to Xbox LIVE digital content sold.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Cost of revenue increased primarily due to increased volumes of Xbox 360 consoles and Kinect sensors sold, higher costs associated with our online offerings, including traffic acquisition costs, and higher expenses from providing Enterprise Services, as well as royalty costs relating to Xbox LIVE digital content sold.

     

    Research and Development

     

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
          Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010             2011     2010      
    Research and development   $ 2,393   $ 2,350     2%       $ 9,043   $ 8,714     4%
    As a percent of revenue   14 %     15 %   (1)ppt       13 %     14 %   (1)ppt

     

    Research and development expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense, and other headcount-related expenses associated with product development. Research and development expenses also include third-party development and programming costs, localization costs incurred to translate software for international markets, and the amortization of purchased software code and services content.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Research and development expenses increased primarily due to an 8% increase in headcount-related expenses and the capitalization of certain software development costs in the prior year.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Research and development expenses increased primarily due to a 5% increase in headcount-related expenses and the capitalization of certain software development costs in the prior year.

    Sales and Marketing

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
          Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010             2011     2010      
    Sales and marketing   $ 3,916     $ 3,602     9%       $ 13,940     $ 13,214     5%
    As a percent of revenue   23 %     22 %   1ppt       20 %     21 %   (1)ppt

     

    Sales and marketing expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense, and other headcount-related expenses associated with sales and marketing personnel and the costs of advertising, promotions, trade shows, seminars, and other programs.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Sales and marketing expenses increased primarily as a result of a 12% increase in headcount-related expenses and increased fees paid to third party enterprise software advisors.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Sales and marketing expenses increased primarily as a result of increased advertising and marketing of the Xbox 360 platform, Windows Phone, and Windows and Windows Live, a 5% increase in headcount-related expenses, and increased fees paid to third party enterprise software advisors.

    General and Administrative

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
          Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010             2011     2010      
    General and administrative   $ 1,179     $ 987     19%       $ 4,222     $ 4,063     4%
    As a percent of revenue   7 %     6 %   1ppt       6 %     7 %   (1)ppt

     

    General and administrative expenses include payroll, employee benefits, stock-based compensation expense, severance expense, and other headcount-related expenses associated with finance, legal, facilities, certain human resources and other administrative personnel, certain taxes, and legal and other administrative fees.

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    General and administrative expenses increased primarily due to new Puerto Rican excise taxes and a 17% increase in headcount-related expenses.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    General and administrative expenses increased primarily due to a 12% increase in headcount-related expenses and new Puerto Rican excise taxes, partially offset by prior year transition expenses associated with the inception of the Yahoo! Commercial Agreement.

    OTHER INCOME (EXPENSE) AND INCOME TAXES

    Other Income (Expense)

    The components of other income (expense) were as follows:

    (In millions, except percentages)   Three Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change
          Twelve Months Ended
    June 30,
        Percentage
    Change

     

        2011     2010             2011     2010      
    Dividends and interest income   $ 269   $ 239     13 %       $ 900   $ 843     7 %
    Interest expense   (94 )     (37 )   (154)%       (295 )     (151 )   (95)%
    Net recognized gains on investments   100     49     104%       439     348     26%
    Net losses on derivatives   (115 )     (163 )   29%       (77 )     (140 )   45%
    Net gains (losses) on foreign currency
    remeasurements
      (12 )     25     *       (26 )   1     *
    Other   0       (19 )   *       (31 )     14     *

     

       

     

     

               

     

     

       

     

     

         
    Total   $ 148     $ 94     57%       $ 910   $ 915     (1)%
       

     

     

       

     

     

               

     

     

       

     

     

         

    *  Not meaningful

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Dividends and interest income increased due to higher average portfolio investment balances, offset in part by lower yields on our fixed income investments. Interest expense increased due to our increased issuance of debt. Net recognized gains on investments increased due primarily to higher gains on sales of fixed-income and equity securities. Derivative losses decreased due primarily to lower losses on currency contracts used to hedge foreign currency revenues and interest-rate and equity derivatives, offset in part by higher losses on commodity derivatives.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Dividends and interest income increased due to higher average portfolio investment balances, offset in part by lower yields on our fixed income investments. Interest expense increased due to our increased issuance of debt. Net recognized gains on investments increased due primarily to higher gains on sales of equity securities, offset in part by fewer gains on sales of fixed-income securities. Derivative losses decreased due primarily to higher gains on commodity derivatives offset in part by higher losses on currency contracts used to hedge foreign currency revenue.

    Income Taxes

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Our effective tax rates for the fourth quarters of fiscal years 2011 and 2010 were approximately 7% and 25%, respectively. Our effective tax rate was lower than the U.S. federal statutory rate primarily due to a higher mix of earnings taxed at lower rates in foreign jurisdictions resulting from producing and distributing our products and services through our foreign regional operations centers in Ireland, Singapore and Puerto Rico, which are subject to lower income tax rates.

    Our effective tax rate was lower than in the prior year due mainly to the adjustment of our previously estimated effective tax rate for the year to reflect the actual full year mix of foreign and U.S. taxable income. In addition, upon completion of our annual domestic and foreign tax returns, we adjusted the estimated tax provision to reflect the tax returns filed and recorded an income tax benefit which lowered our effective tax rate.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Our effective tax rates for fiscal years 2011 and 2010 were approximately 18% and 25%, respectively. Our effective tax rate was lower than the U.S. federal statutory rate and our prior year effective rate primarily due to a higher mix of earnings taxed at lower rates in foreign jurisdictions resulting from producing and distributing our products and services through our foreign regional operations centers in Ireland, Singapore, and Puerto Rico, which are subject to lower income tax rates. In fiscal years 2011 and 2010, our U.S. income before income taxes was $8.9 billion and $9.6 billion, respectively, and comprised 32% and 38%, respectively, of our income before income taxes. In fiscal years 2011 and 2010, the foreign income before income taxes was $19.2 billion and $15.4 billion, respectively, and comprised 68% and 62%, respectively, of our income before income taxes. In fiscal years 2011 and 2010, the reduction of the U.S. federal statutory rate as a result of foreign earnings taxed at lower rates was 16% and 12%, respectively.

    In addition, our effective tax rate was lower than in the prior year due to a partial settlement with the I.R.S. in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011 relating to the audit of tax years 2004 to 2006. This partial settlement reduced our income tax expense for fiscal year 2011 by $461 million.

    UNEARNED REVENUE

    Unearned revenue at June 30, 2011 comprised mainly unearned revenue from volume licensing programs. Unearned revenue from volume licensing programs represents customer billings for multi-year licensing arrangements paid for either at inception of the agreement or annually at the beginning of each billing coverage period and accounted for as subscriptions with revenue recognized ratably over the billing coverage period. Unearned revenue at June 30, 2011 also included payments for: post-delivery support and consulting services to be performed in the future; Xbox LIVE subscriptions and prepaid points; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions products; OEM minimum commitments; unspecified upgrades/enhancements of Windows Phone and Microsoft Internet Explorer on a when-and-if-available basis for Windows XP; and other offerings for which we have been paid in advance and earn the revenue when we provide the service or software, or otherwise meet the revenue recognition criteria.

     

    The following table outlines the expected future recognition of unearned revenue as of June 30, 2011:

    (In millions)      

     

     
    Three Months Ending,      
       
    September 30, 2011   $ 5,979  
    December 31, 2011     4,914  
    March 31, 2012     3,207  
    June 30, 2012     1,622  
    Thereafter     1,398  

     

     
    Total   $ 17,120  
       

     

     

     

    CASH FLOWS

    Three months ended June 30, 2011 compared with three months ended June 30, 2010

    Fourth quarter cash flows from operations increased $338 million over the prior year to $5.9 billion due mainly to increased revenue and cash collections from customers, offset in part by other changes in working capital. Cash used in financing decreased $1.7 billion to $2.4 billion due mainly to a $2.6 billion decrease in common stock repurchases, offset in part by reduced proceeds from issuances of common stock of $732 million. Cash used in investing decreased $3.2 billion to $1.0 billion due mainly to a $2.6 billion increase in cash from securities lending.

    Twelve months ended June 30, 2011 compared with twelve months ended June 30, 2010

    Cash flows from operations increased $2.9 billion during the current fiscal year to $27.0 billion due mainly to increased revenue and cash collections from customers. Cash used in financing decreased $4.9 billion to $8.4 billion due mainly to a $5.8 billion increase in proceeds from issuances of debt, net of repayments, offset in part by a $602 million increase in cash paid for dividends. Cash used in investing increased $3.3 billion to $14.6 billion due to a $5.8 billion increase in purchases of investments, offset in part by a $2.5 billion increase in cash from securities lending.

     

  • Microsoft Doing Something Else with Social Search (Internally)

    What looked like the beginning of a social search engine from Microsoft was spotted at socl.com. Fusible discovered that Microsoft owns the domain socl.com, visited the URL, and was greeted by a landing page for something called Tulalip.

    The screen (pictured below) said: Welcome – With Tulalip you can find what you need and share what you know easier than ever. There was a link for “see how it works” and some boxes with people’s faces in them, reminiscent of the friend/follower display on various social networks. There was also the ability to sign in with either Facebook or Twitter.

    Tulalip from Microsoft Research

    J.B. at Fusible wrote:

    The four letter domain socl.com would complement bing.com.

    Although the site isn’t operational, visitors can get an idea of where Microsoft is going with the service called “Tulalip”, which also happens to be the name of a group of Native American tribes located not far from Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft is headquartered. 

    If you go to socl.com now, you are greeted with the following message:

    Thanks for stopping by. 

    Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web.

    We didn’t mean to, honest.

    So is this simply an experiment the company is testing internally for possible future Bing features? Matt McGee at Search Engine Land shares a screenshot of what it looked like if you tried to sign in with Twitter, and the authorization box said the app would be able to:

    – Read tweets from your timeline
    – See who you follow, and follow new people
    – Update your profile
    – Post tweets for you.

    It’s hard to say just what the company is up to with this. Bing already has social search features of course, and will no doubt continue to improve upon them.

  • Bing Rolls Out New Maps Interface

    After months of testing, Bing has now made available its new interface for Bing Maps. Changes include adjustments to the task and navigation controls. Bing says it’s now easier to find the most common actions to complete your tasks.

    “We’ve consolidated actions that were previously scattered throughout the page, and concentrated them along the top, where you expect to find them,” explains Senior Program Manager Dan Polivy. “We’ve included text labels for most of the buttons. And, most importantly, we’ve focused on making the controls accessible while still allowing the map to be the focus of the page.”

    Here’s a look at the before and after (respectively):

    Bing Maps UI - Before

    Bing Maps UI - After

    “These improvements are being rolled out to all of our international sites with appropriate market-specific functionality,” notes Polivy. “For example, Bing Maps users in the UK will still have access to the London Street Map and Ordnance Survey styles, along with our standard Road map, via the vector style drop-down. The public transport overlay, showing tube, DLR, and tram networks, is also readily available from the navigation bar when the map is centered over the greater London area.”

    Bing has also added accessibility of its Bird’s eye 45-degree and high resolution Aerial imagery views from the top of the navigation bar. With that, Bing has made it easier to switch between views in general with a single click.

    Bing Maps interface updates and geolocation support 
    http://binged.it/pJZmFC 16 hours ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto

    Finally, there’s a new “locate me” button, which will center the map around your location, if you’re using a browser that supports the W3C Geolocation API.

  • Father’s Day Gift Ideas From Bing

    You now officially have less than a week the grab your pops something for Father’s Day. In my experience, at least, dads are much harder to buy for than moms. Plus, my mom will tell me she loves anything that I get her, even if it’s terrible. No such luck with my dad – he’ll tell it like it is.

    “I don’t need another tie, and this one’s ugly anyways.”

    So if you’re like me and need some gift ideas you might try out Microsoft’s recommendations, as Bing is turning you in the direction of their shopping feature. Here’s what they just tweeted:

    The link will take to to the Bing shopping homepage, where you’ll be presented with help finding the right gift. Top 15 Gifts $50 and Under, Top 15 Gifts $25 and Under, and Gifts for Dad: Sports Fan to GrillMaster are just a few of the categories offered by Bing Shopping.

    Less than a week until Father’s Day! If you’re struggling for ideas, Bing can help: http://binged.it/ilADhg ^bb 32 minutes ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto

    Bing recently redesigned Bing Shopping, putting an emphasis on researching products before purchasing. They also made changes to the results, enlarging search images and enabling a price match feature as well as a similar searches section.

    I’ve already found some tempered beer glasses that look pretty swanky, that I think my pops would enjoy. I’ve learned over the years that if you want to play it safe, buy him beer accessories.

    Another interesting thing I’m just noticing about the new Bing Shopping site is how it has integrated with Facebook. As part of Bing’s Facebook integration, Friends’ birthdays have their own box on Bing Shopping. So not only will you know when they are, but can quickly grab them a gift if you so choose (if they deserve it).

  • Bing for Mobile Gets New Features

    Bing for Mobile Gets New Features

    Bing has launched some new mobile features, including Facebook sharing, news, maps/list split view, search history, and trending topics.

    Users can now share images, local business details and apps (that one’s just for iOS) with Facebook friends on the go. The news feature lets you get news from Bing for Mobile’s browse home page. “For headline news, we added a carousel that lets you to quickly flip through the headlines so you’ll never miss a beat or scroll down to see the top three headlines and images for numerous categories,” Bing says. “The categories are the same you have come to expect from Bing News on your PC, including U.S, World, Local (state), Entertainment, Science/Technology, Business Politics, Sports, and Health. This feature is currently in the US only.”

    Bing Mobile sharing features

    Bing Mobile News Features

    The maps/list split view lets you view both the map and business listings/directions in a single view. As you interact with the list, the map will show the business or direction point you’re working with.

    Maps List Split view

    The search history is self-explanatory, as are trending topics, which are only available in the U.S.

    The updates are available on devices that support HTML5 capable browser (iPhone, Android, RIM), and non-touch RIM devices supporting RIM OS 6.0 and higher get a new experience with non-touch gestures that correspond to the touch gestures.

  • Bing Webmaster Tools Refreshed

    Bing Webmaster Tools Refreshed

    Bing has launched some enhancements to Bing Webmaster Tools in an update called “Honey Badger”.

    “Today’s redesign offers webmasters a simplified experience that allows them to quickly analyze and identify trends – while also bringing new and unique features to the industry,” a representative for Bing tells WebProNews. “Our goal is to help webmaster make faster, more informed decisions and drive new insights about their website by presenting them with rich visuals and more organized, relevant content.”

    Enhancements include:

    • Crawl delay management: Lets webmasters configure the bingbot crawl rate for a specific domain.
    • Index Explorer: Allows webmasters to the ability to access data in the Bing index regarding a specified domain.
    • User and Role Management: Provides site owners with the ability to grant admin, read/write or read-only access to other users for their site.

    Crawl deal is configurable by hour. Users can ask Bing to crawl slower during peak business hours or have it crawl faster during off-peak hours. There is drag-and-drop functionality that lets users create a crawl graph by clicking and dragging the mouse pointer across the graph. Individual columns can also be clicked for fine-tuning.

    Bing Crawl Settings

    Index Explorer, Bing says, is a “complete rewrite” of the Index Tracker backend, focusing on freshness, performance, extensibility, reduced machine footprint, and stability and failure detection. New sites will have this data as they sign up.

    Bing Index Explorer

    The company also launched the ability for webmasters to manage deep-links and added over 40 new educational documents and videos to the Toolbox site. The content covers things like: using Webmaster Tools, data explanation, link building, removing/blocking pages from Bing’s index, SEO guidance, managing URL parameters, rich snippets (schema.org), canonicalization, nofollow, managing redirects, 404 page management, etc.

    Bing says you can “count on more monthly content being added” to Webmaster Tools in the near future.

  • Bing for Xbox is Smart Move, But Microsoft Should Go Further

    This week, Microsoft announced it would be bringing Bing search to the Xbox later this year- kind of. I say kind of, because it’s not the full Bing search engine.

    There are already a lot of wheels in motion, which could significantly boost Bing’s share of the search market. The Facebook integration recently launched (and now being advertised on television) should help to some extent. Deals with Nokia and RIM to make Bing the default search engine on more mobile devices should help a lot.

    Bing on Xbox could be huge, as the Xbox is a gateway to online access from the living room – and a very common one, when compared to something like Google TV. That said, Microsoft has limited the Bing experience to certain apps on the Xbox, as opposed to the entire web, and for that reason, this won’t be as big a boost to Bing’s market share as it would be if they simply put a full web browser on the device with Bing as the default search, or simply offering a Bing app that accesses the entire web.

    Still, it will be powerful for continuing to build the Bing brand, and I’m sure they will find additional uses for it as time goes on. It will start by searching things like games, videos, and music through apps like Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN, YouTube, Zune, etc. In all fairness, these are the types of content that are most likely to be accessed through TV on a regular basis, but Bing has a lot more to offer as a search engine, and it seems like they’re holding back here. How about shopping, for instance?

    Here’s the relevant Bing for Xbox portion from Microsoft’s E3 presentation (courtesy of WinRumors):

    Again, I have a feeling this is just the beginning of what we’ll see in terms of Bing/Xbox integration, and it’s smart on Microsoft’s part to simply get Bing on there in some capacity. The company has a lot invested in the success of Bing, and Xbox is about the best thing the company has going for it right now, as the latest earnings report indicated.

  • Google, Bing, and Yahoo Work Together on Search

    Google, Bing, and Yahoo Work Together on Search

    Bing, Google and Yahoo have teamed up to announce schema.org, an initiative to support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages.

    A representative for Bing tells WebProNews, “Over the past two years, Bing has worked to improve the search experience to better reflect both the evolving Web and changing consumer habits.”

    ” While this effort has a major ‘geek factor,’ it serves as quite a significant advancement for both the search industry and consumers,” he said.

    The site will provide tips and tools for helping sites appear in search results. “It will also help search engines better understand websites, and moving forward, Bing will work jointly with the larger web community and its search partners to extend the available schema categories,” the representative says. “Consumers will also benefit from this effort by experiencing richer search experiences and content from a much broader set of publishers.”

    “At Google, we’ve supported structured markup for a couple years now. We introduced rich snippets in 2009 to better represent search results describing people or containing reviews. We’ve since expanded to new kinds of rich snippets, including products, events, recipes, and more,” says Google’s search quality team. “Adoption by the webmaster community has grown rapidly, and today we’re able to show rich snippets in search results more than ten times as often as when we started two years ago.”

    “We want to continue making the open web richer and more useful. We know that it takes time and effort to add this markup to your pages, and adding markup is much harder if every search engine asks for data in a different way,” the team adds. “That’s why we’ve come together with other search engines to support a common set of schemas, just as we came together to support a common standard for Sitemaps in 2006. With schema.org, site owners can improve how their sites appear in search results not only on Google, but on Bing, Yahoo! and potentially other search engines as well in the future.”

    The search engines also worked together to support the canonical tag.

    Here’s what the schema.org site itself says:

    This site provides a collection of schemas, i.e., html tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers. Search engines including Bing, Google and Yahoo! rely on this markup to improve the display of search results, making it easier for people to find the right web pages.

    Many sites are generated from structured data, which is often stored in databases. When this data is formatted into HTML, it becomes very difficult to recover the original structured data. Many applications, especially search engines, can benefit greatly from direct access to this structured data. On-page markup enables search engines to understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results in order to make it easier for users to find relevant information on the web. Markup can also enable new tools and applications that make use of the structure.

    A shared markup vocabulary makes easier for webmasters to decide on a markup schema and get the maximum benefit for their efforts. So, in the spirit of sitemaps.org, Bing, Google and Yahoo! have come together to provide a shared collection of schemas that webmasters can use.

    Google says it has added over 100 new types and ported all existing types of rich snippets. Where in the past it has supported three different standards for structured data markup, they will no only focus on microdata. Google says it will continue to support existing rich snippet markup formats. They also provide a testing tool for markup here.

    Bing also says that while it accepts a wide variety of markup formats, it is working to simplify the choices for webmasters.

  • Bing Giving Away $100 Bucks to 5 Twitter Followers

    Bing Giving Away $100 Bucks to 5 Twitter Followers

    Five people who follow Bing on Twitter have the chance to win a hundred bucks a piece, courtesy of a sweepstakes the search engine is running today only. It’s called the “Friends Don’t Let Friends Decide Alone” Sweepstakes, and appears to be geared at drawing attention to Bing’s recently launched social features.

    Given that these feature were largely based upon Facebook integration, it seems a bit strange that the contest is Twitter-based, but whatever.

    Bing is asking via Twitter, “What decision can you not make without your friends?” Today, until midnight tonight, followers can simply reply to the question with the hashtag #decisions, and Bing will randomly select 5 winners to win “$100 towards a night out with friends”.

    We’re giving out $100 to 5 lucky followers. Stay tuned! Rules: http://binged.it/mrJZGH #decisions ^bb 1 hour ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto

    What decision can you not make without your friends? Answer for a chance to win $100! Rules: http://binged.it/ih283u #decisions ^bb 1 hour ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto

    If you haven’t tried out our new social features yet, learn how your friends are fueling faster decisions: http://binged.it/jcELk2 38 minutes ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto

    The money will come in the form of a Visa gift card. To be eligible, you have to be a legal resident of the the 50 U.S. states and District of Columbia, and be 18 or older. Microsoft employees, relatives of employees, and employees of subsidiaries are all ineligible.

    I’m guessing Microsoft is using the contest to tap into the social community to spark some ideas for how to improve upon its social search integrations. It’s become quite clear that search in general is trending much more in this direction, and with Google upping the ante with its +1 button, Bing is uniquely positioned to get more out of Facebook – the social network that most already use.

    The official rules of the contest are here.