November 24th, 2009

Microsoft isn't the only one developing a hardware-accelerated browser

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:40 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Google, Internet Explorer, PDC 2009, Windows 8, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Web Browser, Hardware, Graphics, Web Browsers, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft has shared very few details so far about Internet Explorer (IE) 9, but has said the company is planning to accelerate the performance of text and graphics rendering by taking advantage of the power of PCs’ graphics-processing unit (GPU).

Specifically, Microsoft officials said at the Professional Developers Conference last week that with IE9, it will be “moving all graphics and text rendering from the CPU (and GDI) to the graphics card using Direct2D and DirectWrite.” (Istartedsomething blogger Long Zheng posted a good write up on Microsoft’s hardware-acceleration plans for IE 9 last week, if you want more details.)

But as News.com reported on November 24, Microsoft isn’t the only browser provider planning to harness hardware acceleration. Mozilla is planning to do the same with Firefox. Firefox developers have posted a prototype demonstrating the ability to take advantage of Direct2D and DirectWrite. Google is interested in the possibilities of hardware-accelerating Chrome, as well, as News.com’s Stephen Shankland notes. Unsurprisingly, the Chrome team is keeping any plans, concrete or otherwise, close to the vest.

The Mozilla folks already are claiming they believe they’ll be first to deliver a hardware-accelerated browser. I’d bet they’re right. Microsoft officials aren’t saying when to expect a test or final version of IE 9. But if the IE team stays on the same trajectory that it followed with IE 8, I’d bet the earliest we’ll see a final version of IE9 is spring 2011. (My calculation? I’m betting Windows 8 will be released in summer/fall 2011, two years after Windows 7 was released to market, and that IE 9 — the version of the browser that will be part of Windows 8, will hit a few months earlier.)

Besides being unwilling to share dates, the Microsoft folks also are not yet talking about which versions of Windows they plan to support with IE 9. Will Microsoft still support XP machines with the next version of IE? There’s no word. My guess is IE 9 won’t work on XP. And based on the less-than-optimal way IE 8 runs on lower-memory XP machines, I’d say XP users might want to steer clear of it if it does run.

November 20th, 2009

Will Microsoft's Silverlight dampen the appeal of Google's Chrome OS?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:40 am

Categories: .Net Framework, App Compatibility, Corporate strategy, Development tools, Google, Internet Explorer, OEMs, Silverlight (wpf/e), Web 2.0, Windows client

Tags: Google Inc., Microsoft Silverlight, Operating System, Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation, Microsoft Corp., Google Chrome, Chrome OS, Web Browsers, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems

I’m not one of those ready to write Windows an RIP certificate now that Google has finally taken (some of) the wraps off its Chrome OS. In fact, after reading through industry watchers’ questions and Google’s answers about it, I’m thinking that Chrome OS may not look quite so appealing by the time it rolls out in late 2010. Here’s why.

First, as others have noted, Google’s Chrome OS is a new windowing system layered on top of Linux that is being customized to run on netbooks. Chrome OS is an “extension to Chrome,” the company’s browser, in Google execs’ own words. Google officials are billing Chrome OS, among other things, as a way to provide Web applications with the functionality of desktop applications.

Microsoft offers an extension not just to its browser, Internet Explorer, but also to Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Google’s own Chrome. That extension is Silverlight. Among other things, Silverlight is a vehicle for providing increasingly complex consumer and business apps via a browser.

At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this week, Microsoft rolled out its strategy and plans for Silverlight 4, the version of its browser plug-in that is slated for final release by mid-2010. Silverlight 4 is adding support for data binding, enterprise networking and printing, and lots of other features that are likely to make the platform more appealing to folks writing not just single-function, lightweight Web apps, but enterprise apps, as well.

Silverlight is a slimmed-down, cross-platform version of Microsoft’s Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) programming model. Each successive iteration of Silverlight includes more and more WPF functionality (and vice versa).

Some day — Microsoft won’t say exactly when — Silverlight and WPF are going to merge into one Web programming and app delivery model that, most likely, will be known as Silverlight, Brad Becker, Director of Product Management for Microsoft’s Rich Client Platforms, told me this week at TechEd. Now that the two share the same compiled assemblies, tools and the like, that idea isn’t really so far-fetched. Until that happens, Microsoft plans to continue to offer both WPF and Silverlight, steering developers of more complex, resource-intensive applications toward WPF and Web-centric app developers toward Silverlight.

When Google execs were asked during this week’s press conference where they shared more information (but no code or systems) about the Chrome OS as to whether Silverlight would be able to work on Chrome OS, they said no comment. Maybe they see Silverlight might be more foe than friend of the Chrome OS.

I understand Silverlight is not an operating system. But some Google watchers are questioning whether the Chrome OS is actually an operating system, either, or just a glorified browser. Unlike Silverlight, which can run on a variety of PCs and soon, phones, Google OS is going to be a dedicated Linux-based netbook OS that will only work with certain predesignated peripherals. Microsoft already offers a netbook OS — Windows — which doesn’t force you to run all apps inside your browser — and which works with lots of different devices.

Would you go so far as to say the Chrome OS is going to be more of a Silverlight competitor than a WIndows one? I’m thinking right now that may seem a bit far-fetched, but as more and more apps are designed to run in Silverlight, maybe not….?

November 17th, 2009

What's next for Microsoft's Azure cloud platform?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 3:47 pm

Categories: Azure, Code names, Corporate strategy, Database, Google, Management tools, PDC 2009, Red Dog, SQL Server, System Center, Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization, Web 2.0

Tags: Microsoft Azure, Data Center, Microsoft Corp., Data Centers, Microsoft Windows, Storage, Operating Systems, Hardware, Data Management, Software

In the past year, customers and developers testing Windows Azure have been running primarily brand-new (and largely Web 2.0 style) apps on Microsoft’s cloud operating system. But when will Azure be tuned to handle host legacy enterprise apps? And when and how will users be able to take advantage of some of the Azure technologies inside of their own “private clouds”?

Microsoft officials didn’t share dates for its next phases of the Windows Azure platform. But they did talk about some of their plans for their next steps with Microsoft’s cloud platform during meetings and sessions at the company’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on November 17.

Microsoft said the Windows Azure platform — which is the Windows Azure operating system and the SQL Azure database — is feature-complete as of today. (Officials said a few weeks ago that Microsoft wouldn’t begin charging customers to use the platform until February 1, 2010.)

“Our initial focus on the platform was on enabling Web 2.0 customers to develop and run their apps on it,” said Amitabh Srivastava, Senior Vice President in charge of Windows Azure. These kinds of applications are Xcopy-deployable, while older, legacy apps typically are not, Srivastava said.

Microsoft’s next Azure steps — which it will be executing largely in parallel — will be to get existing, and typically more complex, line-of-business apps to run on the platform and to make it possible for customers to implement Azure technologies in their own data centers (a k a, to be able to create private clouds).

To enable existing apps to run on Azure, Microsoft is planning to make virtual machines (VMs) available to developers, which they will be able to customize and run their legacy apps inside them. Srivastava wouldn’t provide a timetable or more details as to how or when Microsoft will do this. Apps running in VMs won’t be able to take full advantage of the elasticity, multitenancy, and other cloud functionality, but they still will derive some benefits, such as automatic cloud backup for apps running on the Azure platform. (The name of this VM capability will be “Windows Server Virtual Machine Roles on Windows Azure,” Microsoft execs later told me.)

On the private cloud front, Microsoft didn’t have much new to say at the PDC. Microsoft officials have said in the past that Microsoft won’t allow customers to run the Azure operating system in their own datacenters. Microsoft’s main focus here continues to be to provide customers with software like Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, etc., for them to run in their own datacenters. That said, Microsoft isn’t simply leaving the delivery of a private cloud solution to Amazon and other cloud competitors.

“Lots of the technologies we have in the cloud are things people want to run in their datacenters,” Srivastava
acknowledged.(He cited as an example the ability to run a scalable cloud-storage appliance on premises.)

Microsoft is working on a longer-term solution that would allow the company to offer datacenter containers that can be dedicated to individual customers, Srivastava said. That way, clouds can be customized for individual users and users will be able to manage these containers themselves. Again, Srivastava wasn’t ready to talk about deployment specifics or timetables for this. That said, “Project Sydney” (Microsoft’s newly announced connectivity offering for private datacenters and public clouds) shows the general direction where we are going,” Srivastava said.

Microsoft officials made a vague reference in this morning’s keynote to System Center in the cloud. I asked Srivastava if this meant Microsoft was looking to offer System Center as a Microsoft-hosted service, the way that it is offering Exchange and Office Communications Server as Microsoft-hosted offerings. That isn’t the case, he said; instead, Microsoft has opened up the Windows Azure management programming interfaces so that System Center — as well as third-party management products like HP OpenView — can manage Azure-hosted applications.

Not everything about what’s next for Azure is a longer-term direction. In sessions on November 17, Microsoft officials outlined some of the nearer term deliverables for Microsoft’s cloud platform. The recently introduced content-delivery-network (CDN) support for blobs in Windows Azure’s storage system is one of those deliverables. Another is a capability MIcrosoft is calling “Windows Azure Drive” (also known as Xdrive) which allows Azure developers to create a drive inside their virtual machines, providing them with an automatic back up capability. Microsoft plans to officially “turn on” Xdrive support in January, officials said.

November 16th, 2009

Microsoft search share continues its slow upward crawl

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 3:54 pm

Categories: Corporate strategy, Google, Search, Yahoo

Tags: Yahoo! Inc., ComScore Networks Inc., Microsoft Corp., October comScore Number, Games, Personal Technology, Mary Jo Foley

The October comScore numbers are in and Microsoft has inched upward for another month with its Bing search engine.

In October, Bing reached 9.9 percent, in terms of percentage share of U.S. searches. Bing hit 9.4 percent in September, comScore’s data indicates.

Bing’s growth came at Yahoo’s — not Google’s — expense, however. According to comScore, Yahoo was down to 18.0 percent share in October, from 18.8 percent in September. Meanwhile, Google’s U.S. search share rose to 65.4 in October,from 64.9 in September, based on comScore’s data.

In October, Microsoft began rolling out a number of enhancements to Bing, culminating in a bigger “2.0″ fall refresh last week.

If Microsoft’s search game plan is built on the idea of growing share substantially by combining forces with Yahoo, Yahoo’s continuing share loss is looking less and less likely to shore up that plan.

November 12th, 2009

Microsoft lines up testers for free Office Starter 2010 product

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:31 am

Categories: Apple, Corporate strategy, Google, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, Open source, SharePoint Server

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Office Starter 2010, Potential Tester, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is soliciting existing Office Live Workspace users to be part of a pool of testers for its forthcoming, free (but ad-supported) Office Starter 2010 product.

The ithinkdiff.com enthusiast site has posted a copy of the Office Starter 2010 invitation that Microsoft has sent out. Potential testers are asked to commplete a survey, which includes questions about the personal productivity applications and services they currently use. On the list are Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Apple’s iWork, Microsoft Works, Open Office and Microsoft Office.

In spite of its name, Office Starter 2010 really has little resemblance to Windows 7 Starter Edition. Office Starter 2010 is a new version of Microsoft’s Office suite that is expected to launch in May/June 2010. Office Starter will bundle together stripped-down versions of Word and Excel only, Microsoft officials said in October. (Stripped-down here means basic document viewing and editing only.) Starter will be ad-supported and free. Microsoft is positioning Office Starter as a replacement for the Microsoft Works trial that is often preloaded on new PCs.

Microsoft officials also said recently that Microsoft is planning to phase out Office Live Workspace, the company’s existing add-on to Office that allows users to share and collaborate on documents over the Web. Office Web Apps, another of Microsoft’s new Office SKUs being introduced in 2010, is the natural successor to Office Live Workspace.

Microsoft officials have said the company is planning to field a public beta of Office 2010 in November. Many are expecting that beta to be opened up next week, in conjunction with Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Microsoft is  on tap to make available public betas of Office 2010, Office Web Apps, SharePoint Server 2010. Microsoft also may show off the Office Mobile 2010 product, a version of Office for mobile phones, next week as well.

November 5th, 2009

Microsoft to add SharePoint access to Live@edu

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:33 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Google, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Web conferencing

Tags: Microsoft SharePoint, Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Live@edu, Content Management, Collaboration, Groupware, Enterprise Software, Microsoft Office, Software

Paving the way for its Office Web Apps rollout, Microsoft is adding SharePoint Online to the services it offers students and academics as part of its Live@edu offering.

Microsoft made the announcement at the Educause conference in Denver, according to a posting on the Live@edu blog. The SharePoint Online service should be available to Live@edu subscribers for no additional cost some time next year.

Microsoft officials played up both the collaboration and conferencing capabilities and the Office Web Apps access as being behind the planned addition. Students and educators are a big audience for Google Docs and expected to be one of Microsoft’s biggest group of initial adopters of Office Web Apps.

From the November 3 Live@edu blog post:

“In conjunction with the Live@edu program, we will be bringing a solution to market for students, based on SharePoint Online, for free. So what does that mean? Well, lets look at some possibilities:

“* Work with a class group on a research assignment – documents, background research, project plans can all be stored online and worked on from anywhere.
“* Office Web Apps support means that a user can access Office files on almost any machine to simply view the content, or to make essential modifications.
“* Microsoft Office integration ensures they get a rich, integrated experience with SharePoint Online and the Office Web Apps, if required… and of course offline access to files.”

Microsoft officials have said they plan to offer three different modes of distribution for Office Web Apps — Microsoft’s Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — due out by mid-2010. There will be a free, consumer-focused version that will be accessible via Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive service. There also will be two paid versions for business customers: A Microsoft-hosted version and an on-premises, user-hosted version. The two hosted versions will require SharePoint/SharePoint Online as part of the back-end infrastructure.

Microsoft already offers hosted Exchange email, among other Microsoft services, to Live@edu subscribers. The Exchange Online version for students/academics is known as “Outlook Live.” There’s no word yet on how Microsoft will rebrand the SharePoint Online offering that will be available via Live@edu.

(Hat tip to Network World for the heads-up on the SharePoint and Live@edu news.)

November 5th, 2009

Browser rivals to register official complaints about Microsoft's ballot screen proposal

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:49 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Google, Internet Explorer, Legal

Tags: Opera Software ASA, Ballot, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Web Browser, Web Browsers, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

The deadline for official comment on Microsoft’s latest rendition of the browser-ballot — the screen the company has proposed to download to PC users in order to appease antitrust regulators handling the Opera vs. Microsoft antitrust case — is next week. (It should be November 10, if the one-month comment deadline the European Commission set for itself is still in place.)

Google, Mozilla and Opera are preparing to weigh in separately with their suggestions, according to a November 4 round-up in the New York Times. These three Microsoft browser rivals still aren’t happy with the revisions Microsoft has made to its proposal. If the Commission decides their complaints have merit, more ballot testing and delays in implementation will ensue.

Mozilla execs already weighed in publicly (via a blog post) about their beefs, which include Microsoft’s suggestion that users see a screen which presents the top browser choices presented in alphabetical order by vendor (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera). Mozilla officials have said they aren’t keen on Apple’s Safari for Windows being No. 1 because it doesn’t work all that well on Windows. Mozilla officials haven’t offered publicly an alternative way to list the browsers on the ballot. I’m sure they’re trying to find some way to justify Firefox being listed first.

Opera officials aren’t keen on the Microsoft logo being at the top of the ballot, fearing undue influence on users (who already opted to buy a Windows PC, mind you). Opera’s CEO also said he wants to bar Microsoft from displaying a warning if and when users choose to download rival’s software.

There’s no word in the New York Times piece about what Google’s objections are. But I bet Google hated even getting a mention in the Times article, since that Google (like Microsoft) prefers back-room politics.

I’ve been a fan of the idea of Microsoft providing a browser ballot since the EC first floated the idea (and Microsoft opposed it vehemently). I was surprised Microsoft changed its tune and embraced the ballot, but I guess that seemed the least of all possible evils and a last stab at attempting to avoid a fine. (A fine is still a possibility; there’s no word on what the EC’s final remedy will be in the case.)

I liked the browser-ballot proposal because I’ve never bought into the idea that IE should be considered part of the operating system. Many less-savvy PC users don’t know there is more than one browser out there; they just assume IE is all there is. While many Softies and Microsoft backers have noted that Microsoft has done nothing to prevent users from choosing other browsers, the bundling of IE did make it unlikely that many PC users would know they had choices or how to get access to them.

I have to say, however, that this round of complaints by Microsoft’s rivals seem like nothing more than an attempt to keep Microsoft’s lawyers busy.

Microsoft has been losing browser share in recent years for a variety of reasons, including user security concerns (given IE is usually hackers’ primary browser target); failure to comply fully and in a timely manner with Web standards; the long lag time between browser updates from Microsoft; and problems with IE 8’s performance, especially on older operating systems and PCs. (I am basing that last reason on feedback from my readers.)

Being forced to compete for the love of users who actually understand they have a choice of browsers might do more to spur Microsoft to be innovative, timely and standards-compliant with IE than anything else would. That’s why I say bring on the browser ballot, but for users’ sakes, not for those of Microsoft’s competitors.

November 4th, 2009

The long and winding road to MSN's reinvention as a social hub

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:54 am

Categories: Advertising, Corporate strategy, Google, MSN, Search, Silverlight (wpf/e), Yahoo

Tags: MSN, Microsoft Corp., Portals, Web Technology, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

It took a couple of years, but Microsoft is finally making good on some of the ideas officials had for making the company’s MSN home page more viable.

Back in 2007, former Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Online Services Group Steve Berkowitz said Microsoft’s goal was to integrate more social-networking tools and pre-programmed content into the MSN home page. On November 4, Microsoft made public a preview of a new MSN home page that integrates Facebook and Twitter. (And Windows Live, too, the Softies note, usually as an afterthought.)

The revamped MSN home page — which execs say is the most sweeping face-lift the MSN.com site has had in close to a decade — looks less cluttered and easier to navigate. It’s also faster to load and has lost a lot of the “blue links” that dominate the current MSN.com page. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft’s Bing search technology is deeply integrated into the new design.

See Gallery: The past and future of MSN

The final version of the new MSN.com is slated to go live in early 2010.

“If there’s a hot new search term, we can put that on the page. We can surface Twitter and Facebook feeds to make real-time search available on MSN,” said Bob Visse, General Manager of MSN Product Management.

There’s also a big focus on making “local experiences” easier for MSN.com users to find and surface, Visse said. Microsoft will allow users to “interact with content in a programmable way.” Silverlight isn’t required, but if users have it installed on their PCs, it will “enhance” their video-viewing experience, Visse said. He said Microsoft will offer a list of Silverlight applications — such as gas-price indicator, for example — that users can get if they have Microsoft’s Flash competitor installed.

In 2008, Microsoft made MSN part of the combined Search, Portal and Advertising Group as part of one of the company’s regular reorgs. At that time, officials said Microsoft’s goal was to make MSN.com more of a socially networked platform. In an e-mail to employees, Senior Vice President of R&D for Online Services Satya Nadella said MSN was  Microsoft’s single largest source of ad revenue. He also promised that the next version of MSN would be “a software engine that delivers the most relevant and social online content experience.”

It’s easy to forget that shortly before Microsoft decided to focus on MSN as one of its major vehicles for consumer outreach, advertising and search that the company came close to getting out of the portal business. Berkowitz was one of the main execs who helped convince management that there was value in MSN and that Microsoft should keep the platform around.

These days, Microsoft is claiming that it has the largest worldwide audience of any of the consumer-focused portals on the Web. According to the company, 100 million people in the U.S. visit MSN every single month, and MSN added over 10 million new customers in the past year.

November 2nd, 2009

Microsoft Live Labs shutters ThumbTack bookmarking project

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 4:15 pm

Categories: Corporate strategy, Google, MSN, Research

Tags: Team, Blog, Microsoft Corp., ThumbTack, Live Labs Team, Team Management, Blogging, Management, Internet, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft’s Live Labs — its MSN-Microsoft Research “mash-up” — is closing another of its incubation projects.

The latest to go is ThumbTack. ThumbTack is/was a bookmarking service (somewhat akin to Google’s Chrome bookmark sync). Microsoft describes ThumbTac on the Live Labs site this way:

“Thumbtack is an easy way to save links, photos, and anything else you can find on bunch of different Web sites to a single place. Grab the stuff you want, put it into a Thumbtack collection, then get to it from anywhere you can get online.”

I recently received a reader query about ThumbTack. The reader said he had tried to find out what was going on with the service, via customer support, to no avail.

It looks like he wasn’t the only one. Here’s a mention of the same issue on a Microsoft Live forum. And here’s a “Geeks with Blogs” blog post I found from mid-October:

“I first posted to Live Labs Customer care about not being able to generate a new link a month ago and haven’t gotten any response. Now today I can’t seem to log into Customer Care for ThumbTack.

“The Thumbtack site is just a blank page… guess shame on me for not pulling my links out of that when it started acting hinky a month ago, but the promo page is still advertising it as if it’s viable.

“I can’t find any way to contact them, so I’m throwing this blog post out in case anyone that has some knowledge can assist.”

Microsoft is confirming ThumbTack is closing. Here’s the official word, via a Live Labs spokesperson:

“It looks that Live Labs recently decided to retire the ThumbTack experiment to focus the team on some of their other projects and ideas. As you know, the team typically has a number of incubation projects in development on an ongoing basis. This is nothing out of the ordinary but just the normal course of business for the Labs as they continue to stay ahead of key trends in a changing industry.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft “restructured” Live Labs by moving half of the Live Labs team into various product groups.  The Live Labs team has closed and/or put on hold a number of its other projects in recent months, including DeepFish and Volta.

Incubation project or no, it seems odd that the ThumbTack team seems not to have told its testers about its phase-out plans. I’ve asked Microsoft what testers should do in order to get any stored data out of the service. Stay tuned….

Update (November 3): A spokesperson just sent this update as to what the team’s plans are, regarding current ThumbTack testers:

“The Live Labs group has just restored http://thumbtack.livelabs.com. Any user can now log in and get their data out.  The service has been re-enabled through the
end of the month so that anyone negatively affected can access the service.  The project will be retired at the end of November.   The group apologizes for any inconvenience caused and is working on enabling an export scenario that should be available soon.

“The Live Labs website will note the retired status of this project later in the month to reflect these changes.”

October 19th, 2009

Ad agencies to DOJ: We like the Microsoft-Yahoo deal

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 12:19 pm

Categories: Advertising, Corporate strategy, Google, Legal, Search, Yahoo

Tags: Advertisement, Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft Corp., U.S. Department Of Justice, Mary Jo Foley

Four big ad agencies, under the auspices of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, has issued a public letter to the U.S. department of Justice supporting the Microsoft-Yahoo partnership, which the pair proposed in July.

The letter, dated October 19, is short and to the point. Here’s the full text:

“Advertising is the fuel that powers the Internet. Most websites depend on online advertising to survive – it’s what allows them to offer consumers free content and services.

“A very important form of online advertising is search advertising – the sponsored links that appear when a search engine answers a query. A healthy, competitive market for search and search advertising is crucial to the Internet’s future.

“We believe that Yahoo! and Microsoft’s proposal to combine their technologies and search platforms is good for advertisers, marketing services agencies, website publishers and consumers.

“These benefits are too important to wait for. As leading members of the advertising and marketing services industry, we urge the Department of Justice to bring its antitrust review to a speedy conclusion. This proposal enhances competition, and should be allowed to take effect as soon as possible”

The Advertising Association’s President and CEO Nancy Hill; Maurice Levy, Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe; Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP; Michael I. Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpubic Group of Companies; and John Wren, President and CEO, Omnicom Group all signed the note. (Microsoft recently sold its Razorfish ad subsidiary to Publicis Groupe for $530 million.)

Yahoo officials issued a statement on October 19, noting: “Yahoo welcomes the broad support this deal has received, and remains hopeful that the closing of this transaction can occur in early 2010…. In light of the fact that we’re in our quiet period ahead of earnings tomorrow, we’re not able to comment further.”

Microsoft and Yahoo announced their intention to enter into a complex partnership, via which Microsoft’s Bing engine would power a number of Yahoo’s online properties and Yahoo sales reps would sell ads for Microsoft properties. Some Yahoo employees (400 or so) are due to become Microsoft employees as part of the transaction.

The pair is hoping that by pooling their search assets they’ll creat a more formidable No. 2 online search/advertising alternative to Google. The deal is subject to regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and possibly abroad.