Online services

Users of Internet Explorer can now get rid of those persistent "Flash cookies" thanks to the latest version of Adobe Flash and support from within Microsoft's IE.

Cookies are files created on your PC and used by sites to keep track of certain data, such as site settings and usernames. All the major Web browsers let you remove cookies. But one flavor of cookie, known as a Flash cookie, doesn't get thrown out when you delete your traditional Web cookies. That limitation has triggered privacy concerns.

But the latest release candidate of Adobe Flash 10.3 … Read more

Microsoft, which has had a bit of a turnstile at the top of its online advertising business, just replaced its top boss. The software giant today named Frank Holland to the job of corporate vice president in charge of Microsoft's global advertising sales business, the newly created Advertising and Online organization. Holland will report to Microsoft's chief operating officer, Kevin Turner.

Though the division is new, Holland is taking most of the responsibilities from Darren Huston, corporate vice president of the Consumer and Online organization. The other piece of Huston's job, the marketing of Microsoft itself, will fall to Chris Capossela, who was named senior vice president of the Consumer Channels and Central Marketing Group two weeks ago.

With Holland's hiring, Microsoft won't be filling the job Carolyn Everson vacated as corporate vice president of global ad sales and strategy when she left to run sales for Facebook. She'd been on the job at Microsoft for only nine months. Facebook hiring Everson led Microsoft to consider taking legal action to block the move, according to AllThingsD.

Holland has worked for Microsoft for 13 years, most recently as corporate vice president of Microsoft's worldwide operations. That job had little to do with ad sales. Instead, Holland led the company's agreement processing and invoicing, sales operations, and business planning groups, and was also responsible for the incentive compensation and training of the global sales force.… Read more

Microsoft has opened the tap on its cloud-based Office 365 and is now offering the service as a public beta for anyone to try out.

Available in 38 countries and in 17 languages, the new beta follows several months of limited testing among a couple thousand businesses that were able to kick the tires on the service. After the public beta, Office 365 will officially launch later this year.

Unveiled last October, Office 365 is Microsoft's attempt to offer businesses a cloud-based alternative to some of its traditional desktop and server products. The service combines Office Web Apps with … Read more

Microsoft and Google each grabbed a tiny sliver more of the U.S. search market last month, according to ComScore.

Both companies gained three-tenths of a point of market share in March, compared with February.

Overall, Google sites accounted for 65.7 percent of the 16.9 billion searches in the U.S. last month, ComScore said yesterday. Microsoft sites snagged 13.9 percent, while Yahoo sites held 15.7 percent. As always, ComScore's figures specifically track "explicit core" searches, which are search terms that people manually enter on a Web page.

Beyond the core search numbers, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Just weeks after launching Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft previewed an early version of Internet Explorer 10 at its Mix11 developer conference here today.

Microsoft went to great lengths to illustrate how deep its commitment is to HTML5 in IE9--the Web standard is pushed hard the new browser. That allows developers to create programs more simply so that they can be used on a variety of devices.

"It's just closer to what people expect from apps," said Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president of Internet Explorer, in a keynote address.

By putting its considerable weight behind the HTML5 … Read more

Microsoft today continued its cat fight with Google, calling out the company for apparently misleading customers about the security of its applications.

The software giant alleges that Google Apps for Government doesn't meet the level of security that Google claims. In a blog post, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, David Howard, said that Google's Web-based productivity suite for government clients is not certified under the Federal Information Security Management Act.

That's important because federal agencies, which are huge clients of both Microsoft and Google, buy technology based, in part, on whether it has … Read more

Microsoft has released more details about its Windows Intune product for customers eyeing the cloud-based PC management service.

Responding to customer questions, Microsoft has updated its Windows Intune FAQ page and served up a blog post yesterday to cover several key points.

Officially launched in late March, Windows Intune can take on basic PC administration from companies that don't have the staff to handle it internally. Perhaps best suited to small and midsized businesses but available to larger companies as well, Intune can keep PCs updated with the latest software and security patches. Business owners can also use the … Read more

Microsoft's Bing just added Twitter feeds to its news pages, giving readers the ability to quickly scan the latest buzz about the biggest events.

When Web surfers search Bing News for a story, tweets now show up in a scrolling column on the right side of the page under the heading "Public updates." So news links today about Elizabeth Taylor's funeral were accompanied by brief tributes from fans as well as promotions from publications linking to articles about the actress.

The idea behind the new Twitter feed is to give readers yet another source of information. &… Read more

Microsoft is kicking off its new cloud-based Intune PC management service on March 23.

Designed to help businesses manage and secure their PCs via the cloud, Windows Intune will launch to paying customers and those who want to check out the free 30-day trial, according to a Windows blog posted today. Intune has been available for beta testing since April.

Moving PC administration to a Microsoft-run cloud, Intune aims to keep PCs automatically configured with the newest Windows updates and protected by the latest antivirus security software. Beyond keeping PCs updated, the online service lets business owners maintain security policies, … Read more