Cheeseburger, Fries and a Large Google, Please

Brands become huge when they're used as common words. A Kleenex is a tissue to most -- doesn't matter who cut down the trees to make it. A Coke is a cola, and most of us would gladly accept a Pepsi or even an RC if the real thing wasn't available.

And when we search the Internet, we don't MSN Live Search it -- we Google it, baby!

And that ubiquity is the main reason why Google is the most valuable brand in the world today, two places ahead of Microsoft.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 24, 20070 comments


Unwinding the Ribbon

A week or two ago, I asked faithful Redmond Report readers if they love or hate the Office ribbon interface . First, I want to thank the 50 or so folks that took the time to write. Your work was not in vain.

About half of your letters were posted in the newsletter, and I showed the other half to an Office product manager when I was in Redmond last week. His eyes bugged out a bit when he saw just how disruptive the new interface is. While many would never return to the standard toolbar, most of you wish Microsoft would go back in time and reverse its decision to go with the ribbon.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 24, 20070 comments


Dell XP Backtrack Not as Bad as It Seems

Late last week, news broke that Dell was once again offering XP to home users wary of Vista.

Offering old OSes is old news for the corporate market which upgrades far more slowly than power users, gamers and your run-of-the-mill teen. But critics have come out of the woodwork, arguing that the Dell move means that Vista has entirely stalled. I don't think that's true at all.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 23, 20070 comments


Google's Search for Profits Yields $1 Billion

The Google train keeps a-rolling, pulling in more money, more press and more search market share.

All this momentum pushed revenues to $3.6 billion for the latest quarter with profits of over a billion dollars (who says software doesn't have healthy margins?).

While pundits see Google as perhaps the future of end user software, the vast majority of Google's dough comes from good, old-fashioned ad dollars, which are spent in new-fashioned ways.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 23, 20070 comments


Intel Crushes AMD Groove

Always spunky AMD put a hurt on Intel with faster chips for game PCs, cheaper prices, a killer 64-bit strategy and by leading the dual-/multi-core charge.

You had to know Intel wasn't going to take this guff forever, and you were right. The chip giant took the gloves off and whacked AMD soundly with even lower prices, an aggressive dual-core plan and by leveraging its many OEM relationships. All that helped drive AMD results down faster then a 2001 Enron share price, as AMD lost over $600 million in its latest quarter.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 23, 20070 comments


Microsoft Scrambles To Fill DNS Hole

We talked last week about a Windows Server DNS vulnerability that has had IT hopping -- both hopping to fix it and hopping mad!

Well, folks, Microsoft is on the case, working around the clock to build what observers call a "mega-patch" which could be delivered before next month's Patch Tuesday.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 23, 20070 comments


Microsoft Aims for Richer Web

Microsoft dialed into the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas and showed off Silverlight , a new tool for building rich interactive Web apps and for running TV-quality video in a browser.

The widespread perception is that Microsoft is way behind Google and other competitors when it comes to Web apps and Software as a Service. But as one of the founders of Redmond Developer News magazine, which covers Microsoft's development tools, I'm not so sure.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 17, 20070 comments


DoubleClick Away Your Privacy

Here's a cool twist: Microsoft is arguing that Google, with its impending purchase of DoubleClick , will have too much monopoly power. Not only that, but Google may simply know too much about our private lives, the boys from Redmond argue More

Posted by Doug Barney on April 17, 20070 comments


Virtually Late

Microsoft, locked in a pitched battle over virtualization with VMware, is seeing some key products slip . Delayed products include Virtual Server 2005 and a test version of Windows Server virtualization (dubbed "Viridian").

These delays are far from fatal. I expect the VMware/Microsoft virtualization war to rage for years.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 17, 20070 comments


Word Problems Multiply

Microsoft Word can't win for losing these days. First, it has critics like me who, after two decades, still can't figure out how to use the software properly.

But more problematic are the holes that security experts keep finding. In April alone, a handful of vulnerabilities were found for Word, including a big one for Word 2007, the latest and greatest in a long line of Microsoft word processors.

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Posted by Doug Barney on April 16, 20070 comments


Mac OS Can Be Late, Too!

I just saved $2,000. I was all set to buy a Mac laptop as soon as Leopard, the new OS, shipped this spring. Fortunately for my bank account, Leopard is being pushed back to this fall . It seems that Leopard developers are being switched over to the iPhone project so that it can stay on track to ship in June. More

Posted by Doug Barney on April 16, 20070 comments


Dissing DNS

Windows Server's DNS has a vulnerability so severe that Microsoft rushed out a security bulletin that includes workarounds. A hacker could use the hole to run code as a local administrator, essentially taking total control of the system.

While this isn't great news, hats off to Microsoft for confronting the issue so aggressively!

Posted by Doug Barney on April 16, 20070 comments