Microsoft

Microsoft has confirmed it is testing a new search engine called Kumo, based on technology from its Powerset acquisition, that is likely to be an early version of a soon-to-be-rebranded Live Search product.

"Microsoft is using the Kumo.com URL for internal testing purposes only," the company said via e-mail through its public relations firm Tuesday. "Given the depth and breadth of our current online service offering, we recognize a need to sharply define and align our online brands."

When you think of Web apps and services, Microsoft doesn't immediately come to mind. Lately, though, the company has been rolling out a slew of them, including several that match or beat competing offerings from Google, Yahoo, and any number of startups you've never heard of.

Which of those Microsoft services are the best? We've tried them all, and we've selected five free hidden gems.

As the Conficker worm continues to burrow into more Windows systems, it’s become apparent that not only are many users failing to keep up with their patching, but many others are running older versions of Windows for which patches aren’t available.

“During Conficker we realized that a lot of customers are on unsupported OSs,” blogged Roger Halbheer, Chief Security Advisor of Microsoft EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa).

Microsoft plans later this week to begin internal testing of Kumo, a long-anticipated update to its Live Search product, CNET News has learned.

Ultimately, Kumo is designed to be both a rebranding and an update for Live Search, although at this point Microsoft is describing it as "an internal test environment." "Kumo is the name of an internal test environment we are launching to a small sampling of employees...this week," a Microsoft representative told CNET. Kumo had been long rumored to be a possible name for the Live Search rebranding.

It's been nearly two months since the beta of Windows 7 was officially released to the general public, and some of us have been getting fidgety to know just what bugs have been reported and what will be fixed. Microsoft was biding its time, letting the information collect and nearly stagnate, when we finally got official word on some of the results of the testing process.

Microsoft has unveiled some of the changes it will make to Windows 7 when it moves from the popular public beta to its first release candidate.

From the start, Microsoft has openly admitted that some features are not included in the beta that will make the final version; and on the Engineering Windows 7 blog, the software giant has noted some of the changes it will make following feedback.

It suggests that the 36 changes listed are just a sample of some of the changes it will have integrated into the first release candidate of Windows 7, when it finally arrives.

Microsoft this week filed a patent infringement action against TomTom and accused the leading maker of GPS navigators of patent infringements. The software giant said that it attempted to negotiate with TomTom for a year before taking it to court.

Microsoft has updated Windows 7 beta to fix an unknown number of reliability bugs in IE8 (Internet Explorer 8) but stopped short of saying that the browser now matches the release candidate it has already delivered to users of Windows XP and Vista.

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer had some interesting things to say yesterday about which companies Microsoft sees as its competitors in the client operating system space. You'd think Apple was their number one competitor - and you'd be wrong. Microsoft sees two other competitors as their primary adversaries.

When Microsoft laid off 5,000 people in January, analysts and pundits pointed to plenty of reasons for the first major layoffs in the company’s history. The obvious culprits included the overall economic meltdown, Apple’s continued success and Wall Street’s desire to see a leaner Microsoft.

But the real cause of the layoffs can be summed up in a single word: netbooks. These lightweight, stripped-down laptops that sell for between $200 and $400 have taken a big chunk out of Microsoft’s bottom line.