MicroTechXP

Google continued to increase its share of the U.S. search market in February, widening the gap that Microsoft hopes to fill by buying Yahoo.
In February, Google’s share of core searches by U.S. Internet users rose to 59.2 percent, up from 58.5 percent in January, according to figures from market research company comScore.
During the same period, Yahoo’s share slipped to 21.6 percent, from 22.2 percent a month earlier, while Microsoft’s share slipped to 9.6 percent from 9.8 percent.
AOL is clinging to a 4.9 percent share, while Ask saw its share rise slightly to 4.6 percent from 4.5 percent in January. Worldwide, the number three search engine is China’s Baidu.com, behind Google and Yahoo but ahead of Microsoft’s MSN-Windows Live. [WashingtonPost]

Microsoft and Yahoo met on Monday to discuss Microsoft’s takeover offer for the Internet company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The meeting was said to be the first since Microsoft made its unsolicited offer for Yahoo, worth nearly $42 billion, on January 31. Yahoo rejected the offer as inadequate last month. The session was intended to allow Microsoft to present its vision of a combined company, and Yahoo executives mostly listened, the Journal quoted one of the sources as saying. [Reuters]

GLOBAL giants including Apple and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp are believed to be considering rival bids for the internet company Yahoo, which has received a $44.6bn (£22.6bn) offer from Microsoft.
The conglomerate InterActiveCorp was another company named as a potential bidder for Yahoo, which is said to be unwilling to give in to Microsoft without a fight.
After Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer made the offer in a letter on Thursday, it emerged that Yahoo had rejected a similar takeover attempt by Ballmer’s organisation a year before.
Yahoo chief executive and co-founder Jerry Yang is understood not to be Microsoft’s greatest fan, and would be prepared to line up another ‘white knight’ rather than concede to Ballmer. [Scotsman.com]

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Microsoft is expected to officially open the beta program for Windows Live Messenger 9.0 this afternoon (or early evening). Windows Live Messenger 9.0 is the next generation of Windows Live Messenger; this release is a “major” release and as such there will be no further interim builds for Windows Live Messenger. The beta program for Windows Live Messenger is by invitation only and those invitations were sent out last week on Tuesday - Wednesday (the 21st, and 22nd respectively). Currently the beta program has been limited to 5,000 testers and will later be expanded to a larger group.
As reported by several sites, the program was not put on hold at all due to the feature list being leaked over the holiday weekend, additionally, sites also reported that some testers had already gotten the build and that was just a rumor. Coincidentally, almost all of the sites that had posted the feature list for Windows Live Messenger had politely removed the list of features. Again, the beta program is expected to officially start this afternoon or early evening. We will be updating this post when the build is released on Microsoft’s Connect web site. We will share more information as it comes in and we will share as much information as we are allowed to by our non-disclosure agreement (NDA). [Winxperts.net]

Microsoft has officially opened the much anticipated and well overdue registration for the new @live.com email addresses. This minor update along with the rest of wave 2 of Microsoft’s Windows Live Suite allows users to now fully take advantage of Windows Live. Microsoft should have opened registration to the @live.com acronym when the company first started Windows Live, but nonethe less this is a welcome change. The company now gives users a change and the ability to get away from the old "Hotmail" acronym and finally puts their email service in-line with the rest of the Windows Live Suite.
View: Get your @live.com email address
View: Full Story @ Winxperts.net

Windows Live Messenger is the next-generation MSN Messenger. It has everything you already love about Messenger—your contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends via text, voice, and video—plus new ways to connect and share photos and documents effortlessly. As  always, it’s free to download Messenger and use most of its features. [Microsoft via Blink.nu]

Windows Live makes it easy to store and manage your communications and information, and share what’s going on in your life with the people who mean the most to you. Many of you have already tried out new versions of our web services – Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live SkyDrive beta, and the new Windows Live Home page beta. These have been designed to work together with a common navigation, so it is easy to switch between your e-mail, your space, your files, and your photos—from any browser.
Today Microsoft are releasing beta versions of a new generation of Windows Live software designed for your Windows PC that makes it easier than ever to get connected to Windows Live or other services. This suite of software includes e-mail (Windows Live Mail), photo sharing (Windows Live Photo Gallery), a great publishing tool that lets you post directly to your blog (Windows Live Writer), parental controls (Windows Live OneCare Family Safety), a new version of Windows Live Messenger (8.5), and more.
Starting today, you’ll be able to install the entire suite of these downloadable Windows Live services at one time, from one place, instead of going through separate installations for each service. Of course, if you don’t want the entire suite, you can still get each application individually.
This new suite of applications is a new way that we can make connecting, communicating, and sharing anywhere a terrific experience on your Windows PC. Together with our web services, we have a complete suite that combines the best of the Web and the best of Windows, and works the way you want.
Download: Windows Live Suite (Available later today)
View: Windows Live Blog

News Source: Neowin.net

Today Microsoft released a new page where U can find all the goodies from Microsoft at a single place.And the most important thing I found on this page is the looks.With the passage of day it changes according to time and location ,like this-

to this one-

The whole page screenshot

Here is some information about the page-
Windows Live Home brings your online world together in one place, from search, photos, logging, e-mail, and more.
With Windows Live Home you can:
Connect
Hotmail: Next-generation e-mail on the Web
Messenger: Chat with friends on the world’s most popular instant messaging network
Contacts: Keep one up-to-date contact list that you can access everywhere on Windows Live
Find
Search: Say hello to the next generation of search
Gallery: Personalize your Windows Live experience
OneCare: Help keep your PC safe and trouble-free, with protection that’s always on
Favorites: Get to your Internet favorites from any computer, and share them with your friends
Maps: Use road, aerial, bird’s eye, or 3-D maps to take you where you need to go
MSN: Keep up on the latest MSN entertainment, lifestyle, and shopping news
Share
Spaces: Your blog, your photos, your social network
Folders: Secure online storage and sharing
Be Sure to take a look at the page once- http://home.live.com
Source- Tech Today

Want a free 2GB e-mail with a cool e-mail address called @vista.aero ? If so then head on over here and get your own today!

The Windows Live Folders Team has expanded the beta.  Go now to https://folders.live.com or between now and 4pm PST and get in the beta.  They are only offering it to US residents, but international users can give it a shot anyway’s.