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Microsoft’s Live.com portal will change significantly this evening. No longer will it be a simple search engine with a few other services bolted on. It’s now a social network, too, pulling in activity information and content from around the web. They’re also launching Windows Live Photos and Windows Live People, and other services. Check it out at Home.Live.com.

A lot of what they’ve done is exactly what Yahoo has been talking about for over a year now - leveraging social connections that already exist (Yahoo is using email, Microsoft is using Messenger) and doing a lot more with it.

Users are automatically connected with any friends they have on Windows Live Messenger, which is by far the most popular instant messaging service worldwide (Comscore: Microsoft Messenger has 268 million worldwide users, compared to 116 million for Yahoo and 6 million for Google Talk).

Users are asked to build out their profile, and can also bring in content they create on blogs (or any RSS feeds, Flickr, LinkedIn, Pandora, Photobucket, iLike, Twitter, Wordpress and Yelp. When you do something new on those sites, the information flows into Live.com for your friends to see (in a very similar way as FriendFeed, Plaxo and others do today). Eventually, says Microsoft, more than 50 partners will be supported. When users add photos, write reviews, and update their profiles directly on Live.com, that content will be put into the activity stream as well.

The hope, of course, is to get people to hang out a lot more at Live.com. At least those people who use Messenger, since they already have their contacts established. Like Yahoo, Microsoft is going with its strengths, which in their case is instant messaging.

Microsoft’s software plus services strategy has clearly infiltrated Live.com as well as their approach with Office. Live.com users can now access a variety of online services like mail, calendar, photos, online storage, etc., as well as downloaded services that include a mail client, instant messaging, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, the Toolbar and other services. And now it’s also one big social network.

The result is an impressive personal productivity suite that makes me almost wish I wasn’t solely a Mac user.

The result is that Microsoft could do things like Amazon.com, which last month went into customers' Kindle e-readers and deleted illegally-sold copies of novels such as George Orwell's 1984 , he said.

Husband Evan Williams has been uncharacterstically silent online, despite the deluge of good luck messages the couple have been sent.

Facebook’s stats page indicate that they’ve 250mm uniques users, with 120mm unique visitors per day. I rarely believe numbers provided by vendors as they can easily be stretched so it’s important to compare third party data sources. Looking at just one source is never enough, but comparing trend lines across 3 multiple data sources really gives a greater view.

The specific numbers themselves aren’t as important as the overall trend that all three are indicating: Facebook continues to grow in unique visitors from three separate data methods. Two of the data sources indicate Yahoo.com is slipping.

Facebook continues to make a series of evolutionary moves in recent months, rather than react to the news, let’s take a holistic look at where the company is headed.   I’ve given my perspective to SFGate, now but want to dive into details here.  I’ll give my perspective, but as we’ve seen time and time before, the real value is the collective contributions in the comments. 
Evolving to a platform –not just a social network
Facebook isn’t a social network, it’s really a communications platform –in fact, when you look closely, it’s not unlike an operating system on the web.  Early innovations such as the instant messaging tool,then the applications platform that allowed 3rd party developers (called F8, correction: Just Facebook Platform) aren’t unlike what Microsoft offers to consumers.  What separates them from others is the social news feed which aggregates what others in your network are doing. 

Unique culture fosters innovation
It’s important to examine the culture and leadership of a company as it’s a strong indicator of how they’ll behave.  Young, innovative, yet somewhat reserved leader Mark Zuckerberg continues to make choices that don’t always include what the community expects –or wants.  In my visits to their previous HQ, it was much like a dorm room: spray painted walls, fancy cafeteria.  However recently, they moved out of downtown Palo Alto (to the determent of local businesses) to a centralized location on California avenue in biotech row off Page Mill.  The employee base, and culture reflect all of this: the age of the untainted product teams indicate this –In my ripe old age of mid 30s, I’m clearly one of the oldest during my visits.

Recent moves indicate move towards real time.
Fast forward to summer 2009, and we’re starting to see some radical developments.  First with the acquisition of Friendfeed which is mainly a talent acquisition and early snatching of potentially the next Twitter competitor, who they were unable to acquire.  Now we’re seeing indicators that they’re gearing up for mobile, and other devices like gaming consoles with a Facebook lite version that is quickly delivers the basic for those that need to quickly find out what their community is doing and communicate back.   Lately, we’ve seen indicators they want to find ways to improve real-time search, which means they can help consumers make real time decisions.
Awkward adolescence has its challenges
The continued innovation is spurred by the elusive business model –this awkwardness is a natural outcome of a company in growth.  I’ve heard a couple of times from various employees that they’re generating revenue (but there’s no official information available) yet I hear from brands that traditional advertising is ineffective.  Secondly, this constant innovation becomes a real burden on brands who have a difficult time understanding which tools to use and why, as well as 3rd party developers who are constantly rejiggering the changing API and Terms of Service.
What to Expect in Facebook’s Future: A Web Based Operating System
So what’s in store for Facebook in the future?  Here’s what we should expect:

    * Aggregator of all.  To win, Facebook wants it’s network to spread to other locations, then aggregate back to it’s website.  This centralizes Facebook (which can be accessed anywhere from any digital medium) as the hub of communications.   As a result, consumers will make decisions based on information from peers in this hubs, and brands will pay money to be part of it.
    * A new class of competitors –beyond social networks.  In the end, Facebook is an aggregator of all information that’s important to an individual and their friends. Who currently does this?  Media darling Twitter does this, Friendfeed (hence the acquisition) and existing web email systems like Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo have shown indicators they’re thinking about heading this way.  
    * Content to be more public –yet members may resist.  The option to allow profiles to be public and the vanity URL landgrab are indicators that they want to make information more public –yet the challenge will be convincing members to opt-in.
    * Facebook.com as a destination isn’t as important.  To be successful, Facebook will need to spread to many websites (like corporate ones) and experiences, this is why Facebook Connect (authentication for 3rd parties) matters.  This Era of Social Colonization empowers the FB experience to spread to other websites.
    * Monetization engines to turn on.  The constant innovation of dozens of products are akin to ‘throwing pasta at the wall’ to see what sticks.  Facebook’s 250mm user base is nearing mainstream web portal (see traffic compared to Google and Yahoo) they’re quickly closing the gap.
    * No kingdom lasts forever.  We see this time and time again, technology companies supernova, grow then fail to innovate from political tape and sheer size.  

This is my take, yet it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only opinion.  I hope to hear what you think holds in store for Facebook in the coming years, love to hear your comments.

Apparently Microsoft isn't doing everything with Windows 7 differently from how it did Windows Vista.

As was the case with Vista, Windows 7 will get its formal launch in the Big Apple. CEO Steve Ballmer will preside over the October 22 event, with the usual array of hardware partners showing off their latest wares.
But that's not the only Gotham event for Microsoft in October. The company is also doing a consumer open house at the Park Avenue Armory, led by Robbie Bach, on October 6. Microsoft plans to highlight everything from the Zune and new phones to hardware products like keyboards and mice.

Microsoft is hoping to turn that event into an annual event.

New York was also the site of Vista's launch, which included a fancy lunch at Cipriani with the press, a human billboard as well as a trip to Best Buy for Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft finalized the code for Windows 7 last month. It will hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs on October 22, though some large businesses with volume licenses can already get the code if they wish.

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market).

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com.

Ecommerce Benefits

1. The internet is ubiquitous, accessible and low-cost
2. eCommerce can be accessed through diverse froms of technology
3. The time to market is shortened
4. Existing card payment schemes can be adapted
5. Significant opportunities for rationalizing operations and downsizing
6. No Geographical constraints
7. Middleman can be eliminated from the supply chain.
8. Stockholdings can be minimized or eliminated through just-in-time manufacturing processes.

Ecommerce Transactions

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) isn’t a technology. It is really several technologies, each flourishing in it’s own right, coming together in powerful new ways.

How does Ajax Work?
With Ajax, Web application finally starts feeling like desktop application to users. That is because Ajax enables your web applications to work behind the scenes, getting data as they need it, and displaying that data as you want. And as more and more people get fast internet connections, working behind the scenes to access data is going to become all the rage, soon, it will be impossible to distinguish dedicated desktop software from software that is actually on the Internet, far from the user’s machine.

Ajax incorporates:

1. Standards-based presentation
   XHTML and CSS
2. Dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model
3. Data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT.
4. Asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest
5. and JavaScript binding together

The key elements of Ajax

Ajax is not a single technology. Rather, it is a collection of four technoligs that complement one another.

With enhancements for Mail, Messenger, and Search, Yahoo continues to develop as a social destination site. In a move to reaffirm its commitment to innovation under recently appointed CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo on Monday introduced enhancements to its search, e-mail and instant messaging software.

Ari Balogh, Yahoo EVP of products and CTO, described the changes as a reflection of the company's focus on helping people connect. "This renewed focus on providing a more personally relevant online experience began with our recent Yahoo homepage launch and continues to come to life across products like Mail, Messenger and Search -- with much more to come," he said in a statement.
Yahoo Mail, the most popular commercial e-mail service in the world, has become more adept at surfacing content from friends. It now separates e-mail from people in one's contacts list from other messages, to clarify when friends have something to say. And by entering personal profile information, Yahoo Mail users can share updates they make and can receive updates that friends make at a variety of Web sites.

Yahoo Mail can also be used with a growing number of third-party services like Evite, Flickr, and PayPal. Sending an Evite, for example, can now be done without leaving Yahoo Mail. It also features drag-and-drop photo sharing, an improved design, increased attachment size limits, and a better user experience on mobile phones.

Innovation of this sort will be critical if Yahoo Mail is to remain ahead of Google's Gmail, which recently became the third most popular e-mail service and appears to be on track to take the number two spot from Microsoft's Hotmail in the first quarter of next year.

Yahoo Messenger 10, Yahoo's instant messaging application, also adds an update tracking feature, as well as the ability to conduct video calls. It comes with a language selector that allows users to run the application in one of 16 languages.

Yahoo introduced several new search features that should serve to differentiate a Yahoo Search from a Microsoft Bing search. This is likely to become more important once Microsoft begins providing Yahoo's search infrastructure, per the recently announced deal between the two companies.

Yahoo says that its new search experience is better integrated with Yahoo's recently renovated homepage design. The change, Yahoo claims, makes search more personally relevant.

"One of the designs we have been testing aligns the page framework and design with the new Yahoo Homepage," said Larry Cornett, VP of Yahoo's consumer products, in a blog post. "Not only does this create a more integrated Yahoo product experience, it also provides quick access to valuable search-specific applications and features in the left-hand column. For example, the section titled 'Show Results From' helps people explore the results that matter most to them through sites they know and love."

Other additions include greater weighting of search history for determining search result relevance, improved access to search preference settings, and expanded availability for Search Assist, Yahoo's real-time search suggestion technology.

You don't have to be some high-paid auteur or even create a wildly popular character like "Fred" to cash in on YouTube.
Google announced Tuesday that its video site is opening the YouTube Partnership Program to the masses--provided they're packing a hot video.

YouTube said in a note posted to Google's blog that it will enable users who start accumulating lots of hits to generate revenue from their clips--provided they meet YouTube's terms.

"To determine whether a particular video is eligible for monetization, we look at factors like the number of views, the video's virality, and compliance with the YouTube terms of service," YouTube said in the blog. "If your video is eligible for monetization, you will receive an e-mail and see an 'Enable Revenue Sharing' message next to your video on the watch page, as well as in other places in your account."

Once a user says yes, YouTube goes to work selling advertising against the user's video.

Critics have always knocked YouTube's alleged inability to monetize the amateur-made videos on the site. Advertisers were afraid to get anywhere near this kind of content because it was too unpredictable. But that was when people thought YouTube would only serve ads against all of the content on its site.

The program gives YouTube the ability to choose only the choice material.

"It's taken us some time," YouTube wrote, "to build out the YouTube Partnership Program, our content-management tools and other infrastructure to handle expanding the (program) to so many individual users and videos."

Microsoft Corp.warned last week that an injunction preventing it from selling Word in the U.S. after Oct. 10 would cause "massive disruptions" to sales of its Office software, as well as to key partners like Best Buy Co., Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

A week earlier, U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis had issued the injunction and ordered that Microsoft pay $290 million in damages and interest to Toronto-based i4i Inc. for infringing on that company's patent for a document system that uses XML custom formatting.

The i4i technology allows users of Word 2003, Word 2007 and Word for Mac 2008 to create custom XML documents. 

In its emergency motion filed Aug. 18 with the U.S. Court of Appeals, Microsoft warned of the business disruption and asked that the injunction be stayed during the appeal.

"Even if Microsoft ultimately succeeds on appeal, it will never be able to recoup the funds expended in redesigning and redistributing Word, the sales lost during the period when Word and Office are barred from the market, and the diminished goodwill from Microsoft's many retail and industrial customers," Microsoft argued.

The company also said that an injunction would "inflict irreparable harm on Microsoft by potentially keeping the centerpiece of its product line (Office) out of the market for months."

Barry Negrin, a partner at New York law firm Pryor Cashman LLP who has practiced patent and trademark law for 17 years, said that Davis' conclusion that Microsoft willfully infringed on the i4i patent will probably hurt the company's chances for an injunction.

In a 65-page summary opinion, Davis said that Microsoft knew of the patent held by i4i as early as 2001 but nevertheless set out to make the Canadian developer's software "obsolete" by adding a custom XML feature to Word.

Negrin also contended that Microsoft could use an "easy technical work-around" to sidestep the injunction.

"All Microsoft has to do is disable the custom XML feature, which should be pretty easy to do, then give that a different SKU number from what's been sold, so it's easy to distinguish the two versions," he said.

Microsoft requested that the court order i4i to respond to its motion by Aug. 24, and it promised to reply to any i4i response by Aug. 28.

This version of the story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) have confirmed that they have joined the Open Book Alliance, a newly formed group opposed to the Google Book settlement.

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) also reportedly joined the coalition, which is expected to make an announcement next week. Amazon, however, declined to comment. The Open Book Alliance is a distinct organization from the Open Content Alliance, a group with similar goals created by Yahoo, the In, ternet Archive, and many universities.

Last October, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) reached a settlement with the authors and publishers who brought a lawsuit against Google for scanning books for its search index without permission. The settlement awaits approval from the judge overseeing the case. The U.S. Department of Justice is also weighing whether the settlement merits antitrust action.

A fairness hearing to consider approval of the settlement is scheduled for October 7. The deadline for objections to the settlement is September 4.

The major areas of contention revolve around issues of privacy, exclusivity, and indemnification from liability. Critics of the settlement want Google to commit to: offering online readers the same privacy protection enjoyed by offline readers; an open registry system rather than one controlled by two publishing industry groups; and indemnification from copyright claims for those who want to scan orphaned works -- books for which the copyright holder cannot be found -- as Google has done.

In May, Google said that it planned "to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any Web-enabled device," showing that Google Book Search will become a platform for Google book sales. This presumably explains Amazon's reported decision to join the coalition opposing the settlement.

To Google, Microsoft's public opposition seems incongruous because the company shuttered its Live Book Search project last year "to focus on search verticals with high commercial intent, such as travel." "The Google Book settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition," said Google spokesperson Gabriel Stricker in an e-mailed statement. "That said, it's ironic that some of these complaints are coming from a company that abandoned its book digitization effort because it lacked 'commercial intent.'"

Yet, there's incongruity too in Google's reluctance to brawl publicly with the company that it opted not to name in its statement despite the growing number of skirmishes that Google and Microsoft face across an increasingly broad number of markets.

Two years ago, Google engineers, product managers, and executives tended to downplay competition between the two companies, in part to blunt the efforts of journalists to highlight the corporate conflict. Google Docs, said CEO Eric Schmidt at the 2007 Web 2.0 Expo, doesn't really compete with Microsoft Office. Google Docs "does not have all the functionality, nor is it intended to have all the functionality, of Microsoft Office," he said.

Yet, with the City of Los Angeles weighing whether to replace e-mail and productivity applications from Novell and Microsoft with Google Apps, it's clear that competition between the two companies is real and a matter of high stakes. This has been evident too in Microsoft's opposition to Google's DoubleClick acquisition, its role in rousing the Department of Justice to derail the ad deal that Google last year planned to consummate with Yahoo, and its support for a broad antitrust case against Google.

Google insiders have acknowledged being surprised by the breadth of the opposition to the Book Search settlement and the company has recently been more energetic about making its views known.

In one contentious aspect of the settlement, privacy, Google has been unable to answers to satisfy critics because the settlement doesn't spell out the technical specifics the company claims must be known before commitments can be made. And other complaints about the settlement having to do with the registry are matters in which the publishing industry plaintiffs will have a greater say than Google.

What's clear at this point is that Google, its competitors, and its critics will be wrestling over the settlement until the judge finally rules in two months.

InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on Google's upcoming Chrome OS. Download the report here (registration required).