In an appearance Tuesday at a search engine conference, Ballmer said Microsoft believes Google Inc. has done things to gain an unfair advantage in the Internets lucrative search advertising market. He didnt specify the alleged misconduct.
“We are expressing some of the issues and frustrations we see” with antitrust regulators, Ballmer said. “Sometimes (its) unsolicited, sometimes because we have been asked.”
Google declined to comment Tuesday. But it has said its actions are aimed at providing better experiences for Web surfers and advertisers.
Yahoo Inc., which is about to team up with Microsoft in search, seems less inclined to get regulators involved as [...]

Microsofts “beta” test version of the Outlook Social Connector, an add-on for Outlook, was first discussed last November. When a user clicks to read an e-mail message, a new pane on the main e-mail reading screen fills with the senders most recent social-networking activities. That could be that senders new Facebook status update or a newly added professional contact on the business networking site LinkedIn.
On Wednesday, Microsoft updated the Social Connector software, and LinkedIn released the first outside plug-in for the feature.
Microsoft has a mixed record when it comes to Web trends. The companys free Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger [...]

Two years into his career as head of Microsofts business software unit, Elop says cloud computing and social-networking sites have created a “constructive disruption” that could be more of an opportunity than a threat. Office 2010, due by June, will include a free Web-based version for the first time, matching similar software from Google. Future updates may add Twitter-like functions that allow users to post short messages.
The dilemma for Elop, 46, is how to embrace Web-based software while protecting his units 64 percent profit margin. Under [...]

On Feb. 15, Microsoft will unveil its latest effort to get back into the game. The renamed Windows Phone operating system, set to be introduced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, will “move the bar forward,” Robbie Bach, president of the companys entertainment and devices division, told analysts on Jan. 7.
Microsoft, the worlds biggest software maker, needs to be in the smartphone market. The computing that people used to do on personal computers, where Microsoft has a lock, is migrating to phones. The iPhone, BlackBerry [...]

Second-quarter net income grew 60 percent to $6.66 billion, or 74 cents a share, beating the 59-cent estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue climbed 14 percent to $19 billion, boosted by a rebound in personal-computer shipments.
Microsoft has sold more than 60 million Windows 7 copies since it debuted in October, making it the fastest-selling operating system ever. Investors had anticipated the gains from Windows, limiting the stocks reaction to the earnings, said Todd Lowenstein, a fund manager at Highmark Capital Management in Los Angeles. Microsoft [...]

The computer will go on sale this year and was one of several machines that Ballmer showed off last night at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The sales growth from the year-earlier period is based on data from U.S. retail outlets monitored by research firm NPD Group Inc.
“Were talking about something thats almost as portable as a phone and thats as powerful as a PC running Windows 7,” Ballmer, 53, said of the Hewlett-Packard tablet computer and two others he had on stage. [...]

But people looking to buy Word or Microsofts Office package in the U.S. wont have to go without the software. Microsoft said Tuesday it expects that new versions of the product, with the computer code in question removed, will be ready for sale when the injunction begins on Jan. 11.
Toronto-based i4i Inc. sued Microsoft in 2007, saying it owned the technology behind a tool in the popular word processing program. The technology in question gives Word users an improved way to edit XML, or code that tells the program how to interpret and display a documents contents.
A Texas jury found [...]

1998
- December: Sun Microsystems Inc. complains to EU regulators that Microsoft is refusing to supply it with the interoperability information it needs for its server software to communicate with Microsofts Windows desktop operating system.
This triggers a lengthy EU probe examining if Microsoft has abused its near-monopoly over Windows to corner other markets for server and media software.
2004
- March 24: The European Commission finds Microsoft guilty, fining it 497 million euros and ordering it to share communications code with rivals within 120 days and market a version of Windows without a media player [...]

The new version of Bing Maps, released Wednesday in a “beta” test mode, offers slicker technology so users can zoom in more smoothly from the high-up graphical map to the close-up views showing actual streets from a pedestrian or drivers viewpoint.
With this version of Bing Maps, Microsoft matches Google Inc. in sending cars with cameras down streets to capture images of every block. Microsoft is offering that in 56 U.S. cities for now, while Google has hit all 50 states and expanded the feature overseas.
Microsoft also used lasers to scan the buildings and constructed a three-dimensional map of those cities.
That [...]

CFO Chris Liddell led an effort this year to slice $3 billion in costs at Microsoft after it became clear the technology sector would not be immune from the effects of the economic meltdown. The plan included Microsofts first mass layoffs, wage freezes as well as cuts to employee travel and other expenses.
He joined Microsoft in 2005, and during his tenure the software maker remained an avid acquirer of smaller companies, including a $6 billion takeover of Internet advertising technology provider aQuantive Inc. He was also on board when Microsoft made its $47.5 billion bid for Yahoo Inc. in 2008.
Liddell, [...]