Microsoft expert Mary-Jo Foley explains that the fifth wave of the Windows Live services is due in 2012 the earliest. In this wave, Hotmail could get revamped with HTML5-specific features too. For example, the Hotmail team is planning to support Offline storage.

If Microsoft makes full use of this technology, you would no longer need any separate e-mail client, as Hotmail would work even when you’re offline, offering you access to the messages already downloaded. This new HTML5-based Hotmail is said to replace Windows Live Mail as free e-mail client by Windows Live.

The introduction of Internet Explorer 9 was the start for a HTML5 initiative. The slogan “Beauty of the web” helps to understand the possibilities that web developers have thanks to the new HTML standard. Internet Explorer 9 is advertised as ideal platform for these features, as it was developed for Windows and supports native HTML5 applications.

With sticking to a standard that is supported by all browser manufacturers, Microsoft takes the correct direction. HTML5 definitely makes web developing easier. With their own services, Microsoft is becoming a model, after ignoring most web standards in the previous decade.

On the presentation slides, you could read known brands like Windows Live, Windows 7, Xbox, Bing and Office. However, according to the Microsoft expert Paul Thurrott, Zune wasn’t left out coincidentally. According to this idea, the offers marketed under the “Zune” brand will get transitioned to Windows Live.

My sources tell me that the Zune brand is on the way out and that all Zune products and services will be moved into other businesses, including Windows Live. Zune will essentially cease to exist under this plan.

This rumor is similar to some recent developments in the internal Zune team structure. The employees were divided into separate hardware and software teams. Opposite to Zune, the “Windows Live” brand had success in establishing, and is actively promoted by Microsoft.

However, these rumors were silenced for the moment, with an official statement by the Zune team on Facebook. This is what they say:

We’re not ‘killing’ any of the Zune services/features in any way. Microsoft remains committed to providing a great music and video experience from Zune on platforms such as Xbox LIVE, Windows-based PCs, Zune devices and Windows Phone 7, as well as integration with Bing and MSN.

It remains to be seen how long this applies, and how extensive this statement is to be taken.

Since several months, the Zune marketplace is open for European users, and central part of Windows Phone 7. Until now, Microsoft did not invest any money to make Zune better known in Europe. In the U.S., the brand is much better known. This is related to the Zune multimedia player, concurring with Apple’s iPod.

Some peaceful, silent, relaxing days with the warmth of your family is what we wish all our readers. While we take a little rest over the holidays, there is still much on the dawn regarding Windows Live, Messenger Plus!… not to forget the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas early next month. Windows Live will be there as well, and we will keep you updated with news and reports from there.

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; bingbot/2.0 +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm)

The HTTP From header is going to change as well. Old:
From: msnbot(at)microsoft.com

New:
From: bingbot(at)microsoft.com

Of course, the Bing bot will also apply robots.txt spider rules that you set up for msnbot. You can find more information about the Robots rules for Bing bot in the Bing Webmaster Blog.

Using Bing as your search provider is as easy as selecting it in the list and enabling it. Opera 10.6 for Windows, Mac and Linux are going to be released this summer.

Download: Bing screensaver (5.8 MB)

Thanks to Olli for the tip!

Since few days, www.live.com contains what it should: Your Windows Live Home. This home page will become your entry point for Hotmail as well, replacing Hotmail Today. For version 2010, a major restructuring of this page is expected. A note reads:

Live.com is now Windows Live Home.

Windows Live provides one convenient place online to send e-mail, share photos and files you create, and see what’s new with your favorite people.

What do you think about this decision?

When you visited live.com before, you would see the normal Bing homepage with a subtle notification bar added.  It looked like this:

Now, this notification design has been replaced.  Now you get to see a quite empty page with a central warning message (along with a small Bing search field).

The Bing homepage has moved from www.live.com to www.bing.com.  Please make www.bing.com your homepage.  Remember, when you want to go to Bing, type www.bing.com.  Thanks for using Bing!

Along with this, Bing now explains how to change the home page to Bing, individually for each browser:

So we can look forward to Wave 4.  It is coming—soon.

(Thanks to Dennis Ziolkowski for the hint.)

Several users have reported Bing’s voice function to crash on an iPhone 3GS and new 32/64Gb iPod touch models.  Furthermore, the application cannot be installed on an iPod touch (1G) without microphone, while the voice search is only one of the features and not necessary.

Bing on iPhone looks very similar to the search engine’s website—inclusive the changing background photo.  The image search displays results on a 4*5 images grid.  Bing can also read the user’s location on iPhones and iPods touch, either by GPS or known wi-fi spots.

Update: The Bing for Mobile team is working on an update for the Bing App for iPhone.  Justin Jed, Group Product Manager for Bing Mobile Search, announced:

We’ve identified that the issue relates to the region the phone is set to. We’re working on a fix for this right now, and we’ll update the app in the next few days. People will get the update automatically – you won’t have to update or reinstall the app. If you are encountering this issue you can temporarily work around it by going to Settings > General > International and change your Region Format to “United States.”

The Bing team also works on support for iPod 1G.  However, there won’t be any support for international markets in the near future.

The key features of the Bing application are:

• Daily image from Bing.com
• Voice search
• “Locate Me” feature
• Add pushpins and save locations
• Show multiple locations on a single map

Get the Bing App for iPhone and iPod touch for free.

The release of the Windows Live Messenger iPhone App is currently scheduled to take place alongside with Windows Live Wave 4—that is, spring 2010.

Stay tuned for more information about Windows Live Wave 4 soon.

Bing, the popular “decision-making” search engine by Microsoft, will become the only search engine for Yahoo! pages.  As part of the compensation, Yahoo! is to conquest the exclusive sales for all the online advertisements of premium customers in both companies.  Microsoft’s AdCenter, however, will manage the other online search ads.  Moreover, the US-American cartel still has to approve of the plans.

The co-operation contract takes place for 10 years.  For this interval, Microsoft receives a license for Yahoo!’s search techniques in order to integrate them into their own Bing and other applications.  Microsoft initially intended to take over Yahoo! completely, but Yahoo!’s shareholders declined.  Microsoft is anticipating a greater deal of the search engine and advertisement market, while Yahoo! calculates with fewer costs.

Today Microsoft unvealed its new format for the MSN.com homepage in a public preview.
What are the most interesting changes?

• First of all, the new MSN is lighter.  All this stuffed, bloated site is gone.
• A new, simplified MSN butterfly logo has been introduced, trademarked on October 12.

• Easy pastel colors highlight the topic areas of the site.
• A prominent Bing search bar has been embedded on top.
• There is a local version of the site with information around your city/region (see photo below).
• You have a number indicator how many unread mail you got in your Hotmail, right on the top.
• Widgets for Hotmail, Windows Live, Facebook and Twitter give you fast access to your social networks, with a single mouse click.  Of course, Facebook and Twitter are accessed with their respective authentication flows (Facebook Connect and Twitter OAuth).

In my opinion, MSN is now a worthy homepage, with info you want and access to stuff you need.  What do you think?

MSN.com has been a prominent “portico” to Microsoft’s renowned services to the end-user, while Live.com initially redirected to Windows Live Services’ “showroom” (http://ideas.live.com/). Then, when Windows Live Search took off, Live.com became the devoted home of Live Search, which was eventually cancelled due to decline in popularity and usage. As a result of Live.com being solely committed to Windows Live Search, Microsoft prepared a new location for its showroom, available at http://home.live.com/.

As part of Microsoft’s competition with Google, Microsoft made way for a personalisation page, much like iGoogle. However, due to the deprived advertising campaign and the little demand for a “replica” of Google, Live Search eventually declined. Yet, Microsoft did not give up on its Search service, thus, started all over by rebranding Live Search to Bing and working harder on advertising campaign and development of unique features. Therefore, to further publicise Bing, Microsoft decided to redirect Live.com to Bing’s website (www.bing.com). However, later announced that Live.com will be put to good use, perhaps something better than redirecting to another website, yet unfortunately, it is unclear what “good use” will it be put to.

• Will it offer the Windows Live services that Home.Live.com currently offers on its page?
• Or will it offer a new personalized space for Windows Live users?
• What will we see at www.live.com in the future?

• End of Life reached
• What people think
• Technical reasons
• Get Messenger 2009
• In case of problems

End of Life reached

Starting September 15, 2009, users are required to have the latest version of Messenger installed on their computer in order to sign in and continue using the Messenger service. To download the latest version of Messenger, go to the Windows Live Messenger website.

—help.live.com

Messenger 2008, introduced in late 2007, has many friends. Easy to use, clean glossy design. However, now has come the time to say good-bye to this version that was replaced by Messenger 2009 in January, as the Messenger servers will no longer accept clients using Messenger 8.1—Messenger 8.5 will follow shortly.

What people think about Messenger 2008

I have asked some people what they think of Messenger 2008. Here is what they said:

WLM 8.5 was user-friendly and efficient, while Messenger 2009 is more efficient and comes with a much sleeker design.

—Gregory Sampson, Messenger user

When Messenger 2008 came out, I was very enthusiastic, but then Messenger 2009 has topped this.

—Dennis Ziolkowski, Messenger user

It has now been a while since I used Messenger 8.5. I have completely switched to version 14, except for development purposes.

—Yousef El-Dardiry, BuddyFuse developer

Messenger 8.5 was the first sign of Microsoft maturing in how they designed the client itself. It was good while it lasted, but people really need to move on now…

—Will Ingles, interface and graphic designer

I miss the shared folders, otherwise I am very happy with 2009. I never had problems with it up to now.

—Max Messenger, Community evangelist

I always like the new Messenger versions when they are released, so I also liked Messenger 8.5 when it came out. With the current version in mind, though, I don’t like Messenger 2008 anymore…

—Frank Mänz, Product Manager Windows Live, Microsoft Germany

Messenger has been updated a lot, but it is not enough. Features such as contact card, what’s new, groups feature… need a complete update.

—Zhu Yan, Editor LiveSino.net

Technical reasons to upgrade Messenger

There is a security issue found in the Microsoft’s Active Template Library, which is only fixed in the latest version of Messenger.

Get Messenger 2009

You can get Messenger 2009 by downloading its installer from http://download.live.com/messenger.

In case of problems…

Several people have informed me about various error codes when trying to sign in to Messenger with the new version. Here are some troubleshooting tips if you cannot sign in properly:

• Reboot your computer and retry.
• Check for Windows Updates. For example, Messenger 2009 requires at least Windows XP Service Pack 2. To install the latest available updates, visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/, using Internet Explorer (even if you are using a different browser normally).
• In the error window, click on and take note of the displayed Error code. Then paste this error code into a web search engine (like Bing), type a space, the word “Messenger”, and submit your query.
• Visit http://people.live.com/ and try using the Web Messenger embedded there.
• I will make more information about solving Messenger sign-in problems available shortly—stay tuned!