Darren Straight’s Blog

Classic family card game Snap is making a comeback with an exciting twist today as comedy duo Dick and Dom unveil, BigSnapSearch.com, which gives you the chance to win fantastic prizes every time you search online.

Ditching their usual ‘Bogeys’ catchphrase, comedy duo Dick and Dom want to hear people across the UK yelling ‘Snap’ as they use BigSnapSearch.com for their everyday search queries, where if a pair of matching cards flash up online, you will instantly win an amazing prize.

Dick and Dom, who are fronting the campaign, comment: “Forget poker and blackjack, Snap is where it’s at! We both used to play the game as kids and now we’re calling for its return with the launch of BigSnapSearch.com. Big Snap is fantastic! By simply carrying out your everyday searches you could end up paintballing with your friends or even jetting off to the Caribbean!”

BigSnapSearch.com runs for eight weeks with prizes given away every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, ranging from Virgin experience days, to Virgin vouchers, through to a star prize for two to Richard Branson’s very own exclusive Caribbean hideaway, Necker Island.

So whether you’re searching for local cinema times, the latest news, or the answer to a mind-boggling question, BigSnapSearch.com will have the answer you want and you could also bag yourself a great prize!

Cynthia Crossley, UK Search director, comments: “BigSnapSearch.com is a great free prize draw where you can find relevant and timely information powered by Live Search and win prizes along the way. Spread the word and get all your friends to search via BigSnapSearch.com and you could bag the prize of a lifetime!”

For your chance to win fantastic prizes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, log onto www.BigSnapSearch.com and start searching! SNAP!

Just signed into Windows Live Messenger for Mobile this morning and recieved the following prompt:

Hello! Starting today, your 30 day trial period begins. By selecting OK you acknowledge that your use of Windows Live services continues to be subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Statement. Data charges from your mobile operator, including roaming fees may apply for using the Windows Live services. At the conclusion of this trial, you will be given the option to purchase a 30 day pass.

Image courtesy of Paul (MVP) from MoDaCo.

Is this message being sent out in error, or is this for real and Microsoft is really going to start charging us to use Windows Live Messenger for Mobile? After all when you use Windows Live Messseger for Mobile for the first time (e.g. after a hard reset of your device) you’ll get the following message:

Your use of Windows Live is subject to the Windows Live Terms of Use located at http://mid.live.com/terms.aspx?client=true and the Microsoft Privacy Statement located at http://mid.live.com/privacy.aspx?client=true. By pressing the ‘Accept’ key below, you hereby accept the Windows Live Terms of Use and Privacy Statement and acknowledge that you are aware of and have had an opportunity to fully review them at the URLs referenced above. In addition, your use of Windows Live may include a free trial period which is limited in duration. In such a case, at the end of this free trial period you will be given the option to either pay a fee to continue use of Windows Live through this application, or to discontinue use and not pay.

Interesting enough the Windows Live ID terms and conditions does contain a clause to cover this:

7.4 Trial Period Offers. You may have received a limited time of free service or some other trial period offer. Unless we notify you otherwise, if you are participating in any trial period offer, you must cancel the service by the end of the trial period to avoid incurring charges. If you do not cancel your service, and we have informed you that the service will automatically be converted into a paid subscription at the end of the trial period, then you authorize us to charge your payment method for the service.

Though before jumping to any conclusions, I think its best that we wait for an official confirmation from Microsoft as to whether this is true or not, or if it was just an error.

Update: Great news - it was an error:

Here’s what Jeff McKean a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft had to say:

Hi folks, Jeff from Microsoft here (any Mobians on the thread will know me from Amsterdam and a few other events) – first of all, sorry for taking so long to get back to you; we needed to do some investigation as Windows Mobile users were not supposed to get that message.

Here’s what happened: This week we rolled out a direct-to-consumer billing service for the Windows Live client on Nokia S60 in the UK and Sweden. Although we are considering doing the same at a future time for Windows Mobile, this has not been implemented – however, something happened and many of you saw a trial message on Windows Mobile devices. Windows Mobile customers shouldn’t have received any notifications of a 30-day trial and we are working as quickly as possible to correct this.

As you may know, we offer Messenger services through mobile operators on lots of handsets, not just Windows Mobile. Traditionally, customers have been billed by their mobile operators for many of these services, either directly or through their data package.

Last year Microsoft created it’s MSN/Windows Live Messenger Santa(northpole@live.com) for children to talk too and ask what they would like for Christmas but now it looks like Microsoft have had to have him removed after he got himself into some trouble!

The Register reported that one of its readers discovered that a chat between Santa and his young nieces (aged 11 and 13) about eating pizza made Santa talk about oral sex.

After turning down requests to eat pizza the bad Santa replied with, “You want me to eat what?!? It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else.”

Microsoft admitted the problem and said, “Yesterday we received reports that the automated Santa Claus agent in Windows Live Messenger used inappropriate language. As soon as we were alerted we took steps to mitigate the issue, including removal of language from the agent’s automated script.

We were not completely satisfied with the result of these actions, and have decide to discontinue the automated Santa Claus agent.”

Makes me wonder whether the following recent comment “hu are u really cos ure scarin me” which was left on my blog post about MSN’s Santa last year is from a reader who had a similar experience.

There’s recently been talk about whether or not the MSN and Windows Live product teams would be moving from the Microsoft RedWest campus to the new Advanta buildings in southeast Bellevue. But it’s now been confirmed by The Seattle Times that the MSN and Windows Live product teams will in fact be staying at the RedWest campus.

“It’s true that the [MSN/Windows Live] group was considered to be the candidate to move to Advanta, but is not moving to Advanta,” writes Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos in an e-mail. “… The reason is that, ultimately, it was decided that a move to Advanta would actually split the group. Not of all them would move. So they’ll stick together at RedWest. No word on which group may move to Advanta, though, as is the case in all of this activity, a number of scenarios are being considered.”

Got the heads up today in an email from Marc Liron a Microsoft MVP about a new Microsoft Job Posting for a Windows Live Program Manager position.

In which it is clear that Microsoft are planning to build a Flickr competitor “This feature team is building a next-generation photo and video sharing service that will compete with flickr, smugmug and other photo web solutions today. This is a “v1” opportunity.” and that it could end up be rather cool if all goes well “a fully interactive cinematic multimedia experience (a narrated 3D path through a Photosynth that you can control).”

Come make Windows Live the best place to share your digital memories! Heard of Flickr? YouTube? How about. Mac? This role will work across the new Windows Live division with teams like Spaces, SkyDrive, Messenger and Hotmail to construct a winning strategy for Microsoft in photo and video sharing. This role involves leading the team to design the strategy then build and implement a winning solution that will be loved by millions of customers. This feature team is building a next-generation photo and video sharing service that will compete with flickr, smugmug and other photo web solutions today. This is a “v1” opportunity.

This role requires a strong PM with several product cycles of consumer experience. Successful candidates will have strong strategic thinking, outstanding cross team leadership and a proven track record of shipping. The right candidate for this position has an entrepreneurial streak - and functions well as part of a team. The ideal candidate has experience shipping consumer web solutions.

The Digital Memories Experience team (DMX) is helping people make deeper connections with those they care about. We want to give you the ability to effortlessly share your memories, be that a simple slideshow of photos and videos (e.g. evolution of the Vista Slideshow or of Photo Story), a carefully authored experienced (evolution of Movie Maker), or a fully interactive cinematic multimedia experience (a narrated 3D path through a Photosynth that you can control). And we want to make it easy and fun to enjoy your photos and videos, whether that is on the PC in your office, the Media Center in your living room, the XBox in your entertainment center, or on your mobile device when you are out and about. DMX is a part of the Windows Live Experience division (WLX/LEX), which also includes Mail, Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, Spaces, Writer, Calendar, and Family Safety. To achieve our vision for digital memories we work with many other teams including: Core User Experience, Find & Organize, Graphics (Windows Imaging Codecs - WIC - and DirectX) in WEX, MCE, Expression, SmartFlow, and Xbox. [This paragraph brought to you by our love of keyword targeting :)]

Don’t you just love how Microsoft Job Postings (as well as other companies) give you some idea as to what they are up to next!

Microsoft has today stepped up its software plus services strategy with the launch of its next generation of Windows Live services that make it easier than ever to communicate and share information safely, from anywhere, and across multiple devices.

The new Windows Live offering is a key element in Microsoft’s software plus services approach, designed to deliver a desktop and web experience that work naturally together. This next generation (Wave 2) of Windows Live services provides an all-in-one package to help consumers easily communicate, connect, share and stay safe on the internet.

Today’s launch features enhancements to existing popular features, such as Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger and Spaces, as well as integration of some additional new tools into the Windows Live Suite:

• Windows Live Unified Installer: Offers the option of an all-in-one download for the full Windows Live suite of downloadable services
• Windows Live Events: A new service for planning events – from inviting friends with any email address to sharing photos after the event
• Windows Live Writer: A desktop application that simplifies the process of publishing content to a blog
• Windows Live Photo Gallery: A complete solution for finding, fixing, organizing and sharing your digital memories, including photos and videos

The new Windows Live Photo Gallery is a perfect example of the integration of software plus services in Windows Live. This application runs on Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2, and has built-in links to Windows Live Spaces and Windows Live Mail. Customers get the offline access and responsiveness of a rich application, plus the online service benefits of easy sharing and anywhere access.

“Entertainment, community and communication are all deeply intertwined elements of Windows Live,” said Sharon Baylay, General Manager, Microsoft Online Services Group UK. “The suite combines serious communication with a great deal of fun - sending videos, sharing photos, planning events, flirting, chatting, sharing stories and more.  We are offering a rich set of software plus web services covering communications, community and entertainment that our customers can use on their desktop or on the move”.

“Five years from now we expect every software product to have a companion online service to support it – customers will come to think of this as standard. It is our software plus services approach that allows us to deliver this and we are one of very few companies that can execute this at scale. We believe the seamless integration between online and offline services will enable us to offer our customers an enhanced user experience.”

The free upgrade for Windows Live is available to download at once, or users can pick and choose their favourite services at http://get.live.com/ and http://www.windowslive.com/

In case you haven’t seen chris’ post on LiveSide - there’s some exciting news (YAY :D) - Microsoft have just enabled the @live.xx signup page!

You can register/signup for your local Windows Live ID  (eg @live.co.uk) by heading over to http://get.live.com/getlive/overview or if it’s a global @live.com you wish then you’ll want to head over here - to the @live.com signup page.

So far the list of confirmed available aliases are:

Great news Windows Live Calendar Beta is now up and running and hopefully this time it will be permanent, unlike the other day when they were just testing!

You can check it out at: http://www.calendar.live.com/calendar/calendar.aspx

Or visit the Windows Live Calendar Information Overview page at http://www.windowslive-hotmail.com/calendar/

On opening up Windows Live Calendar for the first time you will be asked whether you wish to use the all great Windows Live Calendar or carry on using your original MSN Calendar as theres currently no option to transfer your events from MSN Calendar to Windows Live Calendar.

Once you’ve said ok to using Windows Live Calendar - if you’re a Microsoft Outlook user like me - you’ll notice that the Windows Live Calendar layout is in someways very similar to Microsoft Outlook 2007. With the Day, Week and Month Tabs. However it could be said that the Agenda Tab is a little like the Google Calendar Tab in Google Calendar Beta.

Some ways to add an event include double clicking on a specific date, single clicking the “Add” Icon on a specific date or highlighting a period of time and single clicking single clicking the “Add” Icon.

Once you have added the event Windows Live Calendar will let you know it’s done so and you will see it appear on the screen.

You can now hover your mouse pointer over the event to edit/delete the even or see what time it finishes/ends.

Update: Just imported some Calendars (Microsoft Outlook, Facebook Birthdays from Google Calendar) and all works ok!

Microsoft Live Labs have recently released their latest technology preview, Microsoft Live Labs Listas, a web-based application tool for the creation, management and sharing of lists, notes, favorites, and other such stuff. Listas provides you with a WYSIWYG which allows you to quickly and easily create/edit lists and share them with others for read or write - in sense a bit like a wiki. Listas reminds a little of cl1p.net - the internet clipboard.

Listas also features a Listas Community Section, in which you can find a number of highlights of the most popular and random items from around the community of public lists such as the most used tags, the hottest lists, and prolific contributors. Within the Listas Community you can also add other users lists or RSS feeds to your own Listas as well as adding users as freinds so you can quickly find them again.

You can even create lists from all the things you find on the web, like search results, wish lists, videos, or all or part of virtually any page with the Listas Toolbar for Internet Explorer.

Now the question is where could Listas progress to - could some kind of Windows Live Spaces intergration be the key?

Check out Microsoft Live Labs Listas at http://listas.labs.live.com plus the LiveSide Listas Page at http://listas.labs.live.com/user/liveside

Microsoft has today announced the final updates to the fall release of its Live Search service, introducing a broad array of new services and features to its local and mobile search offerings. The new features and enhancements are designed to make it easier for people to find what they need at home or on the go through significant innovations in mapping, imagery and driving directions as well as new services to make the mobile search experience easy and powerful.Microsoft also announced the availability of the Live Search 411 service. Customers can gain toll-free* access by dialing (800) CALL-411 (800-225-5411) from any phone to find and connect to local businesses and other local information, such as weather updates, movie show times and airline information. People using a cell phone with Internet access can also receive links to traffic maps from Live Search 411.

“Microsoft is building on several years of innovation in imagery and 3-D visualization, adding some of the most significant innovations to driving directions technology in the last several years and expanding how our current 185 million customers can experience the improvements to the core of Live Search to include access from a wider variety of clients, platforms and devices,” said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the Search & Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft. “Collectively, these improvements build on the work we did in core relevance and differentiated vertical experiences, and are an important milestone in our efforts in delivering a comprehensive, innovative search offering that includes mobile, mapping, Web and local services for customers to find what they need, when they need it, on any device.”

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of the release on Sept. 26 of several new capabilities for Live Search, which included significant improvements in relevance and coverage in the core Web search service and expanded the range and depth of information available in areas where most customers were doing most of their queries — entertainment, shopping, health and local searches.

Today’s release offers these key features:

Maps and Directions

• Innovative driving directions. The new Live Search offers more accurate and easy-to-use driving directions, including dynamic rerouting of directions based on real-time traffic information, one-click directions that allow drivers to get only essential directions to their destination with no starting point needed, and inline hints that tell drivers if they have gone too far based on local landmarks. Combined with new, one-page printing, these new enhancements have taken driving directions to the next level.
• Innovative visualization and 3-D. Coverage of bird’s-eye and 3-D imagery has been increased to cover 80 percent of the U.S. population. In addition, nearly 200 complete cities are available in 3-D, and customers can now combine views of 3-D imagery with Live Search’s unique 45-degree bird’s-eye images, giving a complete and detailed geolocation experience. In addition, people who use Live Search Maps can create and share their own 3-D models of buildings through an alliance with Dassault Systemes.
• Innovative local content index including user-generated content.The new local search capabilities in Live Search include not only a broad set of expert sources but also broad access to user-generated content from Live Search and from across the entire Web, through searchable user-created collections and Keyhole Markup Language (KML) support.
• Virtual Earth platform updates. The Virtual Earth™ platform is the underlying technology behind well over 1,000 partner mapping solutions as well as Live Search Maps. Updates in version 6.0 of Virtual Earth include multipoint trip routing; enhanced geocoding that combines results for multiple geocoders; rooftop geocoding, which provides more precise geocoding results; map control support for Safari 2.0; and the release of MapCruncher beta, making it easier to publish maps overlaid in an application using the Virtual Earth map control. More details on the Virtual Earth platform can be found at http://dev.live.com/virtualearth.

Mobile Enhancements

• Live Search for Windows Mobile with voice input. The updated Live Search for Windows Mobile® 5.0 and 6.0 will be available for download for free on Tuesday, Oct. 16, and now includes voice input (beta version), gas prices, and hours of operation for businesses. The service can also use Global Positioning System (GPS) data on GPS-enabled phones to provide location-aware local search for customers. 
• Live Search 411. Jointly developed with Tellme Networks Inc., acquired by Microsoft earlier this year, a new toll-free number will be available for anyone using any kind of phone to access the power of Live Search. Users can simply dial (800) CALL-411 (800-225-5411) and say the city and state, then ask for the business or business category to hear a list of options. Users say, “Connect me,” to instantly connect to the business. Cell phone users can ask for a text message with a link to a map of the business.*
• Live Search for use with BlackBerry® Devices. Live Search designed for use with BlackBerry devices is in beta and will be available for download for free on Tuesday, Oct. 16. It is a new offering designed for use on BlackBerry OS 4.0.2 or later phones, and customers with GPS-enabled phones can use location awareness to enhance their searches.

More information on the mobile offerings will be available at http://www.LiveSearchMobile.com and http://www.LiveSearch411.com.