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.

The latest Virtual Earth release of imagery and photogrammetrics includes 36.3 TB of photography and models of 58 new cities worldwide! At a high level the Virtual Earth team have updated the Manhattan imagery, added 44 new cities with their Microsoft (Vexcel) ortho imagery, 36 new US bird’s eye areas, 26 new European bird’s eye areas, 5 areas of US orthos from GlobeXplorer, 17 international orthos from GeoEye, updated UK photos from GetMapping and Holland orthos from Digital Colour Orthophotomap of the Netherlands (DKLN).

Orthos (3Di Hi-res {15cm, unless indicated - Microsoft proprietary}):
United States
Allentown, PA
Bridgeport, CT
Cary, NC
San Bernardino, CA
Pasadena, CA
Ogden, UT
Manchester, NH
Fontana, CA
Corona, CA
Chino, CA
Gladstone, MO
Newport News, VA
Riverside, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
Stamford, CT
Waterbury, CT
West Valley City, UT
Aurora, CO
St. Louis, MO
Kansas City, KS
Eau Claire, WI
Cleveland, OH
Arvada, CO
Boulder, CO
Davenport, IA
El Monte, CA
Independence, MO
Kansas City, MO
Lakewood, CO
Overland Park, KS
Peoria, IL
Salem, OR
Topeka, KS
Wichita, KS
Eugene, OR
Fargo, ND
Green Bay, WI
Medford, OR
Nampa, ID
Springfield, IL
Waukegan, IL

International (3Di Hi-res {15cm, unless indicated - Microsoft proprietary}):
Calgary, Canada (30cm, 2006)
Quebec, Canada(30cm)
Tokyo, Japan

United States (GlobeXplorer, 1ft):
Birmingham, AL
Portland, AL
Maryland/Northern Virgina
Tampa/Ft. Myers, FL
Sacramento Region, CA

International (GeoEye, 1m):
Valencia, Spain
Oporto, Spain
Thessaloniki (Salonica), Greece
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Goteborg, Sweden
Copenhagen, Denmark
Brussels, Belgium
Oslo, Norway
Grand Canaria/Las Palmas, Canary Islands
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Casablanca, Morocco
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tahiti, French Polynesia
Moscow, Russia
Christchurch, New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand

United Kingdom (GetMapping):
England/Wales
Scotland
Holland (DKLN)

Obliques
United States (Pictometry):
Kern, CA
Shasta, CA
El Paso, CO
Danbury, CT
City of East Haven, CT
Prince George, MD
Kalamazoo, MI
Kent, MI
St Louis, MO
Mississippi Metro, MS
Mecklenberg Metro, NC
Raleigh, NC
Hunterdon Metro, NJ
Columbia, NY
Erie, NY
Nassau, NY
Niagara, NY
Orange, NY
Rensselaer, NY
Steuben, NY
Ulster, NY
Poughkeepie Metro, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Harrisburg Metro, PA
Greenville, SC
Spartanburg, SC
Loudon, TN
Knoxville, TN
McLennan, TX
Nueces, TX
Potter-Randall, TX
Beaufort Metro, TX
Richmond, VA
Fairfax, VA
Skagit, WA
Dane, WI

Europe (Blom):
Brussels, Belgium
Luzern, Switzerland
Winterthur, Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
Frankfurt, Germany
Madrid, Spain
Zaragoza, Spain
Castleford, UK
Chester, UK
Crewe, UK
Darlington, UK
Dearne Valley Urban Area, UK
Harrogate/Knaresborough, UK
Hartlepool, UK
Leeds, UK
London, UK (several Areas of Interest)
Macclesfield/Pretsbury, UK
Middlesborough, UK
Milton Keynes, UK
Newcastle, UK
Reading/Workingham, UK
Scarborough, UK
Scunthorpe, UK
York, UK

3D Cities
UNITED STATES
CALIFORNIA
Chino (124 sq. mi.)
Corona (65.17 sq. mi.)
El Monte (129 sq. mi.)
Fontana (100 sq. mi.)
Fullerton (122 sq. mi.)
Ontario (99.43 sq. mi.)
Pasadena (108 sq. mi.)
Riverside (123 sq. mi.)
San Bernardino (126 sq. mi.)

COLORADO
Arvada (207 sq. mi.)
Aurora (237 sq. mi.)
Boulder (131 sq. mi.)
Lakewood (108 sq. mi.)

CONNECTICUT
Hartford (89.32 sq. mi.)
New Haven (70.29 sq. mi.)
Waterbury (81.46 sq. mi.)

IOWA
Davenport (93.46 sq. mi.)

IDAHO
Nampa (103 sq. mi.)

ILLINOIS
Peoria (83.34 sq. mi.)
Springfield (79.38 sq. mi.)
Waukegan (77.33 sq. mi.)

KANSAS
Kansas City (53.21 sq. mi.)
Overland Park (168 sq. mi.)
Topeka (74.54 sq. mi.)
Wichita (97.86 sq. mi.)

MASSACHUSSETS
Lowell (85.32 sq. mi.)
Springfield (87.43 sq. mi.)
Worcester (54.55 sq. mi.)

MISSOURI
Gladstone (82.76 sq. mi.)
Independence (83.61 sq. mi.)
Kansas City (94.76 sq. mi.)
St Louis (129 sq. mi.)

NORTH CAROLINA
Cary (83.93 sq. mi.)
Charlotte (75.73 sq. mi.)
Durham (113 sq. mi.)
Fayetteville (99.34 sq. mi.)
Greensboro (91.59 sq. mi.)
Raleigh (104 sq. mi.)

NORTH DAKOTA
Fargo (86.02 sq. mi.)

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Manchester (88.08 sq. mi.)

OHIO
Cleveland (122 sq. mi.)

OREGON
Eugene (90.13 sq. mi.)
Gresham (148 sq. mi.)
Hillsboro (111 sq. mi.)
Salem (77.59 sq. mi.)

RHODE ISLAND
Providence (82.71 sq. mi.)

SOUTH DAKOTA
Rapid City (207 sq. mi.)
Sioux Falls (64.72 sq. mi.)

UTAH
Provo (79.74 sq. mi.)
Salt Lake City (99.66 sq. mi.)
West Valley City (95.8 sq. mi.)

VIRGINIA
Newport News (144 sq. mi.)
Norfolk (172 sq. mi.)
Richmond (99.76 sq. mi.)

WISCONSIN
Eau Claire (86.58 sq. mi.)
Green Bay (85.28 sq. mi.)

CANADA
Lachine (60.9 sq. mi.)

UNITED KINGDOM
Liverpool (43.04 sq. mi.)

Microsoft has acquired Multimap, one of the United Kingdom’s top 100 technology companies and one of the leading online mapping services in the world. The acquisition will hopefuly give Microsoft a powerful new location and mapping technology to complement existing offerings such as Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services, MSN and the aQuantive advertising platform, with future integration potential for a range of other Microsoft products and platforms, leading the way to new hights.

“The addition of Multimap enhances Microsoft’s position as a leading provider of mapping and location platform services,” said Sharon Baylay, general manager of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “This acquisition will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business and presents a huge opportunity to expand our platform business beyond the U.K. and globally. We are thrilled to welcome Multimap onboard.”

One of the best-known online mapping companies worldwide, Multimap provides a publicly available personal mapping service at http://www.multimap.com, as well as a range of integrated business services.

“Partnering with Microsoft gives us a world of new opportunities to build our mapping services into new technologies and applications,” said Jeff Kelisky, CEO of Multimap. “As one of the world’s foremost technology brands, Microsoft is in a position to bring even more value to the Multimap service and give people everywhere new, exciting and fun ways to get from point A to point B.”

Kristen Miller a Program Manager for Windows Live Photo Gallery, has recently published a blog post in which tells us that the team have recently deployed Windows Live Photo Gallery 2008 via Microsoft Update.

So if you have Microsoft Update enabled on your PC and had the BETA installed, then your BETA build should have been upgraded to the final release build (version 1308.1023).  Go check it out! If it wasn’t auto-upgraded, you can either launch Microsoft Update and do a scan for new updates, or go back to photogallery.live.com  and manually upgrade to the final release build.

In another note, theirs a special shout out to all their BETA program participants of Windows Live Photo Gallery:

At our last estimate, the Windows Live Photo Gallery BETA was installed by nearly 3 million users worldwide. Our BETA testers give us feedback, report bugs, and even yell at us when we make stupid design decisions – all of which helps us delivery high-quality products. Thank you to you all — our BETA testers rock!

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: