Microsoft's PDC was the source of the biggest news this week as the copany unveiled its Windows Azure cloud-computing platform. The company also let out some more details about the forthcoming Windows 7 OS and talked up its ambitions with Silverlight. Meanwhile, Google proposed settling lawsuits related to its book-scanning and indexing project, and word also seeped out through the Wall Street Journal that the company's search advertising deal with Yahoo could be scrapped because of regulatory issues.
[ Video: Catch up on the week in tech news with the World Tech Update ]
1. Microsoft launches Windows Azure for the cloud: Microsoft unveiled its Azure Service Platform, marking its entry into cloud computing, with Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie saying that the platform will form the core of the company's services platform and be an online delivery option for all current Microsoft software. The company has been revealing bits of the strategy over the past three years and this week at its Professional Developers Conference set forth more details of how those parts fit within the Azure concept.
[ Get the inside scoop on Microsoft's cloud strategy straight from the project lead | For more news from Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, check out InfoWorld's special report. ]
2. WSJ: Google and Yahoo may call the whole thing off: Google and Yahoo might back out of a proposed search advertising pact that the U.S. Department of Justice has not yet approved, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The companies signed the deal in June, agreeing that Yahoo would run Google's search ads and they would split the revenue. The DOJ has been reviewing the proposal for antitrust issues, and the companies voluntarily agreed to delay implementing the plan while that review is conducted. But the DOJ wants the companies to sign a consent decree and allow judicial oversight of the ad deal, according to the Journal.
3. Microsoft previews Windows 7 client OS: Microsoft's PDC wasn't all about Windows Azure; the company also showed off Windows 7, the next iteration of the Windows OS. The company discussed the five themes of the upcoming OS (mobile computing, services design, personalization, entertainment optimization, and compatability and stability) and further vowed that Windows 7 will fix the mistakes in Windows Vista.
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