Microsoft Web Deploy v2.0

The Web Deployment Tool simplifies migration, management and deployment of IIS Web servers, Web applications and Web sites.

The Web Deployment Tool simplifies the migration, management and deployment of IIS Web servers, Web applications and Web sites. Administrators can use command-line scripting with the Web Deployment Tool to synchronize IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0 servers or to migrate an IIS 6.0 server to IIS 7.0. The Web Deployment Tool also enables administrators and delegated users to use IIS Manager to deploy ASP.NET and PHP applications to an IIS 7.0 server.

Migrate Web applications between IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0 with ease
Simplify the planning of your IIS 6.0 to IIS 7.0 migrations by determining incompatibilities and previewing the proposed changes before starting the process. Learning about any potential issues in advance gives you the chance to take corrective measures and simplifies migration.

Synchronize your server farm efficiently
The Web Deployment Tool allows you to efficiently synchronize sites, applications or servers across your IIS 7.0 server farm by detecting differences between the source and destination content and transferring only those changes which need synchronization. The tool simplifies the synchronization process by automatically determining the configuration, content, databases and certificates to be synchronized for a specific site. In addition to the default behavior, you still have the option to specify additional providers for the synchronization, including COM, GAC and registry settings.

Package, archive and deploy Web applications more easily
The Web Deployment Tool enables you to package configuration and content of your installed Web applications, including SQL databases, and use the packages for storage or redeployment. These packages can be deployed using IIS Manager without requiring administrative privileges. The tool also integrates with Visual Studio 2010 to help developers streamline the deployment of Web applications to the Web server.

For more information, see the following articles:

• Web Deployment Tool Overview
• Installing the Web Deployment Tool

Download details Web Deploy v2.0

Microsoft support scam continues to plague Australians

Australians continue to be contacted by scammers over the phone promoting themselves as official Microsoft support representatives and offering to fix their computer troubles.

The scam, which preys on the notion that most households have a computer running Windows, first began almost two years ago, and sees someone ring an Australian's home phone number claiming to be from Microsoft support and mentioning that a virus or problem has been discovered with their computer. The scammers then ask the person for remote access to their computer, assuring them the process is "completely safe" and that they'll do their best to fix the problem.

A short time later, after exploiting the computer and pretending to fix the problem which didn't exist in the first place, the scammers then ask the person to pay for the service with many Australians falling victim and handing the scammers their credit card details for payment.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, "thousands" of Australians have been targeted by the scam which in recent months appears to have resurfaced after widespread publicity raised awareness of the scam late last year. In December, Microsoft Australia told the paper the company was receiving between 2 and 50 complaints per day about the scam, but remains powerless to act against it.

"There's a number of different organisations doing this and they're changing their names almost constantly - we hear new names every week," Stuart Strathdee, Microsoft Australia's chief security advisor told the Sydney Morning Herald in December.

Australian authorities remain powerless to act against the scammers, who are based overseas and difficult to track down. Instead, they're urging Australians to hang up on the scammers and not allow them access to their personal computer.

Microsoft eyes leap back into TV

Microsoft Corp is about to jump back into the TV game. Only this time, it may aim at cable, satellite and phone companies.

The software powerhouse has held talks with TV networks to create a new subscription-based TV service on its Xbox gaming console that would rival efforts by Google Inc, Apple Inc and Netflix Inc, sources told Reuters.

Microsoft's latest explorations after investments in MSNBC and WebTV come as efforts to redefine living room entertainment have accelerated in the past year, with technology companies seeking to offer lower cost alternatives to pricey pay-TV subscriptions.

One scenario under consideration by Microsoft is to create a new TV service on its Xbox gaming console that would establish a "virtual cable operator." The service would charge a monthly fee for access through the Xbox to networks such as ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN or CNN, according to two sources familiar with the plans.

Other options include allowing cable subscribers to use the Xbox to watch shows with more interactive functions. Viewers could, for instance, message with friends over the console while viewing their favorite shows.

Microsoft is also exploring the possibility of creating programing packages for customers, setting up a bundle of sports or children shows, for example, these people said.

In addition, it could sell more individual channels, such as an HBO or Showtime, directly to subscribers. It already has Walt Disney Co's ESPN on the Xbox Live online service.

These people said a service may not arrive for another 12 months, but early discussions have been productive.

Microsoft declined to comment. The people involved in the talks asked not to be identified as the discussions were confidential.

News of Microsoft's plans come as the pay-television industry are moving to allay investor concerns that consumers are fleeing expensive subscription packages for cheaper online services operated by companies such as Netflix Inc and Hulu, which both charge $7.99 per month for streamed shows and movies. The phenomenon is called "cord-cutting."

The worry is that so-called over-the-top services could undermine the lucrative cable TV industry, whose dual-revenue stream model has made pay-TV one of the most resilient sectors during the economic recession.

Cable networks such as ESPN are paid carriage fees by pay TV operators and also earn revenue from advertisers.

But programmers have said they would welcome new types of competition to the cable and satellite companies.

Speaking at the Reuters Global Media Summit on Monday, News Corp Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said the arrival of alternative TV services gives cable and broadcast networks yet another way to reach fragmented audiences. News Corp is parent of Fox Broadcasting.

"The emergence of platforms like that -- from people like Microsoft which is really more a theory at this point, or Netflix -- increases the value of content and brands and those who create the content and channels that actually the business and drives consumer demand," Carey said.

Microsoft has long held ambitions to be a major player in the TV business and has previously invested in MSNBC and interactive television initiatives including Web TV and MSN TV set-top box software. Its latest plans include offering interactive features to engage viewers through social media, interactive advertising and "gesture" technology that lets viewers change channels and fast forward through shows by waving their arms or speaking instructions, say people who have seen early demonstrations.

The Redmond, Washington, company is mulling feedback it has received from programmers including the expense of such a plan, said one person.

Microsoft faces an increasingly crowded field. Google has already launched Google TV, an enhanced Web-TV service with partners including Sony Corp televisions and Logitech set-top boxes.

Apple has also held talks with programmers, but faced resistance industry-wide over its plans to offer a lower-cost subscription TV plan, people familiar with the talks have said. Apple has begun to offer 99-cent TV show rentals for a limited number shows through News Corp's Fox and Disney.

Microsoft posts record breaking revenues, impresses analysts

Microsoft announced today that their revenue for this quarter has broken records and beaten analyst predictions, according to Engadget, coming in at a smooth $16.2 billion. $5.41 billion of that was profit. The great financial news, according to Microsoft, is a consequence of the successful retail run of Office 2010, increased PC sales, and 38% growth in the Xbox department.

Microsoft seems to be on quite the roll lately. With Windows 7 becoming the most sold operating system in computing history, and Office 2010 sales increasing the already impressive presence of the Office productivity ecosystem in the consumer and enterprise worlds, it’s no wonder that the company is doing so well right now. Add to that the upcoming US launch of Windows Phone 7, already critically acclaimed and lauded by reviewers, and the inevitable holiday sales rush of the Xbox 360 Kinect, and you’ve got optimistic analysts across the board.

Microsoft will host an earnings call later this evening (5:30 PM EDT) to formally announce and discuss the numbers, and I’m sure the call will be generally jovial and full of stockholders’ smiles.

Steve Jobs raged at Microsoft over game studio sale

Steve Jobs might seem like a well-mannered man, but back in 2000 when Microsoft purchased Bungie for $30M, Steve Jobs came out of his shell and yelled at Ballmer, according to develop-online.

Back when Bungie created the Halo series and became a huge game developer, it used to create games on the Mac. Once Apple found out about Microsoft purchasing Bungie, Steve Jobs apparently called up Steve Ballmer and yelled at him over the deal.

"As soon as we announced we bought Bungie, Steve Jobs called," Fries said.

"He was mad at [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer and phoned him up and was angry because we'd just bought the premier Mac game developer and made them an Xbox developer."

Later that day Fries got an email from Ballmer, asking him to call Jobs and calm him down. Eventually, Microsoft settled the dispute with Apple and said they would port some games from the PC to the Mac, to help remedy the lost developer, Bungie.

Since Bungie has left developing for the Mac, they have only since ported one game over, Halo: Combat Evolved back in 2005, the first of the very popular series. The Halo series has since become a staple in Microsoft's Xbox 360 sales, breaking records for first day releases across the globe.

Microsoft targets Asus and Acer in Android patent battle

Microsoft has been eying a patent lawsuit against Taiwan-based companies Asus and Acer. The reasoning behind this is due to a number of patents that Microsft believe are being infringed upon in regards to Android-based hardware. Just last month, Microsoft launched a lawsuit against Motorola's use of its patents in their Android Hardware.

The report came in Taiwan's Commercial Times newspaper, and although Asustech is already denying it, Acer has yet to make any comment on the validity of the news.

This is another in a long line of mobile phone operating system and hardware battles making their way through the courts at the moment. Already, Apple has targeted HTC in a move against Android, while Oracle has also stated that they were not happy with what they say was Java code found in the operating system.

Microsoft had previously announced that it would be licensing their patent portfolio to HTC for use in their Android phones, thus avoiding lawsuits like these.

It will be some time before we hear the results of these cases and it does make you wonder how both Asus and Acer, who have been great at pushing Windows based hardware in the computing market, will react to Microsoft's legal attack.

Free eBooks from Microsoft Press

Free ebook: Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (10 chapters by by Patrice Pelland, Pascal Paré, and Ken Haines)

Free ebook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (10 chapters by Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner)

Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7 Series (DRAFT Preview) (6 chapters by Charles Petzold)

Free ebook: Petzold’s Programming Windows Phone 7 (Special Excerpt 2) (newer than the ebook above; 11 chapters by Charles Petzold)

Free ebook: Own Your Future: Update Your Skills with Resources and Career Ideas from Microsoft (8 chapters by Katherine Murray)

Free ebook: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions (Second Edition) (6 chapters by Mitch Tulloch)

Free ebook: First Look Microsoft Office 2010 (14 chapters by Katherine Murray)

Free ebook: Windows 7 troubleshooting tips (short ebook by Mitch Tulloch)

Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2 (9 chapters by Charlie Russel and Craig Zacker)

Free ebook: Deploying Windows 7, Essential Guidance (10 chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and 6 TechNet articles)

Microsoft gives another $3M to Kids in Need of Defense

Microsoft announced today that it will donate another $3 million over three years to Kids in Need of Defense, a fund for providing legal fees to unaccompanied immigrant or refugee children facing deportation from the U.S. In October 2008, Microsoft made an initial commitment of $3 million over three years to help establish KIND. Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, wrote in a blog post that the program works with 80 law firms in seven cities, and has helped about 2,000 children from 35 countries.

Ray Ozzie leaving post as Microsoft's chief software architect

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today announced that Ray Ozzie, Bill Gates' replacement as the company's chief software architect, will be stepping down from his post.

His leadership not particularly well-respected among employees in the trenches, Ozzie joined Microsoft in 2005 when the software giant acquired his Groove Networks. Ozzie took over as Microsoft's chief software architect in 2006 when Gates, who still is chairman, announced his impending retirement from day-to-day activities at Microsoft. (Steve Ballmer assumed Gates' other role as CEO in 2000.)

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Microsoft, Facebook team up on social search

Microsoft is starting to incorporate what your friends do on Facebook right into its Bing search engine.

The software maker began rolling out a new feature Wednesday that can show what someone's Facebook friends "like" on the search results page.

On Facebook and sites around the Web, people can click a "like" button to show support or share information with Facebook friends.

In the coming weeks, if you use Bing to search for a topic in the news, articles that friends have shared on Facebook might appear, along with their names and Facebook profile photos.

Restaurants and movies that friends have "liked" could help you decide what to do on your next date.

Microsoft also added Facebook profile results to people searches. In the past, a search for an old friend from elementary school who shares a name with a celebrity would leave Web surfers swimming in search results for the celebrity. Now, if that friend is part of your extended Facebook network, a link to his or her Facebook profile might pop up at the top of search results.

The new features were unveiled at a media event at Microsoft's Silicon Valley offices in Mountain View, California.

As these features trickle out to Bing users, those who are also logged in to Facebook will see a small notification asking if they want to see Facebook friends' information incorporated into search results.

Bing is using Facebook's existing "instant personalization" feature, which customizes websites based on the likes and interests of Facebook members and their friends.

Restaurant-review website Yelp and the music site Pandora also use instant personalization.

Tailoring search results based on what friends do online is not a new idea. Google, the most-visited search engine, has added ways for people to recommend certain search results or re-order the list of links on a search results page. But neither feature has really caught on.

The tie to Facebook could help No. 3 search provider Microsoft nab more Web searches.

Not only is it competing with Google, Microsoft is racing against Yahoo.

Microsoft is currently providing search technology to Yahoo, the No. 2 search engine, but the companies are still making separate decisions about how to display results.

Microsoft gets some search-ad revenue from queries made on Yahoo, but searches on its own site are more lucrative.

Privacy concerns have plagued Facebook over the years as the company has encouraged members to reveal more details about themselves. The site has a history of introducing features that people must then remove, or opt out of, instead of waiting for members to actively sign up for the new features. That approach has riled privacy advocates.

Facebook has responded with more granular controls so users can decide exactly who can see their photos, status updates and other details.

Privacy questions dominated a question-and-answer session after the announcements.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that Bing only taps into information that Facebook users have already designated as public.

Microsoft has been working with Facebook since 2006. In 2007, the Redmond, Washington-based software maker invested US$240 million in Facebook in exchange for a 1.6 percent stake.

The companies said more integrated features will be coming to Bing in the future.

October 2010 Patch Tuesday ISO Image

I started to do my normal monthly posting to list all of the security related updates that were posted yesterday for Patch Tuesday but it was turning into a very long posting.  Instead I decided to share this download link with you that will get you all 49 updates in one place then you can use it to install the updates manually on computers that do not have Internet access.

If you use Windows Update on your system it will grab the ones you specifically need and only install them so Windows Update is the most efficient way to get the updates on an Internet connected system.

So for all your other machines grab the October 2010 Security Release ISO Image.

Paul Allen joins opposition of Wash. income tax on rich

Microsoft co-founder has joined his former company and its CEO, Steve Ballmer, in opposing Initiative 1098, which would impose a state income tax on people who make more than $200,000 a year in Washington, The Associated Press reports. The other Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, plans to vote for the proposed tax. Read more at seattlepi.com

Gates Foundation dedicates $20M to education technology grants

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Monday a grant program that offers up to $20 million in funding to people and organizations who come up with great ideas to provide technology to schools, teachers and students.

The world's largest charity is seeking grant applicants to its Next Generation Learning Challenges program, which will award grants between $250,000 to $750,000. The application deadline is Nov. 19, the foundation said in a news release.

"American education has been the best in the world, but we're falling below our own high standards of excellence for high school and college attainment," Bill Gates said in the release. "We're living in a tremendous age of innovation. We should harness new technologies and innovation to help all students get the education they need to succeed."

Gates was one of two interviewees who helped shaped the direction of the new documentary "Waiting for 'Superman,'" directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). When I spoke with Guggenheim, he said his conversations with Gates and with education-program directors at Microsoft gave him hope that technology can help turn around the U.S. public education system.

More information on the Gates Foundation grant program is here. To read more about "Waiting for 'Superman'" and Guggenheim's thoughts on how corporations can help U.S. education, check out my September report.

Microsoft Office web apps surpasses 20 million users

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that they have surpassed 20 million users on their Office Web Apps. Microsoft released their web apps in the summer, which included Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Microsoft was largely unchallenged in office document processing for many years, until Google stepped in three years ago and offered their own version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, called Document, Spreadsheet and Presentation. Google Docs became a success because it was free, online and easily tied in with your gmail account.

Google Docs currently has over 25 million users, but in a few short months, Microsoft is hot on Google's trail with over 20 million users, according to The Seattle Times.

Microsoft Office Web Apps easily integrates with your Windows Live ID and a number of online services from Hotmail, Facebook and live.com. Docs.com also integrates with your SkyDrive, which offers up to 25GB of storage, can be accessed anywhere with an Internet connection.

Microsoft Office Web Apps can also be downloaded to your desktop and used with Microsoft Office, unlike Google Docs, which is strictly online. Like Google Docs, users can share documents with anyone online, allowing friends to make changes to your documents.

Microsoft: virus-infected PCs should be banned from the Internet

Microsoft Senior Executive Scott Charney suggested on Thursday that virus-infected PCs should be quarantined from the Internet.
Speaking at the International Security Solutions Europe (ISSE) Conference in Berlin, Germany, Charney proposed a possible approach to addressing botnets and other malware that impacts consumer machines. The approach calls for sick PCs to be treated in the same way that society deals with infected humans. Charney describes the issue in a company blog post and explains that firewalls, antivirus and automatic patch updates aren't enough. "Despite our best efforts, many consumer computers are host to malware or are part of a botnet. "Bots," networks of compromised computers controlled by hackers, can provide criminals with a relatively easy means to commit identity theft and also lead to much more devastating consequences if used for an attack on critical government infrastructure or financial systems."
He goes on to explain how individuals that are not vaccinated against human viruses put others' health at risk and that there are processes governments use to track and control the spread of disease. "Simply put, we need to improve and maintain the health of consumer devices connected to the Internet in order to avoid greater societal risk. To realize this vision, there are steps that can be taken by governments, the IT industry, Internet access providers, users and others to evaluate the health of consumer devices before granting them unfettered access to the Internet or other critical resources."

The main issue that Microsoft wants to tackle is the ever growing army of robot PCs. Botnets are networks of compromised computers controlled by "bot herders" or "bot masters" that use the thousands (sometimes millions) of compromised Windows machines to distribute adware, spyware, spam emails and launch DDoS attacks. Botnets are typically installed onto end users machines by web browser vulnerabilities, worms, Trojan horses, or backdoors. A "bot master" will then control the machines by IRC commands to launch attacks or send email spam. Earlier this year Microsoft announced, that together with industry partners, it had executed a major botnet takedown of Waledac, a large and well-known "spambot". At the time the software giant said it was looking to be "even more creative and aggressive in the fight against botnets and all forms of cybercrime."
The reaction to the proposals has been met by an angry backlash from Internet commenters on Microsoft's blog. One poster lambasts Microsoft for "touting" to remove unsecure PCs from the Internet, "by that logic we need to remove every machine running Windows" said Debbie Mahler. Another asks "If Microsoft isn't competent enough to make software that is safe, how are they going to be able to make an Internet quarantine that works?". There's no doubt that the proposal is workable but the controversy of such actions, and an appropriate industry standard, seem a far way off.

Microsoft and Adobe chiefs met to discuss Apple and possible merger

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen set up an hour long secret meeting to discuss a variety of topics, including a possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft. According to The New York Times, some of the discussions focused on how the two companies could also take down Apple's mobile market share.

As Apple continues to dominate the mobile market, with Google quickly catching up, Microsoft is stepping into the mobile game, possibly a little too late to make a strong impact within the next year. However, that hasn't stopped Microsoft from doing whatever it can to make the largest impact possible.

The discussions between Microsoft and Adobe have remained quiet, but sources say that talks regarding Microsoft acquiring Adobe were mentioned. Discussions of a possible merger might even end here, but this is pause for thought for both Microsoft and Adobe, after all, this is how Microsoft came about a search deal with the second largest search giant, Yahoo!

When Microsoft launched Silverlight in 2007, they became a direct competitor of Adobe Flash. If Microsoft does acquire Adobe, we could eventually see a slow phase out of Adobe Flash Player, and see Microsoft Silverlight slowly take its place. With Microsoft holding 100% of the market, Apple and Google could potentially be in trouble, unless web developers decide to adopt HTML5.

At the time of posting, Adobe stock soared over 11% on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Microsoft acquires AVIcode, Inc.

Today, Microsoft announced its acquisition of AVIcode, Inc.  Read the official blog here.

With enhanced capabilities that the AVIcode technologies bring to Systems Monitoring, including not only .Net application monitoring, as well as rich performance metrics:

In addition, technologies from today’s acquisition can help both IT Pros and Developers in true root cause analysis of distributed applications:

Continue at source: Microsoft acquires AVIcode, Inc.

Microsoft Teams Up With LG Electronics

The two companies signed today a license agreement for the development and marketing of the LG Network Monitor1, a new multicomputing solution which includes Windows MultiPoint Server and RemoteFX, Korea IT Times reports.

The agreement allows LG to introduce a new line of Network Monitor with RemoteFX in mid-2011, thus assuming a leading position on the developing B2B cloud computing market.

Soon Kwon, President and CEO of LG Electronics Business Solutions Company, said that “with Microsoft's unrivaled background in OS development and LG's proven multicomputing technology, this collaboration will help LG expand its monitor solutions and position LG as a leader in the business cloud computing market.”

As for Microsoft's opinion, Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President of the OEM Division said that “LG's support of the Windows platform and continued advancements in their integrated network monitors will drive new computing experiences into enterprises looking at virtualization".

“We look forward to continued collaboration with LG and the evolution of monitors into centralized computing environments.”

This collaboration is actually pretty important for the two companies, as LG's Network Monitor will use Microsoft's WMS 2010.

This will allow schools to familiarize more students with the Windows experience at a much lower total cost of ownership.

Another advantage is that this experience is simple enough for any teacher, even without technical skills, to set-up and manage student stations.

The Network Monitor can also be connected to a WMS host in a different language, thus assessing multilingual needs.

The Network Monitor resulting from the partnership between Microsoft and LG will also contain the integrated RemoteFX functionality.

The platform has improved security and management functions and using it with the Network Monitor technology, will allow LG to extend its monitor solutions to cloud computing in the enterprise market.

The cloud computing market is expected to grow 1.2M units by 2012.

Bill Gates Is Still Forbes' No.1

On this year's Forbes list of the wealthiest people in America, Bill Gates is still number one, even if earlier this year he had lost the position because of the huge amounts of money he gave away to charity through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Still the Microsoft co-founder and chairman managed to rise his wealth this year by around $4 billion, reaching the supreme net worth of $54 billion, $9 billion more than his buddy, Warren Buffett, on second place.

Forbes' 2010 list of the 400 richest Americans is out, and besides Bill Gates who is on top, we have Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at No. 16 with a net worth of $13.1 billion, Microsoft co-founder and Seattle mogul Paul Allen at No. 17 with $12.7 billion and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at No. 18 with $12.6 billion.

Also, the Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison is at No. 3 with $27 billion, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are tied at No. 11 with $15 billion a piece and Dell founder Michael Dell is No. 15 with $14 billion.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reaches the 35th place with $6.9 billion, but still he is richer than Apple CEO Steve Jobs, only at No. 42 with $6.1 billion, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt at No. 48, with $5.45 billion.

This year's Forbes list came out in a debate environment, over a proposed income tax on people who earn over $200,000 a year, TechFlash reports.

Bill Gates stated to support the tax, which would only be based on income, not on accumulated wealth, standing on his father's side (his father is a strong advocate of the Initiative 1098 since April).

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a contributor to the campaign opposing the tax, saw his net worth decrease by $200 million, to $13.1 billion, as calculated by the magazine.

As for Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder increased his net worth to $12.7 billion, from $11.5 billion a year ago.
The full Forbes list can be seen here.

Bloggers Get Access to Microsoft Broadcaster

Microsoft Broadcaster is a service for IT professionals, aspiring technologists and developers, so that they can have access to Microsoft content in a fast and simple way.

This service also allows them to publish official Microsoft information on their blogs, in the newsletters they send or in user group communications.

The catch is that this is actually an invitation-only program, and in order for bloggers to have access to special content from Microsoft, the company's officer responsible with access, must provide it.

Normally, if some criteria are respected, the access is granted, without forgetting the respect of the Terms of Use, of course.

Blogs and websites that benefit from this service usually have a higher traffic, and this is mainly due to the quality of the content and its several forms - webcasts, podcasts, videos or white papers.

Bloggers wanting to join this program need to fill in an application form, that will be later evaluated by the program administrator, who has the final saying and is able to invite them, if they qualify, to join Microsoft Broadcaster.

Some of the criteria you need to fulfill includes being an active blogger, having each month around 300-400 unique users and 4 to 6 posts, minimum.

As long as the applicants are in the United States, IT and developer associations as well as user group communication and IT and developer focused newsletter publishers, can apply too.

The “chosen ones” will have the right to download and embed content without sending traffic away from sites and will have access to custom content classified by keyword and form factor (webcasts, podcasts and videos).
You can customize by product - Windows, SharePoint, Microsoft Office – and you will have the option of setting alerts for content updates.

Now, Microsoft Broadcaster is an invitation-only program, but if you are a Microsoft Partner, MVP, MCP, you could pre-qualify, TWC reports.

Also, according to Microsoft, people who live outside the United States and would like to use the Microsoft Content, they are welcome to do so, but they should know that at this point there is no specific content for other countries.

If you have any questions you can send an email to tnplus@microsoft.com.