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REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) will offer a glimpse at the future of online advertising this week at its third annual Demo Fest, a two-day gathering on Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus. Wednesday’s event will spotlight breakthrough digital advertising tools by Microsoft® adCenter Labs ( http://adlab.msn.com ), the innovation engine for the Microsoft adCenter platform. The tools showcased at Demo Fest will come from a portfolio of nearly 60 technologies at various stages of development and represent Microsoft adCenter Labs’ seven new focus areas: keyword and content technologies, ad selection and relevance, audience intelligence, social networking, video, platforms, and devices.”The technologies showcased at Demo Fest will help create unprecedented opportunity for developers and search engine marketers like the Keyword Services Platform,” said Tarek Najm, distinguished engineer and general manager of Microsoft adCenter at Microsoft. “KSP is a service that provides a framework for researchers to plug in advanced algorithms in the form of building blocks to be consumed by developers for building sophisticated advertiser applications.”

Developed by the rapidly growing team of more than 120 Microsoft adCenter Labs researchers and engineers, technologies displayed Wednesday are all designed to help provide the best advertising experiences for users, advertisers and developers. They include the following:

-- Keyword Services Platform. The platform provides a set of Web service
APIs related to keyword technologies, including keyword recommendation,
forecasting, categorization and monetization, enabling developers to
build more intelligent applications for online advertising and beyond.
-- Commercial intent detection. Advanced keyword analysis helps
differentiate consumers who are looking to make an online purchase from
those who are searching for information about products or performing
other tasks.
-- Large display feedback. Vision-based technology creates interactive
public displays that can measure the size of the audience, as well as
track audience gestures and estimate demographics.
-- Social video sharing. This next-generation video sharing solution
features a synchronized "commenting" technology. The introduction of
novel in-video, synchronized comments enables a new level of
interaction between users, opening up the video as a medium for
collaboration.
-- Content classification:  By accurately analyzing and matching the Web
pages included in search results, Microsoft adCenter Labs technology
helps increase the probability that the ads displayed during Web
searches are relevant to consumers.

“Microsoft adLabs research tools show marketers how consumers behave online,” said Aaron Goldman, director of client strategy and development for Resolution Media. “This kind of critical insight is what our industry has sought for years in order to market brands holistically online.”

A complete list and explanations of the technologies showcased at this year’s Demo Fest can be found in the Microsoft adCenter Labs Advanced Tools fact sheet at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/msn/factsheet/adCenterBreakthrough sFS.mspx .

adCenter Labs’ Video Hyperlink Technology to Debut Ahead of Schedule

This spring, Microsoft adCenter Labs will join forces with a national retailer to bring the first Video Hyperlink ad pilot to MSN®. The ad will feature a video segment with embedded hyperlinks for featured products. Consumers who click on the products will be taken to the retailer’s Web page, where they can purchase the item.

“Video Hyperlink technology is a milestone for Microsoft adCenter Labs and symbolizes our promise to innovate and advance the entire industry to new levels,” Najm said. “At last year’s Demo Fest we said that this technology would take us three to five years to get to market, but due to overwhelming community feedback we’ve been able to release it in just one year.”

About MSN and Windows Live

MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide. Windows Live(TM), a new set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web. MSN and Windows Live will be offered alongside each other as complementary services. Some Windows Live services entered an early beta phase on Nov. 1, 2005; these and future beta updates can be found at http://ideas.live.com . Windows Live is available at http://www.live.com . MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com . MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx .

About Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions

Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions encompasses a robust set of global advertising products and services designed to effectively connect advertisers with their target audiences across multiple digital lifestyle touch points. Advertisers can actively engage with a global audience of more than 465 million unique users per month across the MSN network, as well as millions more consumers through Windows Live, Xbox Live®, Microsoft Office Online and Live Search. More information about Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions is available at http://advertising.microsoft.com .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

NOTE: Microsoft, MSN, Windows Live, Xbox Live and Xbox are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Microsoft Corp. on Thurs. said that the Xbox 360 outsold rival next-generation offerings in the 2006 holiday season to command 51% market share in the U.S. for the month of Dec.The Xbox 360 dropped to U.S. retail in Nov. 2005.

The Redmond, Washington-based company said that the Xbox 360 outsold Sony Corp.’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo Co.’s Wii combined during the key holiday retail period. This week, it announced that the 360 has sold 10.4 million units to date worldwide.

The stellar sales can be attributed to the hit action game Gears of War, which is nearing the 3 million sold mark, and non-gaming offerings like digital distribution of TV and movie content on Xbox Live and the HD DVD external drive.

Microsoft Game Studios expects to continue key software launches in 2007, including game titles like Halo 3, Blue Dragon, Forza Motorsport 2, and Project Gotham Racing 4.

Third-party offerings for 2007 will include Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution Universe, and Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV.

Meanwhile, Sony this week announced that it sold 1 million PS3 units in the U.S. in 2006. Rival Nintendo said this week that it sold over 1 million units of Wii in year-end domestic sales.

IGN has reviewed Lost Planet, the epic 3rd person shooter coming to the 360 very soon. What do they think of it? Well, they seemed to like it. Check out some quotes below: “One of the great parts about Lost Planet is the flexibility of the game. There is a noticeable amount of depth to the combat, allowing you to tackle the same situation in a variety of ways with new results each time. “The visuals here are a real treat. The snow covered landscapes and dilapidated cities that dominate the first half of the game are quite exceptional and do a fantastic job to build on the sense of a soul wandering this wasteland planet in search of his identity. � The handling in Lost Planet takes some getting used to and probably could have been mapped to the controller better. Those used to the twitch gaming that comes with first person shooters will find moving the target reticule about to be quite slow. To make up for this, the bumpers were made to quickly rotate your view by 90 degrees. Diving out of the way involves pressing in the thumbstick, sliding it over to your desired direction, and then hitting the jump button. Similar initial awkwardness can be found in the vital suit controls. Enough play time can make all of the motions second nature, but it certainly adds some unnecessary time to the learning curve. Closing Comments “Lost Planet is a great game that suffers from a few bad design decisions. The graphics are excellent by any standard with only v-synching issues preventing them from looking truly amazing. The enemy design and amount of action they deliver makes for great gameplay that is hampered by control mechanics that get in the way of the experience. Add in a stumbling story and you have a game that doesn’t quite reach the levels of some of the more outstanding titles we’ve seen in recent months. The bottom line, though, is that the game is a lot of fun and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?�

 

discuss here

http://www.errorforum.com/xbox-news/4561-ign-has-reviewed-lost-planet-epic-3rd-person-shooter-coming-360-very-soon.html#post6337

There are a lot of fractal images…..

But these are great….