Microsoft buys Powerset, a brand new search engine, for $100 million.  Remember we reviewed Powerset couple weeks ago?

Well, honestly I don’t think Powerset is worth anywhere near $100 million and I don’t know what Microsoft is trying to do but maybe it’s because their Yahoo deal didnt’ go through and they needed to waste some cash.

Good luck on this one Microsoft, you might have just bought a product that might not perform as much as you paid.

via venturebeat

Microsoft is going to pushing its Live products including search, video, IM, and e-mail through partnering with Blackberry.

We did get the early signs couple weeks earlier at the Web2.0 Expo, where Microsoft subsidiary TellMe voice activated service was already using Microsoft’s Live search and maps.

Now, it’s official and I think it’s a good marriage of the two companies. Although Blackberry run proprietary OS, Microsoft does have so much to offer in terms of search and maps.

Did Google miss out?

Heck yeah they did but Google will always develop applications for Blackberry so I don’t see GoogleMaps falling off the Blackberry users hands any time soon.

Microsoft will have to innovate like their TellMe service to get a share of the mobile Blackberry market.  Although I am not a Live service user myself, I am impressed how well the TellMe service runs on my 8830.

Microsoft purports that this deal will enable BlackBerry users “an enhanced level of integration” by employing the benefits of “push” technology as well as online sync to manage both inbox and outbox activities to bring convenient near-real-time communications to a potential user pool of some 250 million existing Live Hotmail users.

As for activity on the Live Messenger side, BlackBerry users will be given the option take part in standard one-on-one chat sessions as well as group discussions, plus additional features like the ability to sent and receive pictures and files right on their handsets.

via mashables

I’ve been using Spotplex ever since their launch about a year ago.  A popular widget/digg like service, Spotplex announced yesterday (or today officially), it’s going offline for good.

Couple weeks ago, I tried to access Spotplex, the site wouldn’t load.

Yesterday, I tried to access Spotplex, the site loaded with a message saying Spotplex will be gone.
Today, I tried to access Spotplex, they now have a single HTML landing page like this:

We regret to inform you that Spotplex is going offline. This was a very hard decision for us and we are sure you will miss the service as much as we do.

If you are interested in our assets or in knowing more on the shutdown of Spotplex, you can reach us at support@spotplex.com

Thanks for your support.

The Spotplex Team

Condolences

Note: If you have embedded a Spotplex tracking code on your site, please remove it. You might get an error message if you still have it beyond 5/9.

I have been checking their traffic stats and they did great at launch but failed to keep it going.

I suspect their failure has something to do with failure of thinking about site revenue and viral marketing.

Although a great service (it used to be), here’s my condolences.

I wish they had kept the site running though, probably wouldn’t take more than 1 dedicated server at this point.

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