Silverlight - ReadWriteWeb http://www.readwriteweb.com/feeds/tag/Silverlight en Copyright 2009 Richard MacManus readwriteweb@gmail.com Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:36:29 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.23-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Making Search Prettier: Bing Launches Visual Search bing_logo_may09.pngSince Microsoft launched Bing, the company has been trying to position it as a 'decision engine' and not just as another search engine. Today, Microsoft is taking another step in this direction with the launch of Visual Search in Bing. For a growing number of searches, instead of giving users a list of 10 blue links, Bing will now give users the option to visualize the search results on a 3D grid with icons or photos. Now, for example, if you search for 'Top iPhone Apps,' Bing will not just present a list of links to other sites but also provide the option to show you those iPhone apps directly in Bing, with the added ability to filter them by price, category, or publisher.

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]]> Microsoft is definitely trying to change the playing field with Bing and today's updates show that Microsoft still has a few surprises up its sleeves. Searches for NFL and MLB players, for example, or movies, digital cameras, or US presidents now feature the option to see the results on a nicely designed grid.

bing_visualize.jpg

Filters

This visualization, while visually quite stunning, wouldn't be very interesting though, if Microsoft hadn't also added the ability to quickly narrow searches by relevant categories. If you search for 'digital cameras,' for example, you get the option to narrow your search by number of megapixels, optical zoom, or brand. Baseball players can be organized by position, team, or salary, and criminals on the FBI's 'Most Wanted' list can be organized by reward, citizenship, or the crime they are wanted for.

Overall, these visual elements can really make some searches a lot easier, especially if you are starting out with a broad category and you are trying to narrow your search down (try 'yoga poses,' for example).

As Stefan Weitz, Microsoft's Director of Bing, told us last month, for some queries, visual results are simply much easier to scan for users than simple lists of texts. At the end of your work with the visual search interface, however, you are still taken back to a regular Bing search.

top_iphone_bing_visual_1.jpg

Silverlight Only

Microsoft decided to use Silverlight as the one and only way to access the visual search feature. At this point, Weitz argued when we asked him about this choice, Silverlight is already widely installed on millions of computers and Microsoft decided that the experience will not degrade gracefully if you don't have Silverlight installed.

Useful or Just a Gimmick?

While Visual Search might look like a gimmick at first (and it definitely is an interesting visual feature), it actually turns out to be a very usual feature for most of the searches that currently support it. The range of searches that allow you to visualize the results is still somewhat limited, though Microsoft will surely add on to this list over time. If anything, this is yet another feature in Bing that Google doesn't offer yet. As Bing tries to position itself as a 'decision engine' and not just as a search engine, this is also another feature that will help Microsoft to make this distinction. Instead of a list of links, Bing can now offer a set of faster and more visually pleasing search results

Topics

Here is a list of current topics that will pop up Visual Search as an option:

  • 100 heroes and villains
  • Billboard's past albums
  • Billboard's past songs
  • Film legends
  • Greatest movies
  • Movies in theaters
  • Popular books
  • Popular celebrities
  • Popular DVDs
  • Popular TV shows
  • Pulitzer winning fiction
  • Top albums
  • Top songs
  • Famous People
  • FBI's most wanted
  • Popular celebrities
  • US politicians
  • US presidents
  • US vice presidents
  • World leaders

Reference

  • Dog breeds
  • Periodic table
  • Travel destinations
  • US politicians
  • US presidents
  • US states
  • US vice presidents
  • World leaders
  • Yoga poses

Shopping

  • Cell phones
  • Digital cameras
  • Handbags
  • HDTVs
  • New cars
  • Popular books
  • Popular DVDs
  • Portable GPS
  • Pulitzer winning fiction
  • Top albums
  • Top iPhone apps

Sports

  • MLB players
  • MLB teams
  • NASCAR drivers
  • NBA players
  • NBA teams
  • NFL players
  • NFL teams
  • NHL players
  • NHL teams
  • UFC fighters
]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/bing_launches_visual_search.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/bing_launches_visual_search.php News Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:30:16 -0800 Frederic Lardinois CBS Leverages Silverlight for YouTube NCAA March Madness Site Microsoft Silverlight may not be the first solution you think of when considering how YouTube might stream live TV. But in fact that's exactly what CBS used on their NCAA March Madness On Demand YouTube channel. It appears that the player and feeds for audio and video are coming direct from CBS, and upon further examination the Silverlight-powered player is identical to the one offered on CBS' own March Madness site.  We first heard about this new offering from a post on NewTeeVee.

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]]> The player lets you adjust the video quality in four discrete steps to best utilize your available bandwidth. It looks as though the source feed is high-definition, because if quality is bumped all the way up to maximum even the full-screen mode looks great. In fact, the player as a whole is easy to use, and free of hiccups or bugs.

When we went to TV.com and selected the March Madness link, it went to the CBS-hosted link mentioned above. It appears, at least in this case, that YouTube has perhaps a slightly tighter integration over CBS' own streaming video site offering. But there are a couple of perks that are also available no matter which path you choose. Going the YouTube route gives you quick access to CBSNCAATourney video clips. Choosing the CBS site offers a live Facebook status update stream similar to what CNN did during the presidential debates. So, either way, everybody wins.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cbs_leverages_silverlight_for_youtube_ncaa_march_m.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cbs_leverages_silverlight_for_youtube_ncaa_march_m.php News Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:14:26 -0800 Phil Glockner MIX09: Microsoft Announces Silverlight 3 Beta, Blend 3, and Updates to Azure mix09_logo_mar09.pngAt its annual MIX conference, Microsoft today introduced a number of interesting new products, including a beta of Silverlight 3 and a preview version of Blend 3, its Silverlight development tool. Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform also received a number of major updates today. Microsoft also announced that Silverlight 2 has been installed on more than 300 million PCs since its launch in October 2008 and that NBC will use Silverlight 3 to power its online coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

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]]> Silverlight 3 Beta

Microsoft added a number of interesting new features to Silverlight, including multi-touch support, improved text quality, support for a number of new video codecs (including H.264), better 3D effects, and automated search engine optimization. Users can now also take Silverlight applications and run them outside of the browser and even offline. Out-of-browser applications will run in a secure sandbox mode, which makes installing the apps very easy. These apps will also be able to auto-update.

NBC Universal also announced that it will use Silverlight to power its online coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, which will include 720p HD streaming (interestingly, NBC doesn't seem to use Silverlight outside of its coverage of the Olympics).

You can find download links for the Silverlight 3 runtime, SDK, and documentation here.

Expression Blend 3 Preview

blend3_ui_mar09.pngMicrosoft also showed a preview of Expression Blend 3, its development tool for Silverlight and WPF applications. Among other things, Blend now makes it easier to create prototypes and then immediately take these and turn them into working applications. Blend 3 also now integrates directly with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, which makes prototyping in the application even easier.

Azure

Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing initiative, also saw some important updates today. Developers can now host their data on two U.S.-based datacenters, giving them the ability to store their data in multiple locations, while also enhancing performance by reducing network latency. Developers will now also be able to run applications written in non-.NET languages on Azure, thanks to the addition of support for FastCGI. Because of this, developers will now be able to run PHP or Ruby applications on Azure, for example. According to Microsoft, the final version of the Azure platform is still on track for a launch by the end of 2009.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mix09_microsoft_silverlight_3_azure_blend_3.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mix09_microsoft_silverlight_3_azure_blend_3.php Products Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:15:32 -0800 Frederic Lardinois Are You Ready for Silverlight 2? During the Olympics, Microsoft's Silverlight technology was installed on over 20 million computers. Oprah uses Silverlight and Microsoft has partnered with HP to have Silverlight shipped on HP computers in the future. Microsoft seemed dedicated to spreading Silverlight 1 as far as possible this year.

Now rumors are swirling that Microsoft may be ready to release Silverlight 2 as early as next Monday.

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]]> ETA: Monday, October 13, 9 a.m. PT

Due to a press release about a conference call to be given by Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of the .NET Developer Division, rumors are swirling that Microsoft will be releasing Silverlight 2 as early as next Monday. Guthrie noted that Microsoft will make "a significant announcement related to Microsoft Silverlight," next Monday at 9 a.m. PT. It seems more than likely that the rumors could be true. A developer SDK for Silverlight 2 has already been sent out and Silverlight 2 Beta 2 was released months ago. Looks like Silverlight 2 might be ready to use.

Timetables and Changes

If the rumors are true, this would mean the timetable release for Silverlight 2 was a little off. It was expected by the Summer and it's clearly Fall right now. Nevertheless, a list of upcoming changes has been published, which will be important for developers using Silverlight to review.

However, none of these changes will be important if many don't use Silverlight or develop applications for the platform. So to the developers we ask, how are excited are you about Silverlight 2?

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/are_you_ready_for_silverlight_2.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/are_you_ready_for_silverlight_2.php Microsoft Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:47:22 -0800 Corvida NBC Drops Silverlight, Runs Back to Adobe for Flash NBC seems to be having a change of heart this week. The network recently wrapped up their streaming of the Olympics using Microsoft's Silverlight technology. However if you tuned in for this week's NFL season opener, NBC was using Adobe's Flash technology instead of Silverlight. Making some do a double take, here's a look at why NBC left Silverlight in a flash (pun intended).

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]]> As we stated, NBC took a chance on Silverlight to stream the Olympic ceremonies for online and mobile viewers. While this was a great opportunity for Microsoft to promote its Silverlight platform, it wasn't enough for NBC. According to SAI,
"Microsoft, meanwhile, said that during the Olympics, 40 million US to visitors NBCOlympics.com didn't yet have Silverlight installed."

NBC has already begun switching back to Adobe Flash for the start of the NFL season. Yet their efforts don't seem to be paying off at the moment with reports of video playback for the NFL season starter game being too horrible to watch.

Not a Good Look

We all know that at least 90% of computer users have Adobe Flash installed. It's easy to see why NBC would want to switch back. The partnership between Microsoft and NBC was likely more beneficial to Microsoft in the end. One of the downsides for NBC was that users tend to become either wary or lazy about downloading new extensions for a website. This is especially true if the website was working just fine with previous extensions only days before. However, with a rocky start to switching back, NBC online sports fans are probably wondering if it's even worth the effort anymore.

Adobe company profile provided by TradeVibes
Microsoft company profile provided by TradeVibes
]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/nbc_drops_silverlight_runs_back_to_adobe_for_flash.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/nbc_drops_silverlight_runs_back_to_adobe_for_flash.php Adobe Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:43:50 -0800 Corvida Democratic Convention Web Site Gets 3.2 Million Visits dnc-logo.pngJust as the Republican National Convention is about to wrap up tonight, the Democratic National Convention Committee released some interesting numbers about its web presence during the Democratic convention last week. During the convention week, the official Web site received more than 3.2 million visits. Also, visitors to the DNC site watched a total of more than 360,000 hours of online video from the convention.

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]]> SilverStripe

The convention site was built on top of SilverStripe, a New Zealand based open source content management system we reviewed last year. In the review, we noted that SilverStripe had great potential, especially for those who needed a CMS with more functionality than traditional blogging platforms, yet with less complexity than traditional CMS system. The fact that it worked so well under high load during the Democratic convention confirms our first impression.

SilverLight

convention_video.jpgJust like NBC did during the Olympics, the convention site used Microsoft's SliverLight platform to stream live and recorded video feeds, many of them in HD quality.

According to the DNC, the average web viewer had watched just a bit over 80 minutes of video by the end of the week. This seems to be in line with the Olympics, where the average viewer watched around 15-20 minutes a day of online video.

Just as with the Olympics, the fact that online video streams were available was not detrimental to traditional TV networks. Instead, the TV ratings for this year eclipsed those of 2004 by 54%.

What About the Republicans?

The Republican Convention has partnered with UStream to broadcast its speeches online. Also, the GOP convention site uses YouTube to stream its recorded videos, which does not have the same quality as the SilverLight videos the DNC uses.

On the other hand, though, most users don't have to install any specific software to watch the flash videos on YouTube, so it will be interesting to see what the statistics for the GOP convention web site are going to look like once they are released.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/democratic_convention_web_site.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/democratic_convention_web_site.php News Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:09:13 -0800 Frederic Lardinois Olympics: Only 0.2% of Viewers Exclusively Watch Online open_salon_logo.jpgAccording to the Wall Street Journal, the Olympics are off to a good, but not amazing start on the Internet. Over the first three days, NBC's online coverage drew an average of 4.7 million viewers per day, with the numbers steadily rising over the weekend. So far, Sunday was the most watched day, with 5.1 million total users and 3.42 million streams. According to the same article, only 0.2% of all viewers exclusively used the Internet to watch the Games, while 90% used the traditional TV coverage exclusively and 10% used both the Internet and TV.

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]]> As we have pointed out before, this year's Olympic Games represent a major departure from NBC's traditionally conservative way of using the Internet for covering major sports events. While this year, NBC offers about 3,600 hours of live online coverage, the Turin games only saw 2 hours of live streaming video. Based on the numbers so far, it would seem that the online coverage is not detracting from the traditional TV coverage at all, but, at least for the majority of viewers, merely a secondary source for coverage. At the same time, though, it's important to point out that, at least for American viewers, so far only the swimming competition has really seen a lot of excitement and media hype - as the Games continue, these early numbers could easily change very quickly.

Short Attention Span

There are a number of other interesting bits of information in the data from NBC, including that face that the average time people spent watching video on the NBC site so far is under 15 minutes and was as low as 10 minutes on Friday. This is very much in line with how people use Internet video on other sites like YouTube. NBC did not specify how many viewers watched the live coverage and how many of them just viewed already recorded clips. Judging from this number, it would almost seem as if most viewers wither decided to mostly watch prerecorded clips, or that they did not stick around for the live coverage for very long.

olympics08_video.jpg

But What About the Experience?

Over the weekend, we had quite some time to play with NBC's video player, and while the overall experience was good and the video quality was actually very good and the streams never stuttered once, the video player itself is a bit of a disappointment. Why, for example, is there no full-screen mode available?

Also, the much touted "Live Video Control Room," where you can watch up to 4 streams at a time, is pretty much useless because of the miniscule size of the videos. Also, as Chris Albrecht points out, the user interface and navigation of the site is often confusing.

Overall, though, it seems these Olympic Games will hopefully change the way TV executives think about online coverage. Clearly, the online coverage is not detracting from TV viewership and if anything, is enhancing the way people relate to the events, especially in a year where the large time difference and the time-delay of the TV coverage become such an important issue. While the overall numbers for online viewership are maybe not as high as some others expected, we will have to see what happens during the week now, where many viewers might start watching the online streams from work.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/olympics_online_only_02_of_vie.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/olympics_online_only_02_of_vie.php News Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:10:40 -0800 Frederic Lardinois Mainstream Web Watch: The Olympics & Online Video The Beijing Olympics starts in a few days and what better test of the mainstream web is there than the world's biggest sports event. This is the first in a series of posts that will look at the Web technologies powering this year's Olympics.

One of the most obvious ways the Web will be utilized with the Beijing Olympics is with online video coverage. In the US, NBC has teamed up with Microsoft Silverlight for 2,200 hours of live coverage. Meanwhile in China, Adobe has teamed up with a Chinese network.

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]]> The New York Times reported today that NBC will stream 2,200 hours of live events across 25 sports on NBCOlympics.com. For context, at the Athens Olympics four years ago there was less than 100 hours of on-demand video. According to the NYT, NBC will use the Internet to "send out mass quantities of video in high resolution". The only catch is that the coverage will only be available to users in the United States, because that's the only place where NBC has rights to broadcast the Olympics.

Despite the geographical limitations, NBC is promising lots of 'new media' features in its Web coverage. These include:

  • Users have the ability to watch whatever sport they want, unlike on TV where you get what the broadcaster dishes up.
  • There will be 3,000 hours of "on-demand encores of full events and highlights".
  • Users can switch between up to 4 live streams.
  • Users will see the standard world feed that is sent to all broadcasters, so there will be no network TV commentators. Instead, the NBC expects to see bloggers "serve as play-by-play voices and analysts" (free talent!).
  • Users will have access to statistics, biographies and other information.

As the NYT notes, NBC's coverage of the Olympics online is the culmination of NBC's "multiple-network strategy, which began in 2000 with the addition of CNBC and MSNBC to the mix." The upshot is that coverage of the Olympics becomes an on-demand, 24/7 experience -- although unfortunately not worldwide in NBC's case. This is possible because the "cyber-pipelines" infrastructure is largely in place now, in the US, to support such extensive online video coverage.

NBC's coverage online will be powered by Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Media player. CNET reports that Limelight Networks is being used to route the video streams to Internet service providers. NBC was originally planning to use Adobe's Flash, but CNET noted that NBC "was convinced by Microsoft earlier this year that Silverlight would allow it to stream more high-quality video than would have been possible using Flash."

It seems China's TV networks didn't buy that line, as Adobe has partnered with CCTV.com to bring Olympics online video to mainland China.

CCTV.com and Adobe Partner for Internet Coverage in China

Today, Adobe announced a partnership with CCTV International Networks Co, Ltd. to deliver Web coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to fans throughout mainland China and Macau. CCTV.com owns the online video rights to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games for mainland China and Macau. CCTVOlympics.com plans to provide 5,000 hours of "on-demand protected streamed video content including full event replays, highlights, features, interviews and encore packages." This is made up of 3,800 hours of worldwide broadcast Olympic Games video and 1,200 hours of CCTV's own video.

Choosing Adobe as a partner, as with NBC and Silverlight, is a hint that Chinese Internet viewers can expect a rich interactive experience. The press release trumpets "an unprecedented Web experience created with Adobe Flex and delivered via Adobe Flash technology".

Unlike NBC though, CCTV is not eschewing commentators and replacing them with bloggers. CCTV promises "expert analysis from CCTV's Olympic media team". However it also will be diving into the social web via "social networking features that will enable fans to share aspects of their Olympic experience with friends."

Conclusion

The 2008 Olympics is set to be the first to have a mammoth online video presence. Up to 5,000 hours of coverage would be enough to satisfy even the most rabid of Olympics fan. What's possibly even more interesting to watch will be the performance of interactive Web technologies such as Silverlight and Flash in this coverage. Which one will end up better? Although I guess if you're in the US, you'll never know about Flash - and vice versa for the Chinese regarding Silverlight.

Further coverage from the RWW Network:

RWW: The Olympics Go Mobile

last100: Roundup: The most digital of all Olympic games is well underway

last100: NBC Olympics on the Go will allow (some) fans to download events to watch on their computers

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/beijing_olympics_online_video.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/beijing_olympics_online_video.php Analysis Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:15:14 -0800 Richard MacManus Mesh, Deep Zoom, Netflix on Xbox: Is Microsoft Becoming "Cool"? Microsoft. Depending on who you are, their name alone elicits some pretty strong feelings. Some people love them, others love to hate them. Few people are neutral. However, everyone can pretty much agree that Microsoft has been fighting an image problem lately and one that has started to make them look less like a towering giant and more like the underdog. Those "I'm a Mac" ads didn't help, either. However, some recent innovations make us wonder if the tide is starting to turn for the big blue monster.

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]]> Earlier this year, we wondered if the Microsoft was beginning to wake up from an apparent slumber. That post addressed cloud databases and IE8, but perhaps those won't be the turning points for Microsoft's image after all. In fact, given the number of happy Firefox customers, IE8 may still be somewhat of an uphill battle. But some other innovations prove that even Microsoft can still be cool.

Netflix Comes To Xbox

Earlier this week, Netflix subscribers got a nice surprise - they no longer need to save up for that Roku box to get instant access to Netflix movies on their TV. Instead, the new set-top box for Netflix is going to be one that many people already have in their living rooms: an Xbox 360. The partnership between Xbox and Netflix will be bringing a new "Watch Instantly" feature that will appear on Xbox later this fall. In addition, a "Live Party" feature will allow people to watch movies together over Xbox Live. Well, the coolness of that feature is debatable...but still, Netflix on Xbox? Did Microsoft just win the living room from Apple?

Deep Zoom Changes the Web

Bah humbug - another browser plugin. Is that what you think? Well, like it or not the Silverlight plugin is being pushed hard. It's going to be installed on millions of HP computers and it's going to power NBC's Olympics '08 website, so it's going to become hard to avoid installing this one after a while.

If you've been paying attention to Silverlight news, you know that one of the most remarkable things about it is its Deep Zoom feature. It's definitely the coolest. It initially received attention when Hard Rock debuted their Memorabilia website. Then there was the incredible Deep Earth site (which technically didn't use Silverlight's Deep Zoom, but instead uses Silverlight plus a custom-written component created in Visual Studio). Now we have a Silverlight Deep Zoomable image of Yosemite National Park. 70 photographers, GPS-enabled cameras, 10,000 high-res photos. The results let researchers study rockfall activity and help Yosemite search-and-rescue teams with their operations by providing detailed, zoomable maps of the rockfaces. Cool? Yes, definitely.

Live Mesh

This service is rapidly approaching coolness. Mac fans have complained there's no Mesh for them, but that's only a matter of time. In the past couple of days, we've seen Live Mesh open up to all and launch a mobile web site.

Via m.mesh.com you can see your stream of Mesh news, access your Meshified folders, and move your photos, videos, and other content from your mobile device into your Mesh, instantly making them accessible from any computer, anywhere. The Live Desktop (cloud storage) offers 5 GB, but you aren't limited to meshing only 5 GB - you can mesh as much as you want. Data will sync from device to device via P2P connections, but only 5 GB are stored online for access when you're away from a device you own. You have the option to configure which files are part of that 5 GBs. Oh, and it does Remote Desktop, too.

If you haven't been able to wrap your head around Mesh, yet, this video is a killer introduction. Here, Ori Amiga demos the native Mesh feeds, WPF applications using Mesh, a Silverlight client that supports working on and offline, a custom Facebook application that syncs Facebook photos with Live Mesh, and even a Mac client that sends photos to Live Mesh. Cool? You bet.


Ori Amiga: Programming the Mesh

Your guide to this video

  • 10:53: Skip to this point to start seeing the best stuff
  • 19:10(ish): The developer stuff continues until 19:10ish
  • 19:40: WPF demo app Family Show
  • 27:01: Silverlight App PhotoZoom running offline
  • 33:08: Mesh connector for Twitter
  • 34:35: Mesh connector for Facebook
  • 36:45: Mesh running on the Mac - photo from Photobooth synced to Mesh almost instantaneously - to both PCs and mobile!
  • 43:00: Opening/editing files directly from the cloud - the cloud will be a shortcut on your desktop
  • 46:09: Viewing offline RSS feeds synced to Mesh in your RSS reader

Do these innovations change your opinion of Microsoft? Are you impressed, annoyed, neutral, upset, undecided? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Author Disclosure: I also blog for Microsoft's Channel 10. I'm not a Microsoft employee, just a technology fan. This is not a paid endorsement - these are personal opinions.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mesh_deep_zoom_netflix_on_xbox_is_microsoft_becoming_cool.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mesh_deep_zoom_netflix_on_xbox_is_microsoft_becoming_cool.php Products Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:00:00 -0800 Sarah Perez The Other RIA Desktop Platform: Curl Nitro Curl is another player in the RIA (Rich Internet Applications) space, going up against Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe's Flex platform, and OpenLazlo, among others. The Curl platform provides developers a way to build web-based apps that can't be easily built using Ajax or other web-based technologies. Those apps can be deployed both within the web browser or on the desktop via Curl Nitro, an extension of the Curl platform. To show off what Nitro can do, the company has recently released a demo app featuring a visual representation of the Facebook social graph.

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]]> The Curl Platform and Curl Nitro

Where the Curl platform itself competes with Flex and Silverlight, Curl Nitro competes more directly with Adobe AIR, Mozilla Prism, Google Gears, and other applications that allow content from the web to run on the desktop while also providing asynchronous communication with various back-end services.

This recently released Nitro demo app called CurlGraph was designed by Manuel Lima, the founder of VisualComplexity.com (our coverage) and it allows you to visualize a circle of up to 128 friends from your Facebook account. By examining the ring of friends and the arcs that indicate the relationships between them, you can visualize what your personal social graph looks like.

Of course, in order to run the app, you'll need to have Curl Nitrol Beta RTE already installed. You can then download the app, CurlGraph, from here and the code from here (note: zip file).

When installing the app, the dialog box looks very familiar - much like Adobe AIR - and the process was just as easy. You login to Facebook via the app and then it will graph out all of your Facebook friend connections.

Fighting For the Desktop

While the app itself is an impressive way to showcase Curl's ability to support a visually engaging desktop application, the company itself is going to be up against some tough competition to gain a foothold on the desktop.

At the moment there's the popularity of Adobe AIR's desktop widgets to deal with, especially among early adopters and other enthusiasts, not to mention Silverlight and other players in the RIA game, including OpenLaszlo, NexaWeb Enterprise 2.0, Dojo, Altio Live, UltraLightClient and JavaFX.

Curl's best bet may be with their enterprise efforts or with their open source web services development kit (WSDK), shipped earlier this year as a part of the Curl Rich Internet Application Platform 6.0. But even then, they're up against Microsoft's Silverlight offering which was ported to Linux by some Novell developers as Moonlight.

Fighting big companies like Microsoft and Adobe isn't easy for a smaller shop, nor is competing against JavaFX and others in the enterprise. Yet that doesn't mean that Curl isn't trying. Curl's VP of Developer Relations, Richard Monson-Haefel, left a comment here on RWW not long ago which was very critical of Adobe AIR's security model, a subject recently noted by Adobe platform evangelist Ryan Stewart on his blog.

Stewart references a recent presentation by Ethan Malasky called Developing Secure AIR Applications, and then says that "security is one of the things that gets talked a lot about with regards to AIR and the team spent a huge, huge amount of time thinking about the security mode."   (Slides from the presentation are below).

If the Curl platform is truly more secure, then they may be able to find success in the enterprise space, an area which AIR and Silverlight are both trying to reach now. However, Curl will have to be up for the battle because those two companies have a lot more resources to fight aggressively for RIA marketshare.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/curl_is_another_player_in.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/curl_is_another_player_in.php Products Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:00:00 -0800 Sarah Perez A Smart Social Media Play From... Coca-Cola? Coca-Cola quietly launched one of their first social media applications last weekend, a bookmarking widget for Facebook called CokeTag. (Coke Singapore also has a Facebook application out, promoting a tie-in with UEFA EURO 2008.) CokeTag is not only a smart play from the company, but also a fairly useful app as far as profile widgets go. The app allows users to create customizable Flash bookmark widgets linking to link collections on any topic they're passionate about.

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]]> Coke is using their social media widget initially to promote their we8 project, which is a "cultural exchange" of top artists and designers from China, paired with Western musicians. we8 is part of Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Coke has been a sponsor of the Olympics since 1928 -- the games' longest running sponsor.

While some of the press pack that was delivered to us along with CokeTag is a little over the top (i.e., "The Coca-Cola Company aligns itself with delivering the promise of a cross-platform Web experience, consistent with Coke's brand value of bringing people together for social connections across cultures."), launching a social media application is a smart move. If there's one thing that Coca-Cola understands, it's branding -- they didn't become Millward Brown's #4 brand in the world by accident. And CokeTag is all a about branding.

Though the branding on CokeTag is subtle -- "We made a distinct decision not to overly brand this application," according to Michael Donnelly, Director of Worldwide Interactive Marketing, at Coca-Cola -- this is an exercise in smart branding. Coca-Cola has created something that is useful, simple, and easily spread. Even though it has nothing to do with Coke's core beverage business, all roads lead back to the brand.

CokeTag currently only works on Facebook, but an OpenSocial version is planned, to be followed by standalone versions for bloggers and other web publishers. The beauty of building a social networking application for branding purposes is that if it fails to catch on, you're very likely only out a minimal sum. There is nothing about CokeTag that suggests that it cost very much to create (in fact, it was built on top of an already existing Flash advertising format from Linkstorms). Coke is also smart to create an widget that users should actually find useful, and not something that feels like advertising.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/coketag_social_media_app.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/coketag_social_media_app.php Products Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:00:01 -0800 Josh Catone iPhone-less? Try Tiled Browsing Instead zumobi_small.jpgYesterday was the big unveiling of iPhone 2.0. Even with its lowered price, many customers are still locked into contracts they can't break yet, and others still - believe it or not - are happy to continue using their mobile devices of choice, be them Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Nokia, Samsung, or something else altogether. Unfortunately though, no matter what device you use, browsing the mobile web can be somewhat of a challenge. However, now there are new applications that allow you to browse the mobile web in completely new ways: with tiles.

]]>Sponsor

]]> Zumobi

There's an application for Windows Mobile users called Zumobi. Finally out of beta, this app offers a unique way to browse the mobile web - it loads up a widgetized interface displaying tiles that represent your favorite web sites. You "browse" the sites by zooming in and out - a process that's much easier than typing in a URL using the small buttons of your mobile device. You can pick and choose which tiles you want on your page from the Zumobi gallery or you can create your own from any RSS feed. The only drawback to Zumobi, of course, is that it's currently limited to Windows Mobile. A Blackberry version is in the works, but it hasn't arrived yet.

Goojet

For everyone else, there is a new application called Goojet which brings the concept behind Zumobi to anyone with a mobile phone. With this app, the tiles are called by the rather silly name of "goojet," and there are also many to choose from in their online gallery. There are goojets for Gmail, YouTube, Twitter, News, Shopping, Weather, and more. And as with Zumobi, you can create your own personal goojet from any web site that has an RSS feed. You can even create a personalized goojet with one click to make a mobilized version of your favorite web site. With Goojet, there's a social element, too - any goojet you create can be shared with yours friends via the mobile app.

The Goojet web site was annoyingly difficult to use - requesting plugins in Firefox and not displaying at all in IE - a pop-up appeared saying "operation aborted". (This could be some misconfiguration on my part, but I did not delve into it to determine what that may be. I have no other issues with IE.)

Despite these problems, it may be worth it to put up with Googjet's site since the end result is a mobile app that lets you browse the web in a way that's very similar to Zumobi, but without needing a Windows Mobile device to do so.

For the iPhone-less, widgetized browsing such as that provided by these two applications makes the mobile web more personal and usable...which should at least tide us over until we can all afford to get our iPhones, too.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/iphone-less_try_tiled_browsing.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/iphone-less_try_tiled_browsing.php Mobile Services Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:08:52 -0800 Sarah Perez Microsoft Silverlight to be Installed on Millions of HP Computers Microsoft announced this morning that HP computers will soon be shipped with Live.com as their default search engine. The big news, though, isn't that Live's hit-it-with-a-stick ugly search results will be placed in front of millions of eyes. The most important part of the announcement is that the search toolbar will be powered by Silverlight, Microsoft's product that competes with the nearly ubiquitous Flash from Adobe. The competition could be great for consumers.

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]]> Many people who have never changed their default search engine will discover how easy it is to do after a few days of using Live instead of Google. As Emil Protalinski writes at Ars Technica, though, going to the trouble of uninstalling Silverlight is something almost no one is likely to do.

Market Adoption so Far

Microsoft is working hard to spread Silverlight. It's cut deals with NBC for their online Olympic coverage, with Major League Baseball, and with Nokia. Oprah uses Silverlight. You, dear reader, will have Silverlight on your computer soon if you don't already.

Silverlight works closely now with .NET, it's available for Macs and Linux as well as Windows machines and mobile phones. Now Silverlight will see millions of default installs, an even better motivator than requiring a download to watch the Olympics online. Despite Microsoft's efforts, Silverlight adoption is probably minimal so far though it launched a year ago. That could change relatively quickly, though.

The Impact of the HP Deal

"In the first quarter of 2008," writes power blogger Larry Dignan at ZDNet, "HP shipped about 3.9 million PCs to the U.S. and Canada. So let's project an even 4 million a quarter for simplicity's sake for 16 million PC units from HP in 2008 in the U.S. In 2009, we'll throw out 18 million PCs as a guesstimate for U.S. shipments."

That's another good chunk taken out of the lead Adobe has with Flash. Adobe claims that 98% of US web users have Adobe Flash installed. Update: Adobe's John Dowdell drops by in comments below to say we are insane and point out that Flash 9 installs are still going at a pace that makes HP computer sales look like nothing. Point taken and perspective revised. While the new Acrobat release will likely spread adoption of similarly competitive product Adobe AIR in a similar fashion, this HP deal is big for Silverlight.

We're hearing reports that Silverlight is being offered as an optional download in the latest Windows update, too. Should HP owners feel offended?

Creatives

Today a substantial preponderance of the most creative people working in visual content online work in Flash. Deals like today's are likely to change that in the near future. To its credit, some people say that Silverlight has a much bigger vision than Flash, Flex and AIR and thus isn't really competing with Adobe. That's hard to believe though.

For a more skeptical perspective on the whole field of Rich Internet Applications, see Stephen O'Grady's very good RIA Q&A.

Despite arguments otherwise, we believe that cross-platform mixed online/offline development environments with appealing user experiences have a whole lot of potential. The rise of Silverlight is important to keep a fire under Adobe at the very least, and it is likely to offer some very compelling applications of its own in the near term future.

For an in depth look at Silverlight compared to Adobe's products, check out the this podcast , wherein Colin Birch spoke to Pete Barr-Watson and Jon Harris of Microsoft, and Mike Downey from Adobe.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/silverlight_on_hp.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/silverlight_on_hp.php News Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:49:12 -0800 Marshall Kirkpatrick Silverlight Timetable: 2.0 Coming This Summer Eagle-eyed ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley spotted a "rough timetable" for upcoming releases of Microsoft's Flash-killer Silverlight (check out ReadWriteWeb's previous coverage here, here, and here). The timetable pegs the full release for Silverlight 2.0 to come sometime over the summer. It comes via a FAQ posted on the MSDN blog of Microsoft blogger Ashish Thapliyal.

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]]> Below is the rough roadmap presented by Thapliyal. Though it is rather sparse, it indicates that the final release of Silverlight 2.0 should ship sometime over the summer if all goes according to plan.

  • Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1 (Q1CY08 with limited (non commercial) Go-Live) -- this was released at Mix ‘08 in early March
  • Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 (Q2CY08 with Go-Live)
  • Silverlight 2.0 RTM (Summer 2008) -- Exact timing TBD
  • Silverlight v.next -- We are working on a v.Next plan and have nothing to announce at this time
  • Silverlight for mobile -- No date available

Thapliyal also promised backwards compatibility between Silverlight 1.0 and 2.0 and that the Beta 2 of the second version of Microsoft's Flash-alike will be very similar to the final version. Beta 2 is espected at the end of May.

Interestingly, Thapliyal takes a slight shot at Adobe in the Silverlight 2.0 FAQ, with a question asking how Silverlight's market penetration compares to Adobe's claim of 98.8% of all Internet users. "We’ve announced that we’re at about 1.5 million downloads per day at the moment. The problem with putting out some % values like Adobe do is that it is hard to be accurate and hard to verify," Thapliyal writes, which is perhaps an indication that Microsoft doesn't buy Adobe's published numbers.

Right now, Silverlight's main strength has been video, and Microsoft's skill in forging corporate partnerships -- like the ones it has formed with the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, NBC, and Nokia -- should help push the client out to users. Silverlight 2.0 promises to integrate more of the WPF UI programming controls, as well as other bits which could make it a better option for Rich Internet App creation than the first version. It will be interesting to see what sort of things are made with Silverlight after the final release of version 2.0 ships, and if it can make a dent in Flash's dominating marketshare.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/silverlight_20_timetable.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/silverlight_20_timetable.php Products Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:45:40 -0800 Josh Catone Microsoft to Offer Revenue Share on Silverlight Streaming Service Microsoft's Silverlight may have one heck of a mountain to climb in order to take marketshare from Adobe's near ubiquitous Flash plugin, but Redmond is doing a lot of things right in their quest to spread their new technology. They've been making major deals left and right -- with NBC for their online Olympic coverage, with Major League Baseball, and with Nokia -- and yesterday they announced a pilot program to pay developers who use their Silverlight Streaming service, which in itself is a smart move.

]]>Sponsor

]]> The Silverlight Streaming service, which Microsoft announced last April when it unveiled Silverlight itself, chiefly does two things for Microsoft: it promotes Silverlight and encourages the spread of the client software, and it showcases what has so far been the technology's major strength: video. The free service from Microsoft gives anyone video streaming and application hosting for up to 10GB storage and 5TB of bandwidth using Silverlight.

Now Microsoft has sweetened the deal by offering revenue sharing via another one of their services, adCenter. Offering revenue sharing is a smart move from Microsoft. It is hard to imagine that they're really expecting the Silverlight Streaming service to be a big money maker on its own -- i.e., Microsoft shouldn't expect it to compete with YouTube or other video CDNs -- but as a way to push the Silverlight technology to the public, it's a smart idea and revenue sharing should attract more developers to it.

If you're a developer looking for a free place to host your streaming videos, and you're choosing between YouTube and Silverlight Streaming, as long as you can keep it under 10GB/5TB, the prospect of revenue share might tip the scales in favor of Microsoft's service.

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsoft_silverlight_streaming_rev_share.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsoft_silverlight_streaming_rev_share.php Products Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:37:32 -0800 Josh Catone