Published: Sunday, May 2, 2010
TECHNOLOGY NOTEBOOK Live Messenger ups Microsoft’s network factor
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Associated Press
In this screen shot released by Microsoft Corp., a video call in progress on Microsoft’s updated Windows Live Messenger instant-messaging program, is shown.
Microsoft Corp.’s next update to Windows Live Messenger will bring people more ways to keep an eye on their social network accounts.
After various fizzled attempts to build Windows Live into a social network in its own right, Microsoft has moved farther away from competing directly with Facebook, Twitter, News Corp.’s MySpace and other popular sites.
Instead, the company has sought ways to meld its own widely used Web e-mail and instant messaging programs and its online news site with feeds from Facebook, Twitter and others.
Live Messenger, Microsoft’s IM program, already displays friends’ Twitter messages, Flickr photo uploads, Yelp reviews and other tidbits from around the Web. The update, coming by the end of the year, will let Live Messenger users not only monitor but send updates to such sites as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.
Fear that’s too much information? Live Messenger will more prominently display updates from contacts marked as favorites. The program also will try to consolidate the contact list, so only one entry shows up for a friend even if she’s on all five of your networks.
More of us contact government online
More and more Americans are interacting with local, state and federal government offices online. They are turning to the Web to renew driver’s licenses and car registrations, to apply for hunting and fishing permits, to pay parking tickets and other fines and even to track campaign contributions and stimulus spending, according to a new study.
In a survey of more than 2,000 American adults conducted in late 2009, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 82 percent of Internet users — or 61 percent of American adults — had looked up information or completed a transaction on a government Web site over the previous year.
“Recently, we’ve seen government agencies at all levels emphasize the use of online tools in engaging citizens in interesting ways and making data available to ordinary citizens,” said Aaron Smith, research specialist with the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Those efforts appear to be resonating.”
The survey found that:
46 percent of Internet users had looked up government services;
41 percent had downloaded government forms;
35 percent had researched government documents or statistics;
23 percent had obtained information about or applied for government benefits.
Use of government services online, the Pew study showed, went up with income and education. The poll found that 91 percent of Internet users with an income of $50,000 a year or higher and 89 percent with at least some college education had looked up information or completed a transaction on a government Web site. That compares with 76 percent of Internet users who earn less than $50,000 a year and 70 percent who have at most a high school education.
The Pew report is based on telephone surveys of 2,258 American adults conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 27. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 2.4 percent.
Associated Press
After various fizzled attempts to build Windows Live into a social network in its own right, Microsoft has moved farther away from competing directly with Facebook, Twitter, News Corp.’s MySpace and other popular sites.
Instead, the company has sought ways to meld its own widely used Web e-mail and instant messaging programs and its online news site with feeds from Facebook, Twitter and others.
Live Messenger, Microsoft’s IM program, already displays friends’ Twitter messages, Flickr photo uploads, Yelp reviews and other tidbits from around the Web. The update, coming by the end of the year, will let Live Messenger users not only monitor but send updates to such sites as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.
Fear that’s too much information? Live Messenger will more prominently display updates from contacts marked as favorites. The program also will try to consolidate the contact list, so only one entry shows up for a friend even if she’s on all five of your networks.
More of us contact government online
More and more Americans are interacting with local, state and federal government offices online. They are turning to the Web to renew driver’s licenses and car registrations, to apply for hunting and fishing permits, to pay parking tickets and other fines and even to track campaign contributions and stimulus spending, according to a new study.
In a survey of more than 2,000 American adults conducted in late 2009, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 82 percent of Internet users — or 61 percent of American adults — had looked up information or completed a transaction on a government Web site over the previous year.
“Recently, we’ve seen government agencies at all levels emphasize the use of online tools in engaging citizens in interesting ways and making data available to ordinary citizens,” said Aaron Smith, research specialist with the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Those efforts appear to be resonating.”
The survey found that:
41 percent had downloaded government forms;
35 percent had researched government documents or statistics;
23 percent had obtained information about or applied for government benefits.
Use of government services online, the Pew study showed, went up with income and education. The poll found that 91 percent of Internet users with an income of $50,000 a year or higher and 89 percent with at least some college education had looked up information or completed a transaction on a government Web site. That compares with 76 percent of Internet users who earn less than $50,000 a year and 70 percent who have at most a high school education.
The Pew report is based on telephone surveys of 2,258 American adults conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 27. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 2.4 percent.
Associated Press
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