I’ve been looking very hard recently at jQuery as it seems to provide such a useful lightweight toolkit. My background is Microsoft .net and I have been using the ASP.NET AJAX framework but jQuery has been on my radar because the buzz online about it is huge and it just seems to do some great stuff so easily that would fit in well with the AJAX features.

Well looks like Microsoft (and Nokia) have been keeping a close eye too as they’ve announced they’re going to make jQuery part of the official development platform. Excellent news and I’ll certainly be using jQuery in the very near future.

Microsoft’s live search webmaster tools have been updated. Pretty much essential if you want to know what’s going on with your website on live search. The update basically means Microsoft now have webmaster tools comparable to Google’s.

Interesting screen shot on the article I found this on though - it’s for the microsoft.com website with a piddly 186 millions pages!

I’ve spoken quite a few times about people’s different perceptions of companies and how it can effect how they view future actions the company makes.

A simple example of this is the launch of Microsoft Windows Vista which was met with a luke-warm reception and condemnation when Microsoft started trying to phase out Windows XP.

I’ve been running on Vista for quite some with only a few small quibles which for a new operating system I don’t think is so bad. However people’s perception of Vista is “another Windows ME” which is unfounded in my opinion. Many haven’t even tried Vista due to the negative image.

So rather than sitting back Microsoft came up with a clever idea to at least attempt to show Vista isn’t so bad. The Windows ‘Mojave’ project recruited people who had a low perception of Vista but no actual experience of it. The project was to trial a new version of Windows or so the group thought. In actual fact they were test driving Vista and the results were very positive.

So why the negative image? It’s Microsoft of course! Some people would rather eat their own children than acknowledge Microsoft have done anything right?

Is Vista worth shouting home about? Hmm I wouldn’t say it was a ground breaking as I was hoping. It’s built on the steady structure of XP (although built from the ground up if you believe Microsoft) and with Microsoft’s goals of higher security it’s been beefed up using a more resilient security model. However another layer of security they’ve added is actually my main gripe with it. Showing users warnings about programs trying to access certain resources doesn’t work. The main users on Vista won’t even understand what it means! I’ve disabled UAC myself because it’s just so annoying!

Vista search is great, the interface is much slicker and I’ve never had a full system crash as yet - if they happen it’s at an application level and rare.

When Windows XP was launched it was squarely slagged off too - “Windows with crayons” because of the default theme but now it’s recognised as a good OS by most. This of course is partly due to Microsoft’s attitude to getting patches and upgrades out quickly when needed - which other software companies need to follow.

Of course there are also select companies that will receive positive receptions even before the product is launched to name Apple for one (I really wanted to avoid the Apple / Microsoft comparison but it’s the most obvious).

I myself try to be as unbiased as possible when it comes to any product - although I have to admit I probably do have a more PC / Microsoft stance just due to my background. I’ve also mentioned that some of the supporters of technologies have also led me to have a more cynical attitude to these products. Does this make me the exact opposite of the what seems to be the majority of people? Is it just image that seems to matter now?

It seems Microsoft have come up with an idea that they hope might help them close some ground on Google on search share.

Obviously this isn’t going to happen overnight but if they can implement a system that returns better quality or is less corrupable than Google PageRank then at least they stand a better chance at attracting new users. We do of course have to bare in mind that the lead is currently huge and Google doesn’t stand still so I’d definitely stop short of saying this was a Google killer.

So what’s this fuss about then? Well Google’s success is built on PageRank- essentially a measure of website popularity by incoming links to a website. This popularity when coupled with relevancy can give a good indication of the importance of a website and therefore help rank it accurately. Now it isn’t quite that simple anymore - Google have added much to their algorithm to avoid easy interference by people trying to manipulate the index e.g. using link farms.

Microsoft are touting a system called BrowseRank which effectively takes a user’s browsing habits into account when working out importance. In other words the websites you visit regularly, the time you send on the site etc.

This is great from the perspective of search results and a hell of a lot more difficult to manipulate than current algorithms. Perhaps search engine optimisation would be come just that “optimisation” or maybe some companies would spend money on overall online marketing rather than just spending huge amounts of their budget just on SEO.

Who knows where we will be in a few years time but it’s the first real search idea I’ve seen come out from Microsoft that I’ve thought has real potential. I’m uneasy at Google’s current dominance in the search market and hope that the market becomes more open in the future (Microsoft or any other company).