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In order to cope with the fluctuation in the economy, Microsoft has declared further cost-cutting measures like decreasing the use of vendors, slashing the cost spent on marketing and postponing the new datacentre. While 5000 job cuts were declared by Microsoft last month, the plans to delay a new datacentre in Des Moines, Iowa have also been confirmed.

The datacentre was earmarked to host several services like Windows Live applications, Live Search and Hotmail. According to a blog posted by the company, the construction of datacenters in Dublin and Chicago will continue as the level of demand is tremendous.

The General Manager of infrastructure services, Arne Josefsberg and the general manager of datacenters, Michael Manos stated that the firm wishes to revisit the datacentre plans on a quarterly basis. The company’s blog has also emphasised growth in the firm due to cost cutting.

Though Google admitted last month that it was forced to freeze its expansion plans for a datacentre that was planned in Oklahoma, the online services of Microsoft have brought about $866m or £621m in revenues for the last quarter of 2008. This was up by $863m or £619m for the same period when compared to 2007. Last Thursday, Microsoft’s shares hit an all time low of $17.11.

In order to rein in costs, Microsoft has decided to merge its Office Live product with its Windows Live product, though both of them have been quite unsuccessful. Redmond states that the above will simplify the user experience around the Live services.

Kirk Gregerson, Microsoft’s director of Office Live product marketing and management stated that the Microsoft fans can now go to a single destination while they are online. According to Microsoft, Office Live was made public just 10 months ago and already has 4 million people signing up for it.

Gregerson also stated that the company has responded to several customer feedbacks and most of them want all the Live services like storage, IM and email under one roof. Microsoft has however refused to comment on the status of Live moniker, and whether it will be rebranded to Kumo or not.

Though WHOIS revealed last November that the firm re-routed Kumo.com to some of the Live Search servers a spokesperson from Microsoft responded to the same by claiming it was only speculation and rumor. Moreover, Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows 7 beta was getting an extended run and it would be made available to the testers by 10th February 2009.

Recent reports have stated that the future of Microsoft Flight Simulator seems rather uncertain. Now a product of Microsoft, it was launched in 1981 as IBM PCs unofficial compatibility tester.

The report also stated that a lot of staff members have been axed. It was originally published on Apple II as Bruce Artwick’s Flight Simulator; it was taken over by Microsoft in 1982.

The program has been quite successful, which is why the studio ended up producing a Microsoft ESP that was based on similar technology. The Microsoft ESP provides a platform that is visually simulating. In fact, recently Flight Simulator X was seen on the BBC News where it was simulating a plane landing on the river in New York.

Though Microsoft’s recent statements clearly states commitment towards flying games, the lack of developers indicates that Flight Simulator does not have much of a future.

Dean Takahashi from Venture Beat stated that game developers were going through tough times at Microsoft.

In order to create newer content and restrict individuals from authentic and copywrited work, Google has decided to call for UK copyright reforms. Several laws of fair use have been passed in the US, like music copyrights. However, the British law is yet to incorporate laws that protect intellectual property.

At the Oxford Media Convention, Richard Sergeant, the public policy manager for Google in the UK stated that copyright reforms were important to protect original work. He also stated that the system used in US was fair and deserved immense respect. However, people in Europe are unaware about it.
Richard Sergeant’s panel also included John Whittingdale, the chairman of the sports selection committee and media culture. He suggested that Ofcom, a media regulator, would be an ideal solution for eliminating piracy on the web.

The music industry wants the ISPs to take the initiative against the web users who illegally download online content. Nick Lansman the Secretary General of the ISPs Association stated that the ISPs have never been internet police and in the future too, they should never think of becoming one. Whittingdale therefore believes that referring the matter to Ofcom could be beneficial.

Google, the leader of the web world witnessed plenty of action in the last quarter of 2008. From rise in revenues to fall in profits, Google has seen it all. However, the company believes that they managed to end the year on a positive note.

When compared to 2007, the net profit for the year 2008 (same quarter) was about $382m or £275m. Last year it decreased by $1.21bn and the decline was almost 68% for the same period. However, the results were better than what the analysts had expected and were mainly affected due to charges on investments during the quarter.

The total revenue this time was about $5.7bn, the increase was18% more when compared to the same quarter last year. In fact, the profits increased largely because of the one-off charges that were not applicable on the investments in Time Warner and Clearwire Corp.

Eric Schmidt stated that their company performed quite well in the last quarter despite the unstable economy. Keith Wirtz from Asset management also stated that the company’s performance made them feel good during the economic slowdown. In comparison, last Thursday Microsoft announced 5000 redundancies and lower profits.