5 posts and columns on Brian MacDonald

Liveblogging Microsoft Bing's Search Summit 2010: There Will Be Donuts (and Also Cream Puffs!)

in News on July 13, 2010 at 10:41 am PT

After BoomTown complained at December’s search summit held by Bing about the lack of the finest pastry known to man–namely, donuts!–minions were dispatched by top Microsoft geek general Satya Nadella to fix the dire situation. And, happily, at Search Summit 2010, there on the lovely snack table were a small pile of them–which looked like Krispy Kreme to me. There were lacking the key sprinkles feature, but carb crisis averted and back to search news!

Two Microsoft Search Dudes Talk About Bing! (BoomTown's Flip Is Waiting by the Phone for the Google Search Gurus' Call!)

in News on December 3, 2009 at 5:05 am PT

Yesterday, BoomTown liveblogged a demo session Microsoft held for reporters about some new features on its Bing search service, a glimpse at what Twitter and Facebook integration will look like and the debut of a nifty new beta of its online map service. It is still the bazillion-dollar question–and I do mean a bazillion dollars, since that’s about what Microsoft has lost online after many years of trying–whether Bing can gain some truly significant share in the search market and challenge the sector’s behemoth, Google. So, at the event, I talked to two Microsoft search execs–Harry Shum, a corporate VP who is leading core search development, and Brian MacDonald, corporate VP for Core Search Program Management–about their thoughts on Bing so far.
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Liveblogging Bing Demo: No Donuts, Unlikely to Pay for De-Indexing Google, but Cool New Maps

in News on December 2, 2009 at 10:10 am PT

BoomTown is awaiting a passel of Microsoft execs, who will be talking about a range of new features for Bing. I will be liveblogging, but I must say, I wish there were donuts.
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Bing Keeps Up the New Features Rollouts–BoomTown Will Liveblog a Microsoft Showcase at 10 am PT!

in News on December 2, 2009 at 3:12 am PT

This morning, a passel of top Microsoft search execs is rolling into downtown San Francisco to show off even more new features for Bing. The rolling-stone-gathers-no-moss team at the software giant–which has been seeing some promising progress in its quest to raise its search market share with its snappy new service–has announced an ongoing series of updates since Bing was launched earlier this year. So what’s next? BoomTown has no idea, but I will be letting you know as soon as I do, via liveblogging the event, which starts at 10 am!
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All April Fool's Joking Aside, Omuk Sounds Better Than Kumo!

in News on April 1, 2009 at 9:05 am PT

Microsoft made a funny today with a fake internal memo and screenshot of changes to its search product, which is currently called Kumo. The software giant has jokingly renamed it Omuk, which is Kumo spelled backwards. No kidding, but BoomTown likes it better! Here is the new screenshot and internal memo, sent suspiciously on April Fool’s Day.
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