| Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and co-founder, recently unveiled the software giant’s .Net web services and laid out the strategy for the group’s ambitions to create a community of users that could rival AOL Time Warner’s customer base.
The project, code-named Hailstorm, is aimed at shifting Microsoft’s source of revenues from selling software to providing online services. Last month, when Steve Ballmer, chief executive and president, was asked how much of the company he was betting on the .Net strategy, he replied: “One hundred per cent.”
Gates explained that Hailstorm would allow users to store and manage personal information such as credit card details and birth records, and selectively give the information out to third parties. Microsoft, which plans to charge a fee for the service, would also provide high levels of privacy, he added.
“Hailstorm is a key .Net milestone to deliver on Microsoft’s mission to empower people through great software anytime, any place and on any device,” Gates said.
In particular, the .Net service would allow users to access their calendar, e-mail, instant messaging, address books and information stored online, from any device. However, the collation of so much personal information may create concerns about privacy and security. Microsoft’s web sites have suffered from a series of well-publicized hacking attacks, including a recent hacker obtaining two electronic signatures in Microsoft’s name from VeriSign.
The company said that Hailstorm required an explicit instruction from the user for information to be shared.
The company was reaching out to website operators that might use Hailstorm. Gates demonstrated prototype services from five industry partners that included American Express, the financial services group; eBay, the online auction company; Expedia, the online travel booking service; Click Commerce, the internet marketing group; and Groove Networks, which offers peer to peer internet services.
Gates said the new services would be based on an XML platform, an internet standard that allows business and technical data to be exchanged online. |
