From the release of Windows Live Essentials 2009 (Wave 3) to POP3 for every Hotmail user, from Internet Explorer 8 to Windows 7 Release Candidate: there have been many happenings around Microsoft in the first half of 2009.
A retrospective of events, January – June 2009
January 2009
- Windows Live Essentials Wave 3 get released (Build 8050).
- Messenger Plus! Live for Messenger 2009 is finished.
- POP3 works for Hotmail users in some markets.
- The Guardian publishes a newspaper article about Patchou, Messenger Plus! creator.
February 2009
- Designer Will Ingles publishes skin Ev0 for Messenger 2009.
- Windows Live Essentials get Quick Fix Engineering QFE update (Build 8064).
- Internet Explorer 8 development is finished.
March 2009
- POP3 for Hotmail is introduced worldwide.
- Twitter adds OAuth API. This avoids having to hand out your Twitter login to third parties.
- Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8.
- Codename Morro surfaces, OneCare will get retired in June and is not supported by Windows 7.
April 2009
- mynetx Creations publishes April Fools’ Joke, “New IM networks for Windows Live.” The post gets picked up by many different news blogs.
- YouTube starts blocking copyrighted music clips in Germany.
- Chatting within the Hotmail web interface is now available for everybody.
- Patchou asks: “What do you think of Messenger Plus! ? Do you like it, hate it?” He gets an overwhelming amount of replies.
- The Windows Live Profile adds support for Facebook, Last.fm and more Activity providers.
May 2009
- Will Ingles publishes the reinvention of the popular skin collection phunk’n.
- mynetx Creations publishes Windows Live and You interviews with Frank Mänz (Microsoft Germany), Jonathan Kay (MessengerGeek), Kip Kniskern (LiveSide) and more partners.
June 2009
- The decision making engine Bing, successor of Live Search, is released and competes with Google.
- Xbox 360 gets social networks.
- MSN Web Messenger is retired in favor of Messenger within Hotmail.
Stay tuned for the summary of the months July to December 2009.
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