Microsoft and Yahoo finally announced that they do in fact have a deal. There’s no merging, but a 10 year search and technology deal. It remains to be seen how this will affect consumers and whether or not regulators will approve the deal, but it looks like Bing will end up being the winner.
Microsoft and Yahoo have a joint website up with more info and there’s more info at Paul Thurrott’s and Mary-Jo Foley’s blogs.
Some details about SharePoint 2010 are starting to emerge. The user interface will inherit the Office Ribbon, with built-in editing features that will make it easier for end users to customize their sites. The Business Data Catalog (BDC) gets a make over, adding insert and update abilities. One thing that may be tough for some IT shops to handle is that it will only be 64 bit and will require Server 2008. Read more over at InformationWeek.
Microsoft Begins Detailing SharePoint 2010 — Microsoft SharePoint — InformationWeek
In Steve Ballmer’s keynote address at the 2009 World Partner Conference he highlighted a $9.5 billion R&D budget.