An online tool that I have found to be really useful and valuable (In other words: I would actually pay for it) is Vixy.net, which converts online video from places such as YouTube and Metacafe into a bunch of different formats (e.g. MOV, AVI, MP4). When I'm preparing PowerPoint presentations, it's something that I use repeatedly. Check out this review.

Can a tiger change its stripes? Can you turn water into wine? Can Ray Ozzie and Steve Berkowitz transform Microsoft into an Internet company from its Windows/Office roots? This is a question highlighted by the New York Times, which looks at Microsoft efforts to beef up is online operations through initiatives such as Live. At the risk of under-playing the dominance of Internet Explorer and the popularity of MSN.com, Microsoft isn't an Internet company and, frankly, it will never be seen as anything else other than a giant software company with some interesting side projects (e.g. Xbox).

This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it is what it is even though Microsoft has been struggling to convince people otherwise for the past decade. If you take a step back, Microsoft's track record beyond Windows and Office has been, at best, mediocre. A good example is television where it has toiled for years and spent billions of dollars to establish a foothold in the living room. Microsoft has acquired stakes in cable companies, purchased start-ups (anyone remember WebTV?) and, most recently, tried to developed an IP-TV platform for carriers. But after all this time, money and effort, Microsoft only has a modest presence in the TV or video markets.

Microsoft's problem - and challenge - is the Internet isn't part of the corporate DNA so it's hard to really be a vibrant and innovative Internet player when it's not really who you are. A part of this reality is Microsoft continues to make billions of dollars from selling Windows and Office. It's the business so Microsoft's lack of success in diversifying into other businesses is no different than what many other companies have faced over the years. Microsoft, however, is fortunate its core business continues to rumble along as opposed to being forced to diversify because the core business is eroding.

What Microsoft and investors need to accept is Microsoft will continue to be a software company with a Web presence as long as its continue to operate in its present form. If, however, the company decided to break itself into independent operations (Windows/Office, Xbox, MSN/Internet) then it might be a different story because each entity would have its own core mission and raison d'etre. In the meantime, Microsoft will attempt to fight the good Internet fight while chasing after dyed-in-the-wool Internet rivals such as Google and Yahoo.

For more on Berkowitz, News.com recently did a Q&A with him. By the way, read what you will into this quote Berkowitz gave the NYT about life at Microsoft compared with his previous employer, Ask.com: "I’m used to being in companies where I am in a rowboat and I stick an oar in the water to change direction. Now I’m in a cruise ship and I have to call down, Hello, engine room!. Sometimes the connections to the engine room aren’t there."

Technorati Tags: Google, Microsoft

Apologies for the Elvis Costello reference...but iotum announced today it is one of three APIs (call personalization, device enablement and call management) to be part of AOL's new Open AIM Phoneline program. The deal with AOL is a huge coup for Ottawa-based iotum, which has been battling away to find a market/customers for its relevance engine that intelligently assesses telephone calls and delivers them to most appropriate device on any network. iotum CEO Alec Saunders said his company is one of the AOL's primary partners in the AIM developers program. "We're in the storefront, and part of their initial announcement," he said. "iotum engineers have also helped with the specification of the AIM Phoneline call control APIs, as we mutually determined the best to integrate iotum, and other products needing call control capabilities with AIM Phoneline. Another Canadian angle to the AIM development program is AOL's engineering team is located in Halifax, N.S. Now, all iotum needs is a little venture capital.
Update: For more on the iotum-AIM deal, check out Mathew Ingram, while Jeff Pulver, who is gearing up for the VON show, writes on the AIM Developer program.

Bell Canada plans to enter the comparison-shopping engine business next year with a service called Bell Agora. Bell has been looking at different technolgy platforms and talking with local online retailers (an easy assignment given there aren't that many of them, to be honest). Maybe Bell has come up with a way to make a shopping engine work that Google/Froogle has failed to figure out. One of Canada's only shopping engines is Calgary-based Shoptoit.com, which recently celebrated its first anniversary.

According to new Ipsos Insight study, the global online population climbed just 5% in 2005, compared with a 20% jump in 2004 - while expections for 2006 are, at best, modest. While some markets are still seeing robust growth, Ipsos believes adoption in Canada and the U.S. (72% and 71% regular usage respectively) may have plateaued. For high-speed service providers in North America, the Ipsos report suggests they need to migrate dial-up users, convince non-Internet users to venture into cyberspace and/or drive more sales of value-added services such as anti-virus and anti-spam. At the same time, it may provide the anti-net neutrality forces with more ammunition they need other sources of revenue such as downstream tollgates to remain viable if the number of subscribers isn't expected to climb.