Gawker: valleywag, gary flake

Microsoft explains Photosynth

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:40:00 EDT

Frustrated with our explanation of Photosynth, which Microsoft PR persuaded the Financial Times to call a "new development intended to boost the pace of innovation in its online services group as it tries to close the gap with Google"? Check out this clip where Microsoft's Live Labs leader Gary Flake explains it himself — and tell us why Photosynth isn't really a change of pace for Microsoft at all.

Fast-forward to the end. "It's quite feasible to run the synthing software right on your local machine," says Flake. Aha! So this isn't actually a Web service at all — it's just more of the same desktop software Microsoft has sold all along, with some Web features added.

Microsoft's new Google killer is a photo site that doesn't work

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:40:00 EDT

In an articled headlined "Microsoft unveils fruits of online shake-up," the Financial Times set me up for something big, trumpeting Microsoft's "new development intended to boost the pace of innovation in its online services group as it tries to close the gap with Google." But then I read the rest of the article.

Doing so, I learned that three years after Microsoft poached him from his role as head of research at Yahoo, a guy named Gary Flake and his 150-person Live Labs team have come up with a product called Photosynth, which stitches images together to create larger images. But as you can tell by the above image — results for a search on "Mission District, San Franciso"— its search function doesn't really work. Also, none of it works on a Mac.

Disappointing. Not Microsoft's product, which is about what we'd expect from the software giant. No, I'm chastened by the FT. On New York's subway system, the pink paper it's printed on is supposed to signify that one looks down from high even on the guy holding the WSJ to your left. But being seen reading articles like this make one a laughingstock even to Murdoch's masses.

Microsoft's exiles

Owen Thomas — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:33:34 EST

Before the formal takeover offer came, an informal Microsoft takeover of Yahoo was already underway, thanks to Yahoo's hiring of several executives from the software giant. Some have even speculated that Microsoft has encouraged this poaching, using its ex-employees as plants to keep track from the inside on Yahoo's progress. And Microsoft has, in turn, hired its share of Yahoos. How will they fare if Microsoft's $44.6 billion offer goes through?

Scott Moore Moore is the golden child of this merger. Before joining Yahoo, he had a long career running Web properties at Microsoft, including Slate (before the Washington Post bought it), MSN, and MSNBC.com. No one's better suited to bridge the company's cultures. Moore was recently promoted to run Yahoo's whole media group; I wouldn't be surprised to see that expanded to include MSN as well.

David Sobeski Suspicions run strong over the executive who runs Yahoo's Seattle-area office. Alas, his job's not nearly as secure as Moore's. His latest project is DataOS, a large-scale, distributed Web operating system meant to undergird Yahoo's properties. Given Microsoft's propensities for favoring its own technologies, DataOS isn't likely to have a long runway. But if Sobeski lands a top engineering job inside Microsoft, that will just strengthen rumors about why he took the job at Yahoo — some think he's been a Microsoft plant all along.

Gary Flake Formerly Yahoo's head of research, Flake joined Microsoft in 2005, and now runs Live Labs, the company's Internet-software R&D effort. Flake's an obvious candidate to run a combined research team.