Brad Smith

Microsoft has taken a step toward getting the federal government to pay attention to cloud-computing services. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is asking for a cloud-computing law.

Microsoft's senior vice president and top legal counsel, Brad Smith, has proposed that Congress institute the Cloud Computing Advancement Act to help foster trust in cloud-computing services and address privacy concerns.

After more than 10 years of antitrust issues in Europe, Microsoft is finally putting the drama to rest. On Wednesday, the European Commission approved a final resolution of several long-standing competition issues.

In a move to close a decade-long chapter of competition concerns, Microsoft on Wednesday agreed to provide a choice of browsers in the European Union. The software giant usually configures Internet Explorer as the default browser for its Windows operating system, but agreed to test-market measures to give consumers an option to download and install competing browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox.

Microsoft has retreated in the battle for Internet Explorer in Europe. On Friday, it offered to implement a browser ballot favored by the European Commission.

Countering charges that it forced Internet Explorer on users to the detriment of alternative browsers, Microsoft had planned to ship a special European version of Windows 7 without a browser. That would have created major headaches for users, who would have no means to download a browser, whether Internet Explorer or an alternative, and it would make an upgrade to Windows 7 more difficult.

The biggest federal public works project since World War II offers tantalizing possibilities for the struggling tech market.

President Obama's staggering $787 billion economic stimulus package, passed in February, could be a financial oasis -- especially for an industry facing a precipitous drop in tech spending by economically ravaged corporations and consumers.

It allocates tens of billions of dollars for tech upgrades to energy ($4.5 billion for smart grids), health care ($20 billion for electronic medical records), broadband deployment and education.

Technology companies are hoping President-Elect Barack Obama will spend millions on new IT bells and whistles for the U.S. government. In the meantime, however, a few companies, including Microsoft and YouTube, are jumping on Obama's high-tech bandwagon to make Inauguration Day available on the Web.

In the wake of shattered hopes for an advertising agreement with Google, Yahoo wants Microsoft to rescue it from its financial woes.

Google on Wednesday terminated its agreement with Yahoo following an indication that the Department of Justice would seek to block it. Yahoo was counting on the agreement to accelerate investments in its top business priorities through an infusion of cash.

As first-year CEO Brad Smith tries to reshape software maker Intuit for the online age, he has opened his Rolodex and is cribbing ideas from some tech industry icons.

Software giant Microsoft is not saddled with subprime mortgages, nor is it a bank threatened by a run of angry depositors. Nonetheless, the financial crisis currently roiling Wall Street is being felt in Redmond, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, and Congress needs to take action.

Ballmer made his comments at a conference in Oslo, Norway, where he announced the formation of new research and development centers for business-oriented search tools. Microsoft recently spent $1.2 billion to purchase Fast Search and Transfer ASA, a Norwegian company that will form the core of the new venture.

The U.S. Senate opened hearings on a pending Yahoo-Google partnership Tuesday. The Antitrust, Competition and Consumer Rights committee means to put the screws to each party's legal counsel in an attempt to determine whether the deal violates antitrust laws.

Google is the number-one search site, while Yahoo currently hosts the second most popular site. Ad revenues from searches are a multibillion-dollar market. Lawmakers want to ensure that a deal between these giant players won't jeopardize free competition.