Xfinity is an on-demand television service from Comcast, that brings your favorite TV and movies to the XBox. Kinect users can search using voice commands or controll the screen with a wave of their hand.

HBO Go brings the HBO catalogue of movies and original programming to the XBox. Users can watch The Game of Thrones or the Sopranos right from there XBox, using their Kinect to voice search or browse through titles.

MLB.TV provides live and on-demand games to XBox users, who have the ability to watch two games at once with Split Screen. MLB.TV offers Kinect compatibility just like the others.

If you get the March Madness Live App, you won’t have to be.

The NCAA, in collaboration with Turner Sports and CBS Sports, launched the app to make all the games available on your computer, iPad, iPhone, and Android phones for $3.99. Go to the Apple App Store or Google Play (Android Market).

Coverage begins with the selection show on Sunday and will end with the national championship game in New Orleans on March 31.

For the social media junkies, the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena will return this year, extending your game watching experience to your favorite social media outlet. You can get feature video from the game ad share it with friends and family via Facebook and Twitter. The Social Arena will also include commentary from other fans, tournament trivia, and chant and cheer features.

On Facebook you can watch video galleries from fan created shots and see behind-the-scenes photos by liking the NCAA Men’s Basketball March Madness page.

Twitter fans can follow:

@marchmadnessTV – game updates, tip-off times, breaking news alerts and channel details from TBS, TNT, truTV and CBS.

@marchmadness – the official NCAA account offering behind-the-scenes access at tournament games and events.

March Madness Live Features:
My Channels
Fans can find games by typing in their zip code and selecting their TV provider in order to see their channel lineup for every game on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV.

Game Center View
The Game Center view provides fans with live in-game stats, live social features, and access to live game radio and video.

Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena

• Social commentary from other fans
• Tournament trivia
• Chant and cheer features for your favorite teams
• Facebook video gallery
• Live Twitter feed of all 68 teams

Jenny Haniver, has started a website titled: Not in the Kitchen Anymore. The premise is simple, she records and documents her experiences playing first person shooters, specifically Call of Duty, and posts these experiences on the website. What you find on her website is pretty shocking, with a lot of it being so extreme it borders on the hilarious.

I found this site a few days ago, and was completely taken by it. Once you start listening to some of these recordings, you can’t stop. You’ll laugh, be amazed, and scared there are people like this who walk among us.

I actually got to speak with Haniver about her website, to gain a bit more insight concerning the project.

My Recorded Discussion With Jenny Haniver (NSFW: Language)

After talking with Jenny, it’s obvious she’s not looking for pity or to say that everyone acts in the same way as the people in her recordings. She simply wants to shed light on the problem, and show just how bad it can get for ladies on Xbox Live or any other online gaming platform.

Here’s what Jenny had to say about the site, “And that’s essentially the focus of my blog- the dated, hostile, and sometimes downright weird reactions men, and occasionally even other women, have to interacting with females in an anonymous setting that is considered to be male dominated (online video games, specifically first person shooters). Obviously sexism isn’t the only problem prevalent in online gaming, it’s just the one I’ve chosen to focus on.

This behavior is something that most female gamers will have to face at some point if they choose to game online. The aim of my project is education; some people genuinely have no idea this is going on. By exposing this type of behavior, I’m hoping to raise awareness- and possibly push people to remember that it’s a real live person on the other side of that microphone.”

To give you an idea of how a recording will go, here’s a transcript from one of the more tame samples:

RMP = random male player

RMP1: Huh?

RMP2: Can’t end it like that.

RMP1: And we got beat by a girl.

[laughter]

RMP3: Wisconsin, what’s up!

Me: You say that like that’s a bad thing.

RMP2: Nah it’s cool. As long- as long as you’re skinny.

[laughter]

RMP1: Her avatar is pretty hot.

RMP2: So are you skinny?

RMP3: Who is?

The website spun out of an art project she did for a college course, highlighting many of the quotes she recorded for the project.

She also set up an audio booth, represented by a blue controller and a pink controller. They doubled as MP3 players, with the blue controller playing sound bites from a male vantage point, with the pink playing what women hear while playing.

The website is a humorous, albeit sad look at what many people resort to when provided an anonymous shield. The only way you can combat this kind of nonsense is to call it out, and let other people know what’s happening. Haniver is just doing that in a creative, and funny way.

Like other live discussions that have taken place on Facebook, users will be able to submit questions they’d like to ask the Governor. Some of the topics of discussion will include the budget, job creation, and education. Governor Christie will also discuss about his use of Facebook to communicate with friends and constituents. Below is the full details from the event page:

“Tune in to Facebook Live (https://www.facebook.com/facebooklive) on November 14th at 2 PM PST / 5 PM EST for a live discussion with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg. The Governor will discuss issues he’s dealt with during this two years in office including education, job creation, and the budget. Governor Christie will also talk about his use of Facebook to help increase communication with constituents and take questions from the audience. Please share a question for Governor Christie on the Event Wall below – you might hear it asked during the live interview.”

What questions would you like to ask Governor Christie? Tell us below.

Facebook has provided us with the embed code for the live video of the event for you viewing pleasure:

Kim-Mai Cutler at InsideFacebook speculates that the launch will be connected with the auto-suggest feature spotted on Facebook today, adding,  "The company has reportedly partnered with location-focused business directory Localeze, the same company that powers conversion of addresses or coordinates into named locations for Twitter. Facebook could use Localeze’s directory to match addresses, and coordinates coming in through the API with businesses that have Facebook Pages."

We’ll find out what’s really going down soon enough. Keep your eyes posted on the video above.

Come here at 1pm eastern/10am Pacific to watch what Facebook has to say. A representative for the company says Facebook will explore a variety of topics including new tools and techniques, business growth strategies and open technologies.

 Scheduled Highlights (all times are PDT)

·         10:00 a.m.: Keynote and Opening Remarks

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO & Founder of Facebook

Bret Taylor, Director of Product

·         12:30 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.: Breakout sessions

·         4:30 p.m.: Closing Remarks

Chris Cox, Vice President of Product

Ethan Beard, Director of Facebook Developer Network

As you’re watching the keynote, feel free to leave us your comments about what is said.

In only a month’s time, Bing managed to jump up to more unique visitors than Digg, Twitter and CNN, as Mashable points out. Not bad considering it’s only a month old and Twitter has been building its hype for a couple years.

However, you have to keep in mind that Live.com did already have some users, and that it’s unique visitors were already well over those of Twitter. Live.com of course began redirecting to Bing when it launched.

Compete’s data actually still shows Live.com as having more unique visitors, so apparently there are enough people out there still going to Live.com instead of Bing.com to make you wonder how effective this marketing really has been so far (though as Mashable notes, Microsoft does have other services, like hotmail, still running on the Live domain).

The Live.com and Bing.com lines are clearly well on their way to intersecting, but if Compete’s numbers are accurate (as of 06/20 at least), Bing still has a bit to go just to get back to Live.com numbers. Where it goes from there will be where things really get interesting. Will that Bing line continue to rise so steadily?

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, the truth is light years away from this thinking.

Witness Live’s revised and expanded WMT program.

Working at Microsoft, I’ve had occassion to meet and hang out with the folks who drive the WMT program, and I can honestly say, they are an excellent bunch of smart, talented folks. What particularly impressed me with them was the depth to which they were willing to go to learn more about what the webmastering community, in general, wanted from tools.

With expanded focus on points such as backlink data, surfacing issues with your site and more advanced filtering of data, their newest additions make this toolset a truly useful addition to any Webmaster’s toolbox. And hey, if one of the biggest engines online is willing to invest in helping you make your site better, that’s got to be worth something.

If you’re reading htis last bit of praise and thinking, “Yeah, but Duane works for MSFT, so he has to think that way.”, guess again. Holding the cup of Kool-Aid and drinking it are two very different things.

The bottom line with this update at Live’s WMT program – it’s worth using and gives you useful data.

Now, stop reading, and start checking it out already!

Comments

(Coverage of the SMX Advanced Conference continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)

As a side note, during the Q&A to follow, Johnson mentioned Microsoft’s launch today of adCenter Desktop in beta, a tool to help webmasters run their ad campaigns offline; to bring it around full circle, Google released a similar product two years ago.

Obviously, innovation, as Johnson noted too, is one of the lumbering giant Microsoft’s biggest challenges in the online space. That, and the nearly complete dilution of its search brand.

With a brand so dilute and Google "so entrenched," as Sullivan put it, what are the chances of Microsoft being able to add real competition in the search space? Johnson’s answer stepped to the side of a more Ballmerish we’re-going-to-kill-em-anyway explanation. Johnson opted to focus more on trenches the company actually could, um, entrench itself in.

Better, a hole—a niche—within Google’s world Microsoft could reasonably climb into. For Johnson and Microsoft, this means honing in on "commercial intent," or searchers looking to buy, which makes up 30 percent of search queries (as opposed to generic informational queries), but accounts for about 80 percent of the revenue.

"Google is already entrenched so you need to have disruptive ways to change the paradigm," said Johnson. This entails innovation in "horizontal relevance" and search navigation, and "amplifying" verticals related to commercial intent. "We want to connect buyers and sellers. We’re going to be thoughtful about the fact that we have an entrenched competitor, but we need to deliver innovation … to build our value in the market."

Hmmm. Yes, very corporate-y with a touch of humility, unlike the sour mash of tossed chairs and Ballmer sweat. Bottom line: Unlike Google’s newest approach, which involves decreasing the search ad real estate in order to increase relevance and converting clicks, Microsoft is looking to change what’s relevant. Johnson’s words make it almost sound like SS Mr. Softy is changing course into e-commerce waters almost exclusively.

Johnson readily acknowledged to Sullivan that Microsoft’s biggest challenge in getting people to use MSN/Live…whatever it’s called…is the brand. Again, all conversations lead back to Google. "Google is a very strong brand," Johnson said. "People think that Google equals search. We need to differentiate the product experience."

As far as picking a brand and fixing it? Johnson and Microsoft are fielding suggestions. One tack Microsoft is taking, in addition to the choosing a brand thing, is renewing its focus on distribution. Recently, the company struck a deal with HP so that computers coming out after January 2009 will default to Microsoft Live search.

Hey, it worked with IE and Media Player, right?

Johnson said it was important the brand "stand for something." In this new strategy, Microsoft’s decades-long image of default marketing will really shine through.   

_{Hat tip to Tamar Weinberg}

The rollout begins in 2009, when HP customers in the United States and Canada order personal computers. Starting in January of next year, consumers will find Live Search integrated into the onboard Internet Explorer, Microsoft disclosed today.

HP’s rise in the personal computer market looks like an opportune time for Microsoft to make this deal. But the January start means missing out on the 2008 holiday shopping season, where new computer buyers will unpack new machines and start browsing the Web without changing the default search or toolbar choices.

“This is the most significant distribution deal for Live Search that Microsoft has ever done,” Kevin Johnson, president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft, said in a statement.

The Live Search toolbar will arrive with features enabled by Microsoft’s SilverLight technology, a rich Internet application platform the company uses for cross- browser and OS multimedia presentation. People will be able to customize what they can do from the toolbar; HP will offer tools like its Snapfish photo service, available from the browser.

Search Engine Land said Microsoft considered taking on Google for the prime position on Dell machines, but Microsoft blanched at the possible cost of that fight.

“Given the billions it was prepared to spend on acquiring Yahoo, I’d assume it’s willing to pay much more for distribution these days,” Danny Sullivan said at Search Engine Land.