Microsoft makes 'Silverlight' more shiny by adding new services

Microsoft Corp. on Monday released a test version of “Flash” killer Silverlight, a Web browser plug-in for playing media files and displaying interactive Web applications. The move comes as part of Microsoft’s efforts to build a significant developer base so it can overtake Adobe Systems Inc. in providing a revenue-generating business in the rich Internet applications (RIAs) market.

In addition to making the beta of new online media platform available for download, Microsoft announced that it will roll out several more services to allow smaller Web developers to tap into its well-financed data centers, the backbone for its online strategy.

"At a principal level, we're going to be working on and releasing more things that transfer our (economies of scale) to developers, particularly small developers," said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect. "The number of services ... we are going to offer is going to be very, very large."

Yesterday, at its MIX 07 conference for Web developers and designers, Microsoft said that it will integrate the .Net framework into its new Silverlight browser technology for running multimedia applications on the Web.

While releasing the test version of its new Silverlight online media platform, the world's largest software maker said it will allow developers to write applications for Silverlight using its .NET framework, which is a common set of tools to create applications for Windows operating systems.

Ozzie, who replaced Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as its chief software architect in June, said Microsoft is shipping a cross-platform version of the .Net framework for the browser in Silverlight, a rival to Adobe Systems Inc.'s dominant Flash player.

The company also unveiled Microsoft Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live, one of the first applications introduced by Microsoft to allow developers to make use of its Web infrastructure. It is a streaming video service that stores and hosts video for its new Silverlight online media platform.

In addition, the software company has yesterday started shipping Microsoft Expression Studio, a suite of graphic design and animation tool software that enables designers to create applications for both the Web and Windows operating system. With Expression Studio and Silverlight constitute, Microsoft intends to challenge Adobe, which has dominated the graphics and designs tools software market with its Creative Studios line and Flash player.

And, in order to broaden the developer base and programming capabilities for Silverlight, Microsoft is adding dynamic language support to an alpha version of the browser plug-in technology.

The support includes a new runtime for the .Net framework, the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR), software that allows developers to write .Net applications using dynamic, or scripting, languages, including Python and Ruby.

The DLR and IronPython are part of the Silverlight 1.1 alpha release, while the 1.0 Silverlight beta version released Monday does not include them. Both the Silverlight 1.0 Beta and Silverlight 1.1 Alpha are immediately available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight.

Microsoft plans to make Silverlight, which will offer consistent experiences to both Macintosh and Windows users, widely available this summer.

Formerly called Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E), Microsoft Silverlight is a new cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web.

Microsoft’s Silverlight, which can be used in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser as well as Apple's Safari browser and Mozilla Foundation's Firefox, integrates with existing Web technologies and assets to provide higher-quality experiences with lower costs for media delivery.

Microsoft and Adobe, each shooting for a bigger share of software that can create and serve up clips, had unveiled their video-playing software, Silverlight, Adobe Media Player, respectively few weeks ago at the NBA show.

Due for release later this year, Adobe Media Player, formerly code-named Philo, will let a user pick and manage RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds of video podcasts. Microsoft's Windows Media Video format is though widely used, particularly for downloads, but Adobe's Flash Player has become the dominant choice for streaming video used by high-volume sites such as MySpace and YouTube.

The duo are locked in a fierce battle for dominance in a growing market for Internet video ads, which according to market researcher Yankee Group is expected to grow from $1.5 billion market in 2007 to $4.2 billion in 2011.