SAN DIEGO — March 7, 2006 — Today at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced the acquisition of the assets of Onfolio Inc., a privately held, Cambridge, Mass.-based Internet research and information management provider. Onfolio’s technology has been incorporated into the Windows Live™ Toolbar to enhance the way people discover, save and reuse their personal and professional Web research. The new Onfolio Add-in for the Windows Live Toolbar beta will give people convenient ways to collect information online and organize it on their PCs. People can harness this information by saving it onto their computer so that it can be easily accessed for use in documents, e-mail messages and blog postings. In addition, new online information is easily discovered and accessed through Onfolio’s integrated Really Simple Syndication (RSS) aggregator and reader. The Windows Live Toolbar beta with the Onfolio Add-in is available now and can be downloaded at http://ideas.live.com.
“The Windows Live mission is to harness the power of the Web in a way that lets people easily find the information and pursue the interests that deepen their relationships and enrich their lives,” said Christopher Payne, corporate vice president of Windows Live Search at Microsoft. “The Onfolio technology is a strategic investment for Microsoft because it helps deliver on our Windows Live mission. It does this by furthering our investments in Web and desktop search and by giving users an easy way to retain, organize and consume information as they’re browsing across the Internet.”
Collections of Web content created with the Onfolio Add-in can be organized and annotated with research notes, flags, keywords, highlighting and more. As Web search becomes more precise, the ability to save the information available online in an organized way onto the desktop becomes increasingly important. It lets people use this data for authoring documents, share data and find it later using Windows Desktop Search. Support for RSS also helps people quickly and easily access the information online that matters most to them.
“Onfolio’s core competency is providing users with the tools to enable them to save, collect and share that information as they conduct research on the Internet,” said J.J. Allaire, founder of Onfolio. “We are thrilled to be integrated into Microsoft’s Windows Live products and to continue to help people efficiently capture and organize information on the Web.”
About MSN and Windows Live
MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide. Windows Live, a new set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web. MSN and Windows Live will be offered alongside each other as complementary services. Some Windows Live services entered an early beta phase on Nov. 1, 2005; these and future beta updates can be found at http://ideas.live.com. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com. MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
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