REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 28 , 2012 — Bing, Microsoft Corp.’s search engine, today is launching a national campaign to highlight Bing’s commitment to honest search results and to help explain to consumers the risks of Google Shopping’s newly announced “pay-to-rank” practice, in which the shopping search results customers see are not true search results such as they see elsewhere on Google; they are actually ads that are ranked, in part, by who pays the most. More information on these practices is available at http://www.scroogled.com.

Instead of showing you the most relevant shopping search results for the latest coffee maker you’re looking to buy mom, Google’s new redesigned shopping vertical now decides what to show you — and how prominently to display what product offers they show — based partially on how much a merchant selling the product has paid Google. Merchants can literally pay to improve their chances to display their product offers higher than others inside of Google’s shopping “search,” even if it’s not necessarily better or cheaper. That’s not right, it’s not transparent, it’s not what you expect from search, and it’s not how we at Bing think search engines should help consumers get the best prices and selection when shopping. Consumers are urged to visit http://www.scroogled.com to learn more about how to avoid getting “Scroogled,” a term used by Bing to describe Google’s new practice that leaves people with fewer choices and potentially higher prices.

Today, Bing is also renewing its commitment to the old rules — honoring our side of the bargain with shoppers by delivering better, more objectively ranked search results.

We won’t let who pays us for ads or other services affect what you see in your shopping search results. Search results are one thing; ads are another.

We won’t switch to pay-to-rank to allow fees to influence the ranking of shopping search results. In short, we think that too many shoppers who use Google for their shopping are getting “Scroogled” when they should be getting fair, honest, open search results.

Google’s New Practice

In recent weeks leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Google quietly changed its shopping results from “Google Product Search,” which represented fairly comprehensive results for products and merchants across the Web, to a pay-to-rank model called “Product Listing Advertising.” Merchants must now pay Google to be listed in the shopping results, and how much they pay helps determine how they appear in the rankings, so now every “result” is really just an ad. This new policy means consumers are getting Scroogled.

And that’s an issue for shoppers who visit the site they have used for years, conduct what they think is a “search,” and get a set of rankings that look like the objective results Google delivers everywhere else. Meanwhile, the lawyers at Google Shopping are now calling results “listings.” They even call out, nontransparently hidden behind a disclaimer or buried in a footer, “Payment is one of several factors used to rank these results.” Consumers are potentially getting a raw deal because “relevance” is now determined partially by how much Google is getting paid, not by things that matter to shoppers.

Bing, on the other hand, affirms its commitment to honest search. “We don’t let who pays us for ads or other services affect how your search results are ranked,” said Mike Nichols, chief marketing officer, Bing. “Search, as a business, depends on consumer trust, and that requires keeping search results and ads separate. With Google Shopping the wall between search results and ads is gone — and so are several popular shopping sites. At Bing, we’re committed to keeping ads where they belong and will continue to deliver the most relevant search results possible.”

About the Don’t Get Scroogled Campaign

With the Don’t Get Scroogled campaign, Bing is talking to holiday shoppers about the importance of getting unbiased, comprehensive search results when they shop online — and how changes at Google Shopping could leave them with fewer choices and higher prices this season.

Beginning today and continuing throughout the holiday shopping season, the Bing-sponsored Don’t Get Scroogled activities will appear online and offline, demonstrating why consumers should be concerned and helping them take action. We’re also calling on Google to stop this “pay-to-rank” system for their shopping results and give shoppers what they expect — an honest search. Consumers can also visit http://www.scroogled.com to get information about Google’s practices and updates on the situation.

About Bing

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft, designed for people who do. For people like you who are always doing more and don’t have time to sit still. Now, only Bing brings together the best search and the best people from your social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, to help you spend less time searching and more time doing. So whether you’re on your PC or on your phone, Bing is designed not just to connect you to the information you are looking for, but also to help you get things done right on Bing.com.

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.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 28, 2012 — Speaking to shareholders at Microsoft Corp.’s annual meeting today, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer highlighted the company’s recent product launches and financial performance, and outlined the company’s shift to devices and services.

“In 2012, our revenue grew to a record $73.7 billion,” Ballmer said. “We also maintained strong cost discipline resulting in cash flow from operations of $31.6 billion, an increase of 17 percent from the prior year. In addition, we returned more than $10 billion to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends.”

Over the past several months, the company has shipped an unprecedented wave of new products, including Windows 8, Microsoft Surface, Windows Phone 8, Xbox Music, “Halo 4” and Windows Server 2012, in addition to a host of other products, services and applications.

Ballmer noted that over time the full value of the company’s software will be seen and felt in how people use devices and services at work and play: “Focusing on devices and services will impact how we run the company, how we develop new experiences and how we take products to market for both consumers and businesses. The work we have accomplished in the past year and the road map in front of us brings this to life.”

It’s been one full month since Windows 8 became generally available, and to date Microsoft has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses. Companies worldwide are already adopting Windows 8 including Johnson & Johnson, BT (British Telecom), 20th Century Fox Television Distribution, Bank of America Corp. and Seton Hall University. In addition, the Windows Phone Store now has over 120,000 apps, which include 46 of the top 50, and is rising daily. Microsoft also pointed to recent Xbox sales during the week of Black Friday, which totaled over 750,000 Xbox consoles in the U.S. alone.

Looking forward, Ballmer addressed some of the strategic opportunities that lay ahead.

“Helping businesses move to the cloud is one of our largest opportunities,” Ballmer said. “All the online services people use today run on servers in datacenters around the globe. The volume of Internet services used will continue to grow as people connect to the Internet from more devices for more purposes — fueling incredible opportunity for the company.”

Ballmer also noted that Office 365 is on track to be one of Microsoft’s fastest growing businesses ever. Organizations of all sizes turn to Office 365 for world-class productivity solutions, including most recently Japan Airlines, The All India Council for Technical Education, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Toyota Motor Corp.

The following proposals were acted on by the company’s shareholders at the shareholder meeting:

• Elected nine directors to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders. All director nominees received a vote of more than 96 percent of votes cast.

• Ratified the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company’s independent auditor, with a vote of more than 98 percent of votes cast.

• Approved, on an advisory basis, the fiscal year 2012 compensation of the company’s named executive officers. The advisory measure received more than 94 percent of votes cast.

• Approved, an amendment and restatement of Company’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan, receiving 99 percent of votes cast.

• Rejected a shareholder proposal to adopt cumulative voting. The shareholder proposal received 26 percent of votes cast.

Microsoft’s board of directors consists of Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive officer; Dina Dublon, former chief financial officer of JPMorgan Chase; William H. Gates, Microsoft chairman; Maria M. Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College; Stephen J. Luczo, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Seagate Technology PLC; David F. Marquardt, general partner at August Capital; Charles H. Noski, former vice chairman of Bank of America Corp.; Dr. Helmut Panke, former chairman of the board of management at BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG; and John W. Thompson, chief executive officer of Virtual Instruments. Seven of the nine board members are independent of Microsoft, which is consistent with the requirement in the company’s governance guidelines that a substantial majority be independent.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news/. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Shareholder and financial information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/investor/.

Pivotal add-on tool for Postgres deepens visibility into deployments, provides new options for remote access and comes with year-end incentives

BEDFORD, Mass. – November 27, 2012 – EnterpriseDB, the leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class Postgres products, Oracle database compatibility solutions and add-on tools for PostgreSQL, today announced the release of Postgres Enterprise Manager 3.0. The new release allows database administrators (DBAs) to easily access and monitor their databases from an Internet-enabled device. It is part of an expanding suite of Postgres tools from EnterpriseDB aimed at supporting the growing numbers of companies adopting Postgres, including community PostgreSQL, and seeking ways to manage and optimize their deployments.

Postgres Enterprise Manager was embraced early on by DBAs responsible for large Postgres deployments, as the tool gave them access to database administration functions in a single console. Building on the successful launch of Postgres Enterprise Manager that has generated more than 5,800 installations, the newest version provides new levels of flexibility in monitoring, managing and tuning database performance and query speeds.

“Postgres users, both our customers and those using the open source community version, are calling for add-on tools that help them manage expanding deployments across mission and non-mission critical applications. Postgres Enterprise Manager plays a vital role in supporting the end user,” Ed Boyajian, CEO and President of EnterpriseDB, said. “Our family of Postgres add-on tools are making it possible for more enterprises to adopt Postgres by giving DBAs the kind of visibility and flexibility they need to manage large complex deployments and even smaller, single uses.”

In a nod to the growing legions of companies of all sizes that have turned to the open source community version of PostgreSQL, EnterpriseDB is offering a year-end incentive for the new version of the Postgres Enterprise Manager. The popularity of Postgres is rising significantly with estimated downloads of Postgres and associated components exceeding five million over the past year. Postgres Enterprise Manager 3.0 is also included in the new Postgres Plus Advanced Server 9.2, also released today.

New Features for Postgres Enterprise Manager

Postgres Enterprise Manager 3.0 includes several new capabilities and feature enhancements, such as:

Web Client: A new web client provides DBAs with access to their monitoring dashboards and tools from many Internet-enabled devices. Using a web client means DBAs no longer have to download the local client component of the enterprise console onto multiple machines, saving time and giving DBAs the flexibility of anytime, anywhere access.

Log Manager: DBAs can do bulk configuration of logging parameters (log file locations, logging frequency, log message selection and log format) across all servers in the enterprise and view the information in a consolidated dashboard.

SSH Tunneling: With secure shell (SSH) tunneling, EnterpriseDB has eliminated many of the manual and troublesome tasks for accessing on-premise databases behind the firewall.

pgAdmin 1.16 Capabilities: Built on top of the open source pgAdmin, Postgres Enterprise Manager 3.0 incorporates key new features developed in the open source community, including support for PostgreSQL objects Range Types and Security Labels, as well as major new features such as the data Import Wizard.

For more information on Postgres Enterprise Manager and special year-end pricing, please visit http://www.enterprisedb.com/postgres-enterprise-manager.

Connect with EnterpriseDB Learn more about http://www.enterprisedb.com Read the blog: http://blogs.enterprisedb.com/ Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/enterprisedb Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EnterpriseDB?ref=ts Join us on Google+: https://plus.google.com/108046988421677398468

About EnterpriseDB Corporation EnterpriseDB, based in Bedford, MA, is the leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class PostgreSQL and Oracle database compatibility products and services. Used by thousands of business and government customers globally, EnterpriseDB delivers the industry’s best price-performance in a relational database. Employing some of the most innovative members of the PostgreSQL Community, EnterpriseDB builds upon 25-plus years of development to provide companies a proven, secure and feature-rich alternative to costly traditional databases. EnterpriseDB’s Postgres Plus family of products includes the open source community PostgreSQL, Postgres Plus Advanced Server with Oracle database compatibility, a Database-as-a-Service with its Postgres Plus Cloud Database and enterprise management and monitoring tools. Founded in 2004, EnterpriseDB is backed by Charles River Ventures, Volition Capital (formerly Fidelity Ventures), Valhalla Partners, TransLink Capital and strategic investors including Red Hat, IBM, NTT and KT. For more information, please visit http://enterprisedb.com.

EnterpriseDB Media Contact: Renee Deger LEWIS Pulse PR Phone: 415-432-2439 Email: renee.deger@lewispulse.com

BEDFORD, Mass. – November 27, 2012 – EnterpriseDB, the leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class Postgres products, Oracle database compatibility solutions and add-on tools for PostgreSQL, today announced the release of Postgres Plus Advanced Server 9.2. The new version of EnterpriseDB’s flagship product offers an expanded Oracle-compatibility feature set along with scalability and performance enhancements that support larger, more complex enterprise deployments.

Postgres Plus Advanced Server 9.2 is paired with the additional benefits of the new Postgres Enterprise Manager 3.0, also released today. The new version of the popular enterprise database management console includes a web client and a series of enhancements that make it possible for a single database administrator to manage many more databases than they could typically without such a tool. Both products are immediately available.

The latest version of EnterpriseDB’s leading database product aims for greater flexibility for the large enterprise. Some of the largest brands in the world in the insurance, telecommunications, government, finance, technology and other industries are deploying Postgres with the help of EnterpriseDB and hardened developments from the open source community. EnterpriseDB’s new version incorporates many of the enhancements to Postgres developed and released last summer by the open source community in PostgreSQL 9.2.

“We strive to keep pace with the evolving needs of our customers. The market for Postgres is growing fast and global enterprises, with complex environments and new demands, are increasingly turning to open source and asking more of our products to support their transition,” said Ed Boyajian, CEO and President of EnterpriseDB. “Continuing to enhance performance, scalability and agility while expanding our Oracle compatibility ensures we remain a long-time partner for our customers.”

"The PostgreSQL community is moving fast and furious. The performance improvements alone in the 9.2 release are staggering,” said Michael Gargano, development manager of eScholar LLC. “It's good to see that EnterpriseDB has been so quick to offer support and incorporate these new features into its flagship product. You can be sure that we'll be migrating to the 9.2 release as soon as possible."

Postgres Plus Advanced Server

The newest iteration of EnterpriseDB’s flagship product features the ninth generation of Oracle compatibility for the Postgres Plus Advanced Server. Easing migrations overall, the compatibility enhancements expand object type support, enabling developers to continue to realize value from their investments in Oracle skills and tools.

Performance upgrades in the new release include better vertical scalability on multi-core machines and faster read and write times. The newest release also significantly advances the performance and scalability of Postgres on hardware with up to 64 cores. Application development improvements open up new applications to solutions developed for PPAS, including support for range types and JSON data types.

Maintenance improvements ease a range of burdens on system administrators and DBAs while security advances, including SQL-conforming USAGE privilege on types and View Security Barriers, continue to make Postgres Plus Advanced Server the most secure among the open source databases.

Postgres Plus Advanced Server 9.2 is available today on Linux 32 and 64 bit platforms, Windows 32 and 64 bit platforms, HP-UX on Itanium and Solaris. For more information, please visit http://www.enterprisedb.com/products-services-training/products/postgres-plus-advanced-server.

Connect with EnterpriseDB Learn more about http://www.enterprisedb.com Read the blog: http://blogs.enterprisedb.com/ Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/enterprisedb Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EnterpriseDB?ref=ts Join us on Google+: https://plus.google.com/108046988421677398468

About EnterpriseDB Corporation EnterpriseDB, based in Bedford, MA, is the leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class PostgreSQL and Oracle database compatibility products and services. Used by thousands of business and government customers globally, EnterpriseDB delivers the industry’s best price-performance in a relational database. Employing some of the most innovative members of the PostgreSQL Community, EnterpriseDB builds upon 25-plus years of development to provide companies a proven, secure and feature-rich alternative to costly traditional databases. EnterpriseDB’s Postgres Plus family of products includes the open source community PostgreSQL, Postgres Plus Advanced Server with Oracle database compatibility, a Database-as-a-Service with its Postgres Plus Cloud Database and enterprise management and monitoring tools. Founded in 2004, EnterpriseDB is backed by Charles River Ventures, Volition Capital (formerly Fidelity Ventures), Valhalla Partners, TransLink Capital and strategic investors including Red Hat, IBM, NTT and KT. For more information, please visit http://enterprisedb.com.

EnterpriseDB Media Contact: Renee Deger LEWIS Pulse PR Phone: 415-432-2439 Email: renee.deger@lewispulse.com

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 27, 2012 — Barilla Group is a major Italian food company and a worldwide leader in the pasta market, exporting to more than 100 countries from 41 production facilities (13 in Italy and 28 abroad). With more than 13,000 employees around the world, a need arose for the company to profoundly evolve the way Barilla people communicate, collaborate and interact.

After analyzing other cloud platforms, Barilla chose Microsoft for better IT interoperation and enterprise expertise across its services and products.

“Because information technologies are constantly under technological, economic and regulatory pressure, Barilla recognized Microsoft as the only partner able to set us out on the path toward worldwide adoption of the cloud,” said Mauro Viacava, chief information officer, Barilla Group. “We chose Microsoft Office 365, which offered a solution that is perfectly integrated with our enterprise environment and with the digital tools employees and partners already use.”

The service was deployed in phases between 2010 and 2011 in partnership with Teorema Engineering Srl, a Microsoft Gold Competency Partner, which also provided special training to 1,200 key employees at Barilla offices and plants all over the world. Office 365 allows users to collaborate, interact and share documents online, communicate easily via videoconferencing and instant messaging, and access email from many types of devices in virtually any location, addressing both geographic and organizational hierarchy obstacles at once.

The Barilla Community Platform was born with Office 365 as well, complete with a modern, efficient platform that allows Barilla to effectively and easily manage the structured interaction among employees in its branch offices, production plants and on the road, while simultaneously allowing the information systems team to focus on process innovation. Both of these strategies are designed to ultimately save the company time, money and resources.

“We have reduced travel costs by about 30 percent, thanks to the project,” Viacava said. “In the future, we intend to further grow the collaboration between mobile phones and the content of the Office 365 suite.”

Read more about Barilla’s implementation of Office 365 in the case study here, or learn more about Office 365 and try a free trial here.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 2 6, 2012 — As we look back at 2012, Bing searches show it was a year of familiar faces, momentous events and baby fever. While last year people were singing “Baby, baby, baby” with Justin Bieber as the most-searched person of 2011, 2012 was the year of the real baby, as celebrity births were five of the top 10 celebrity events. From new reality stars such as Honey Boo Boo to viral hits such as “Gangnam Style” and airwave darlings such as Taylor Swift, Bing captured history through the searches that mark the year’s most fascinating people, sensations and moments in time.

Based on the aggregation of billions of search queries conducted on Bing this year, here are the much-anticipated top search lists for the most-searched people, news stories, athletes, musicians, celebrity events, social networks and TV shows. The complete report, including most-searched viral videos, movies, songs, TV personalities and more, is available at http://www.BingTrends.com.

Most - Searched Person of the Year

Kim Kardashian didn’t just keep up with other celebs such as Justin Bieber (2011’s most-searched person) this year, she took back the top spot. Kim K. was the most-searched person of the year in 2012, regaining the spot she also held in 2010. Her relationship ups and downs, including a new relationship with Kanye West, made Kim more interesting than ever. While Justin Bieber fell to the second spot, he still was the most-searched male of the year and the most-searched musician, thanks to the continued support of his many “Beliebers.” Newcomers to the list include Rihanna, who skyrocketed from No. 20 in 2011 to No. 4 this year; Selena Gomez, who jumped from No. 13 to No. 7; and Nicki Minaj, who just barely cracked the top 10 at No. 9, up from No. 23 in 2011. Miley Cyrus made the biggest gain within the top 10 list, jumping from No. 10 to No. 3, likely due to her surprise engagement.

Other Top Search Results

Top News Stories

• iPhone 5
  

• 2012 Election
  

• 2012 Olympics
  

• Hurricane Sandy
  

• Honey Boo Boo
  

• “Gangnam Style”
  

• Kony 2012
  

• Academy Awards
  

• Kindle Fire HD
  

• Facebook IPO
  

Top Athletes

• Peyton Manning
  

• Tiger Woods
  

• Tim Tebow
  

• Maria Sharapova
  

• Kobe Bryant
  

• Serena Williams
  

• Lamar Odom
  

• LeBron James
  

• Cristiano Ronaldo
  

• Terrell Owens
  

Top Musicians

• Justin Bieber
  

• Whitney Houston
  

• Katy Perry
  

• Selena Gomez
  

• Rihanna
  

• Nicki Minaj
  

• Taylor Swift
  

• Beyoncé
  

• Chris Brown
  

• Jennifer Lopez
  

Top Celebrity Event s

• Beyoncé’s baby
  

• Jessica Simpson’s baby
  

• Whitney Houston’s death
  

• Snooki’s baby
  

• Kourtney Kardashian’s baby
  

• Coachella
  

• Rodney King overdose
  

• Grammy Awards
  

• Jennifer Garner’s baby
  

• Academy Awards
  

Top TV Shows

• “American Idol”
  

• “Dancing With the Stars”
  

• “The Young and the Restless”
  

• “The Walking Dead”
  

• “Family Guy”
  

• “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo”
  

• “Glee”
  

• “Vampire Diaries”
  

• “The Bachelor”
  

• “Game of Thrones”
  

Top Social Networks

• Facebook
  

• Twitter
  

• MySpace
  

• LinkedIn
  

• Tumblr

More details and additional categories of top 2012 searches from Bing are available at http://www.BingTrends.com and via the Bing Top Searches of 2012. For the latest on all things Bing, check out http://www.bing.com/community, http://www.facebook.com/Bing and twitter.com/Bing.

About Bing

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft, designed for people who do. For people like you who are always doing more and don’t have time to sit still. Now, only Bing brings together the best search and the best people from your social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, to help you spend less time searching and more time doing. So whether you’re on your PC or on your phone, Bing is designed not just to connect you to the information you are looking for, but also to help you get things done right on Bing.com.

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.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.