The day after Microsoft posted a lengthy Q&A with Windows Live/MSN Corporate Vice President Martin Taylor, Taylor is out. No one is talking, but based on Microsoft’s corporate statement about Taylor’s departure, the parting sounds very sudden and not very smooth. Taylor was a 13-year Microsoft veteran, and, at one time, CEO Steve Ballmer’s right-hand man. Later, Taylor rose to prominence as the face behind Microsoft’s "Get the Facts" anti-Linux campaign.

The major Web browsers are getting facelifts as they increasingly become the focal point for handling business transactions and running programs over the Internet rather than simply displaying Web sites. The upgrades are the latest skirmish in the browser war that started in the mid-1990s and led to Microsoft’s triumph over Netscape. The battles reignited in 2004, when Mozilla’s Firefox launched and revealed new avenues of development. On Tuesday, Opera Software ASA is releasing its Opera 9 browser, while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Firefox are in line for major overhauls later this year.

Microsoft officially launched its new instant-messaging program, called Windows Live Messenger, which was previously available only in a beta edition. The free application is an upgrade of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger, which the company renamed under its new "Live" brand. Instant-messaging programs, which allow users to send and receive messages via the Web, have seen a spike in popularity over the past few years–notably AOL’s AIM service and the MSN Messenger–and many IM providers are now looking for new ways to draw users from the competition. For instance, the Windows Live Messenger service will offer video and file-sharing capabilities, and AOL will also add similar features to its next AIM version, the AP reports.

Microsoft released the preview version of a software toolkit for building robot applications on Tuesday, pledging to ignite the robot market in the same way it did the PC market some 20 years ago. Enter its Robotics Studio, a package of tools and runtime software that the company will demonstrate Tuesday at the RoboBusiness conference in Pittsburgh, Pa. A technical preview of the software is available now for free download. It is aimed at all types of robot builders, from commercial users to academics and hobbyists.

Part of Microsoft’s French Web site has been taken offline by hackers, who apparently took advantage of a misconfigured server at the software vendor’s Web hosting provider. The experts.microsoft.fr Web site was defaced Sunday with the word "HACKED!" written across the top, just above a note that attributed the job to a group of Turkish hackers. The hacked sections were quickly taken down, and remained out of operation on Monday morning.

Counterfeiters aren’t Microsoft’s only opponents in its effort to combat piracy: some of its customers are against it, too. The company is forging ahead with a program, Windows Genuine Advantage, tied to its free software downloads and updates, that checks whether the Windows installation on a PC is pirated. But some people, including some who say they own a legitimately acquired copy of Windows, have challenged the need for such validation.

Attack code for a new security hole in Excel has surfaced on the Internet, just as Microsoft is scrambling to respond to a separate bug in the spreadsheet program. The latest vulnerability could cause Excel to crash after a malicious file is opened, according to an alert Symantec sent to customers on Monday. The security company also said there was a risk that an intruder could commandeer a PC. "Attackers may also be able to execute arbitrary code… but this has not been confirmed," it said.

Global publisher John Wiley & Sons announced a strategic relationship with Microsoft Learning. Wiley will partner with Microsoft Learning to develop, publish, and deliver MOAC (Microsoft Official Academic Curriculum) textbooks and e-learning tools to the higher education markets, providing customers with quality content and advanced technology features to enhance their educational and professional development. As Microsoft Learning’s Higher Education publisher, Wiley will develop and publish new titles for the release of Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office System 2007. The global publishing company will also distribute existing MOAC titles.

Gates will be remembered as a visionary and PC industry leader. But even Microsoft’s chairman hasn’t been right in all of his bets. While Microsoft’s outgoing Chief Software Architect Bill Gates has been ahead of the curve in predicting many technology trends, he also has backed some notorious flops. Now that Gates officially has announced plans to relinquish his day-to-day company responsibilities by July 2008, it’s a good time to look back on some of the less popular products and technologies championed by Gates during his 31-year Microsoft tenure.

Despite having been on the market only a few months, ultramobile PCs, the keyboard-less handheld computers capable of running Windows XP, have already been panned by analysts and many reviewers. But Microsoft and partners expect to see more diversity in the UMPC space in the near term. New manufacturers will bring forth additional usage models and design improvements such as integrated, drop-down keyboards and built-in wireless wide area networking, while also driving down prices.