Top 10 Moves for Microsoft Silverlight in 2009

by Darryl K. Taft

In November at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, the company announced its software development kit for Facebook. This tool kit provides a Facebook Client Library similar to Facebook’s client libraries for PHP Client Library and JavaScript. The goal is to enable .NET developers to quickly and easily leverage the various features of the Facebook Platform.

In July, Microsoft launched Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 at an event in San Francisco. Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 enable development teams to create RIAs and media applications with new capabilities such as Expression SketchFlow, the ability to add out-of- browser scenarios and IIS Smooth Streaming.

Microsoft announced the beta release of Silverlight 4 during the keynote presentation of Scott Guthrie, a Microsoft corporate vice president, at PDC in November. Silverlight is currently installed on more than 45 percent of Internet-connected devices worldwide and is powering high-profile customers’ efforts such as NBC’s upcoming online broadcast of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

In May, NASA teamed up with Microsoft to bring the public a close view of the International Space Station and a full-scale model of the upcoming Mars Science Lab. Using the Silverlight-powered Photosynth interface, anyone can take a 3D tour of each of the modules of the ISS.

Also in May, Microsoft announced support for Netflix in Windows Media Center and the availability of the Netflix service on Windows Media Center for Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. It is the same Silverlight-based service that users can get from www.netflix.com. To use it on Windows Media Center, users need to be Netflix subscribers and to have Silverlight installed on their PCs.

Live online streaming coverage of the tennis championships at Wimbledon was made widely available in the United States, powered by Silverlight.

Silverlight powered NBC’s online coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics. NBC’s coverage won an Emmy award for “Outstanding New Approaches in Sports Event Coverage.” And Microsoft touted its supporting role for the Olympics coverage.

In April, Microsoft was at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference in Las Vegas, where the company announced the availability of Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming, which enables the broadcast of 1080p high-definition video to Silverlight-based media players.

After the sudden death of music icon Michael Jackson, Microsoft’s Silverlight delivered worldwide HD coverage of the “King of Pop’s” memorial service on July 7.

In September, Microsoft announced that Silverlight was behind the Bing Visual Search experience, and in November the company announced the release of Bing Maps Silverlight Control.