The US government is understood to have responded to the call by Google to include Internet Access Freedom (IAF) as an international trade policy of the country. Nicole Wong, Google Vice President and Deputy General Counsel had urged earlier an open internet should be part of the US trade agenda as economic impact of censorship was huge on e-commerce as well as other companies which used Web services.

In January, Google.cn, the China version of the Google search engine announced it was considering pulling out of China after its portal along with some other 20 tech companies including Adobe, Yahoo and Intel was attacked by allegedly state-sponsored hackers. Though China has denied any such interception, but some companies who were victims of these attacks claim they have ample evidence to prove the government’s hand in this deplorable crime.

Google felt betrayed by the attacks, which resulted in the firm losing some intellectual property, despite compromising on internet freedom during the time of launch by signing an agreement with China in 2006. Under the controversial bargain, Google agreed to censor search results by prompting the users at the bottom of censored pages that results were withheld at the request of the Chinese government.

However, approaching the WTO to settle the issues related to the Chinese internet policies does not ensure any speedy outcome as trade disputes before the global trade body normally takes two or more years to litigate and appeal. Incidentally, according to the China Internet Network Information Center, a government agency that registers online domain names, China is the world’s biggest Internet market, with 384mn Web users at the end of 2009.

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Microsoft had tied up with National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to provide hours and hours of free video streaming of recently concluded Olympic events live from China. The new offering of Silverlight after two years of testing is shoved upon to every user who came online to watch the live coverage of the event. Though there is some initial glitches like prompting the user to re- install SL who already have had it in the system, Microsoft’s intentions are wide and clear.

Even though live coverage is confined to the US web users currently, when it becomes available for everyone, it is likely to cause serious damage to the competitors. With the new offering many of the less popular events were available free to watch, but popular and higher viewership events had been with a price tag attached to it. However, the sidelined events by the television channels got better exposure as it was free of charge. With higher bit rate streaming effects, the Olympics were made a visual treat for web users even while working in their offices.

Even if someone is not intend on using Silverlight or not yet installed it can use Windows Media Player (WMP) for non-live viewing. A partnership with Novell will offer a version for Linux users as well. In the near future, one can even expect mobile version of the SL in Windows Mobile and Nokia Smart phones.

But the market analysts view these developments differently; they are rather reminded of the federal anti-trust legal battle in which Microsoft was penalized for misusing its market spread unscrupulously to promote its own browser developer to gain control over the Web world. During early 1990′s Netscape Navigator had the monopoly over the browsing world, but in 1995, Microsoft annihilated Netscape by packing free Internet Explorer browser with its Windows Operating System.

In real time, Microsoft is understood to have plans of upsetting the apple cart of Adobe who has the most popular and sophisticated Flash media player, which is widely used for streaming interactive content, video and audio files. It is common knowledge that majority of Internet surfers use Flash to stream videos and other related files. Currently, WMP of Microsoft and Quicktime from Apple have negligible presence in the e-space in terms of usage and application. This is the space, Microsoft is eying through its latest offering of media player. At a glance, Silverlight seemed to be a clone of Flash, yet insiders argue, it’s still early days to be judgmental about the plugin, and Microsoft’s intentions.

But prima facie, if Microsoft were to project SL in its forthcoming version of operating system, it would definitely position the company to topple yet another software giant Adobe in the months to come. Nevertheless, Microsoft countered the argument by stating that it was part of company’s continued effort and commitment to provide innovative and compatible products to their operating system.

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