Lauren Cooney's Reality Check

Microsoft Does SEO Right – and Free. Introducing the IIS SEO Toolkit Beta

There are 3 things I’m truly passionate about: technology, developers and users, and simplicity of products and solutions. Today we’re announcing something that falls into all 3 categories – and I’m very excited.

The IIS SEO Toolkit (beta) is a collection of free, easy to use tools that help you improve your website’s relevance in search results – by recommending how to make them more search friendly. You can download it via the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta.

Essentially, there are 3 tools that make up the IIS SEO Toolkit - Site Analysis, which suggests changes that can help improve the volume and quality of traffic to your Web site from search engines; Robots Exclusion, which makes it easier to control and restrict the content that search engines index and display; and Sitemaps and Site Indexes, which can help inform search engines about locations that are available for indexing.

SEO should not be hard. It’s not meant to be rocket science – but frankly, it’s more difficult than we think. I’ve read various different tutorials and articles and it gets really frustrating for me, as a lightweight developer, to figure out the best way to improve my search rankings on Google. (yeah, I said it – so there :) ). This toolkit fills the gaps for me – someone with my skill set can just plug my URL into the tool and poof! - -  I get reporting on various links, info on page load time, info on user routes, and lots more. And it works for any website – not just sites built with Microsoft products. For example Digg could use this to see how well their website is search engine optimized. Just run it and go.

The IIS SEO Toolkit is great for you if you want to -

•Optimize the content and structure of URLs and your site content for search engines

•Drill down into how to optimize the Web sites tagging, links and other site structure

•Make all pages on my site easily discoverable by search engines

•Check to see if all pages on your site load correctly and don’t break when I make a change

Essentially, the SEO Toolkit provides assistance with 2 areas when looking to improve your website:

(1) Site Intelligence

•Reporting and error identification for broken/invalid links, duplicate content, tag validation, etc.

•Visibility into user routes, referring pages and other patterns

•Drilldown into page resource usage and load time

(2) Search Relevance

•Best practice rules for optimizing URL structure for search engines

•Automatic generation of search engine support files

 

It’s a great product – and we’re really excited about this. This is part of our larger effort over here on the Microsoft Web Platform team to make great products that help developers and users build amazing and successful web solutions. This is the first of MUCH more to come over here – so stay tuned./LC

 

*BTW: Follow us here on Twitter… *

Fighting the Good Fight (for the Community)

I love this term. Yes, it tends to be overused and sometimes misused, but essentially for me, it means one thing: doing what’s best for developer communities. I’m not talking just about the Microsoft developer community, but the community as a whole – all developers with lots of different programming backgrounds – from HTML and CCS to PHP, ASP.NET to Java – and more. And usually I find that if we can do what’s right for the community, it’s a win-win for both organizations and communities out there.

At Microsoft I find it’s sometimes a mixed bag. The terminology that I use is that we’re a huge ship – and it takes awhile to get people in line to move that ship in the right direction. Cal Evans outlined this beautifully in a blog entry recently – and I think he gives a fair assessment of where we’re at and some of the things we could do to improve. 

That said, our teams that are driving the Microsoft Web Platform are really working to nail this. We started out with a vision – a very simple statement with lots of work that goes on behind the scenes.

 

 

It’s been 10 months since we kicked off this effort, but we have seen some amazing results to date, including:

- The introduction of the Web Platform Installer (WebPI), which streamlines the download/install process of our web stack (no more 10 websites to visit – only one!)

- The delivery of the Windows Web Application Gallery with the most popular open source applications out there – for installation on top of the Microsoft Web Platform (no more configuration pain!) – and, if you have an application you’d like to showcase – we’ll do it – marketing & distribution included :)

- The inclusion of PHP into the Microsoft Web Platform Installer (we do listen, I promise)

And the community is responding – we’ve had over 1.5 million downloads of our products through the WebPI since January of this year (!!) and almost 150,000 applications from the Windows Web Application Gallery downloaded since March 17th.

But let me get to the point that I’m trying to make here about the success of what we’ve done:

With greater success comes greater responsibility. And we want to deliver to you a better, more interoperable community-driven platform going forward.

What does this mean? Well, for starters it means that we’re going to be looking into the broader community to create guidance around certain things – such as OpenID (yes Chris Messina, we’re getting there) and other standards-based efforts. We’re also going to be continuing to work closely with the PHP community on different things we could do better for PHP developers working on Windows. We also want to include various tooling options that help developers build web projects faster and better – even if these don’t come from our own engineering teams.

That said though, as my team embarks on planning out our next steps – we need your help. What do you want to see? How would you like to participate?

Some of the things we’re looking for specifically are:

- Feedback on the WebPI: What’s missing? What would you like to see included?

- Feedback on the Windows Web App Gallery: What apps would you like to see? Could we improve this experience?

- On the Microsoft Web Platform as a whole: how can we make this better? What products do you want to see better integrated? We’re planning on integrating more with Azure, but are there other products out there we could provide guidance for and/or include?

- Guidance: What tutorials would you like to see?

So the action item here? Let us know what you want to see. We’ve been pushing hard to make this happen internally at Microsoft, but the community feedback is absolutely critical for us to take the next steps to make this a true community platform.

So on that note – you know how to get a hold of me – lcooney@microsoft.com or www.twitter.com/lcooney – or even better, let’s discuss here on my blog. We’re open for business. /LC

 

(photo credit: Jim Grisanzio, Sun Microsystems) http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgris/542408040/

There’s a New Sheriff in Town at Microsoft

As you may have seen, we’ve decided to have a little fun over here at MS lately – doing a bit of a spoof on Magnum, PI. If you haven’t figured this out – WebPI (Web Platform Installer) = Magnum, PI = Cannon, PI. We like word plays over here, when we can get away with it :)

 

You see, Cannon PI, our title character, is a problem solver. He doesn’t use traditional methods or practices to solve problems, as you’ll see in future episodes (hint, watch this blog this week for another update). He’s dedicated to his job, his Ferrari, his hair, his women, his booze – and, well, helping people get the products and solutions they need to be successful. You also may catch a few people (ahem, Scott Guthrie and Soma) in this episode, and there *may* be a few additional cameos of other folks coming in the near future – so stay tuned.

In the meantime, enjoy – and, if you have other problems that you need Cannon, PI to solve, respond on this blog thread and we’ll see what he can do. After all, he is our hero. /LC

Tips and Tricks for Building your Personal Brand: An Insider’s Perspective

Last week I presented to Women@Microsoft, a group of about 100 or so women that hold monthly meetings down at the Microsoft campus in Silicon Valley. It was an awesome group, and I thought I’d post the presentation here.

As a side note – I got called from one of the General Managers at Microsoft to take this job almost based entirely on my blog and also on my twitter account… so you never know what can come from something as simple as building your own personal brand. :)

 

Brand-ology:Tips and Tricks for Personal Branding

View more presentations from laurencooney.

Brand-ology: Tips & Tricks on Branding Yourself from a Chick who Lives It!

Building your own personal brand used to be about a logo, or a tagline. Today it’s changed – now it’s about the picture you have posted on your Facebook account, or the Tweets you send via Twitter during your workday (and sometimes in your off-hours!). Can something this simple make you successful – personally and professionally? How do you build your own personal brand both internally and externally through these Web 2.0 communities? Thought you’d never start a blog? Well, time to think again.

Lauren Cooney will be discussing her adventures on Facebook, Twitter, in blogging, and also in building her internal and external brand at Microsoft. Come prepared for some great (and easy) tips you can use to build out your network, some laughable stories that you can learn from, and great takeaways and suggestions for building your own personal brand.

A Have-to-See: “We Live in Public”

This looks slightly scary, yet hypnotically magnificent. I am going to have to go track down a theater in Seattle to go see this for sure… In watching the trailer, it reminds me a bit of the surreal environment I lived in right after college - San Francisco in early 2000s – the parties, the madness, the money… and then the fall. Wait – or is this a premonition for what we WILL experience? You tell me…

I think this is a must-see for this weekend. Especially since I am expecting this.

Enjoy – and if any of you have seen this – I welcome comments/feedback! /LC

 

 

“On the 40th anniversary of the Internet, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC tells the story of the effect it is having on our society as seen through the eyes of the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of, visionary Josh Harris. Award-winning director, Ondi Timoner (DIG!), documented his tumultuous life for more than a decade, to create a riveting, cautionary tale of what to expect as the virtual world inevitably takes control of our lives.”

Another step in the right direction: ASP.NET MVC 1.0 source code released under the OSI-approved open source Microsoft Public License

On March 18^th at MIX 09 we released ASP.NET MVC 1.0 which helps Web developers build Web applications that are easy to maintain, offer complete control over page markup as well as greater testability.

Building on that release we announced on April 1^st that we are making the sources of ASP.NET MVC available under the OSI-approved open source Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL). The Ms-PL contains no platform restrictions and provides broad rights to modify and redistribute the source code. You can read the text of the Ms-PL at http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ms-pl.html. The source code for ASP.NET MVC 1.0 is now available under Ms-PL in a zip file on the ASP.NET MVC download page.

Here are links to some more informative blog posts on the Ms-PL release:
Scott Guthrie: ASP.NET MVC 1.0
Scott Hanselman: Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 1.0 is now Open Source MS-PL
Phil Haack: Open Source License For System.Web.Mvc
Miguel de Icaza: Microsoft releases ASP.NET under the MS-PL License

ASP.NET MVC is a part of the ASP.NET Web application framework. For more information:

• · ASP.NET MVC section on the ASP.NET site. Contains lots of video tutorials.
• · Scott Guthrie has a free 185 page tutorial that helps you build an ASP.NET MVC website from scratch.
• · ASP.NET MVC: America's Next Top Model View Controller Framework talk at MIX 09.
• · Microsoft ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC): Ninja on Fire Black Belt Tips talk at MIX 09.
• · File|New -> Company: Creating NerdDinner.com with Microsoft ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC) talk at MIX 09.

How do you get it? Well, as you know from previous posts, our Web Platform Installer makes it quick and easy to install not only ASP.NET MVC but a host of other products you need to get started building your Web solutions. If you are already using ASP.NET MVC and and would like to educate others we even have an ASP.NET MVC Training Kit to give you a head start.

We hope that all Web developers, including the Open Source community, will be able to leverage our ASP.NET MVC offering to build cutting-edge Web solutions that benefit everyone.

And as always, feedback welcome./LC

Testing Out Windows Live Writer

After all the issues I encountered with Typepad a few weeks ago when we were launching the Windows Web App Gallery and Web Platform Installer, I’ve been trying a couple different types of software to figure out what is reliable, scalable, and easy to post to. Right now I’m in the process of trying to salvage this current blog (Tumblr is looking quite nice if that doesn’t happen) so a few folks suggested trying Windows Live Writer.

So far very easy to use, no delays in formatting, and seems like there are quite a few options for inserting pictures and such (below is a pic from Web 2.0 Expo of Brian Goldfarb and myself, taken by Terry Chay who FINALLY remembered me after a few chance meetings. :) ).

I tend to be a bit ADD about my blog, so hopefully this will get my writing more frequently and having less pain while doing so.  It also includes some cool funtionalities like maps, videos, tables, etc – that Typepad doesn’t.

So here’s the pic (note Brian is loving his “I <heart> Silverlight t-shirt like a CHAMP), and here’s also to another try at Typepad. Let’s see how this works… /LC

 

Apps, Apps, and More Apps! Introducing the Windows Web App Gallery - Including Drupal, WordPress, DotNetNuke, and More!

What We’re Announcing Today:

-       A kick-ass new website: www.microsoft.com/web - which includes everything and anything you could possibly want to know (and probably more) about Microsoft’s web products.

-       An updated version of the Microsoft Web Platform Installer– which includes PHP!

-       The Windows Web Application Gallery– browse popular open source .NET and PHP web applications to easily install on top of Windows, or else build your own applications into the gallery – and reach millions of customers, developers, and communities worldwide!

For those of you who want a bit more info – and I know that some of you do -

Here’s the back story:

Last June a few of us from Redmond took a trip down to San Francisco to figure out next steps for the direction that we wanted to move with Microsoft's web products. The developer ecosystem was changing, and we had great products and great customers, but we wanted to do more for our customers, the communities out there that wanted to use Windows - and, we wanted to figure out different ways that we could help developers be successful.

I had just come onboard as the lead for the Web Platform & Standards team, and between me, Bill Staples (General Manager of Web Products), Brian Goldfarb (Director of UX/Web), and a few others we put our heads together and came up with a few principles that we really wanted our web platform products and solutions to embody: (1) Simplicity, (2), Interoperability, and (3) Integration.

Today as we formally announce some of the pieces that extend on our web platform vision, I am happy to say that each component that we are announcing today deliver on each of these critical core values that are so important for developers, for communities out there, and for our customers.

So what are we announcing as part of the Microsoft Web Platform today? (other than the brand-spanking new website we have)

(1) The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta.(WebPI)

What does this do? It installs all the free Microsoft web products onto your Windows Server box, or your hosted server.

Why do I need this?                                                        

Well, first of all, this version of the WebPI  installs the community version of PHP. Additionally, instead of going to several different websites to download and install Microsoft's web products, you can now seamlessly and quickly install them from one website - and you can update them from this website as well. This is the simplicity we have been aiming for - one website, one download, and simple updates to the best products for building web solutions.

Why did Microsoft include the Community Version of PHP inside of the Web Platform Installer?

Microsoft is committed to providing developers and communities with the best solutions for building Web applications. Many popular applications are built using PHP, and Microsoft wants to ensure that its customers, community members, and developers are able to use these solutions on top of the Microsoft Web Platform – and including PHP inside of the Web PI simplifies this for Web developers. This is a critical piece of the Microsoft Web Platform strategy – which built to work with customers, communities, and developers - in mind.

What products does the WebPI include?

·         Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.1 on Windows XP SP3

·         IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 SP2

·         IIS 7.0 on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008

·         SQL Server 2008 Express,

·         .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

·         Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition

·         IIS Extensions including:

o   IIS 7 Media Services 3.0

o   IIS7 Administration Pack

o   Database Manager for IIS7

o   WebDav 7.5

o   FTP 7.5

o   FastCGI for PHP support on IIS6

o   URL Rewriter

o   IIS 7 Application Routing

o   Web Deployment Tool for IIS

·         ASP.NET and features such as ASP.NET MVC

·         Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio

·         The Community Version of PHP v5.2.9-1

(2) The Windows Web Application Gallery

What is the Windows Web Application Gallery?

-       The Windows Web Application Gallery is a community hub of the most popular Open Source and community Web applications that run on Windows.

-       It provides a simple streamlined way for users to explore, discover, and install ASP.NET, PHP, and other types of Web applications and solutions on the Windows Platform.

-       It also provides a simple way for developers to offer their applications to the millions of users worldwide.

What applications are currently included in the Windows Web App Gallery?

Current applications include: Acquia Drupal, DotNetNuke, WordPress, dasBlog, Gallery, SilverStripe, BlogEngine.NET, SubText, Umbraco, and ScrewTurn Wiki.

 

What are the benefits of using the Windows Web App Gallery?

A Great User Experience

The Windows Web Application Gallery makes it easy to explore, discover and install popular community ASP.NET and PHP applications for the Windows Platform. Discover and install web applications through the Microsoft.com website, the Microsoft Web PI, IIS 7.0 Manager, and participating hosting control panels.

A Strong Community Ecosystem

The Windows Web Application Gallery creates a social hub for connecting users to the right Web solutions. Make informed decisions and help others make decisions based on community ratings and reviews. Developers get access to a wealth of feedback helping them pinpoint ways to improve their web application. In addition, with numerous community and customized applications, developers no longer have to build their solutions from scratch; there are plentiful applications that solve real-world problems, and can be downloaded and installed, customized, and ready to go – saving both money and time for developers.

Easy Distribution & Amazing Market Opportunities

The Windows Web Application Gallery provides developers a simple way to offer their Web applications to millions of Windows users worldwide. By adding an application to the Windows Web Application Gallery that you package and we publish, you will gain access to millions of developers and end-users that are looking to discover solutions that will make them successful.

So I can build applications to the Windows Web Application Gallery?

Yes! You can - and by adding Web Application Gallery integration to your existing ZIP package, users can access your app inside the gallery - and Microsoft will help distribute and market it to millions of Windows developers worldwide. It's an easy way to distribute your application, promote your solution, or gain fame in the Windows community - oh - and help others be successful building web solutions.

I have to give kudos here to an amazing engineering team, a rockstar marketing team, and the superb website teams that we had working on this. Tremendous work has been done - and we've got lots more to come.

 

As always - questions and feedback welcome! /LC

 

Some things you might see at MIX09... Get ready, and hold on tight!

If you guys haven't already signed up for the MIX facebook page, I would highly recommend that you do so - you will see some great shots of what you might expect at MIX09 this year, including the following...

An amazing documentary, by the guy who did "Helvetica" - I am a huge fan and will definitely be in attendance.

Tattoo Artists. Well, that is Vegas for you... I do not *plan* on getting one, although I am known for taking the occasional bet...

 

Disco Balls and kick-ass Parties. I will personally ask "Gu" not to wear this outfit...

 

Party Animals. And no, we're not talking about that whole "Fuzzies" movement or whatever that is, although this picture kind of weirds me out... (I don't ask anymore, I really don't)

 


Oh, oh wait - and beyond all the fun you'll be having on the side (which I'll surely be joining you for) we'll also have some awesome demos, great keynotes, terrific people, and lots, lots more. This will be my first *official* Microsoft Conference (as an attendee, as an employee, and as a speaker) and I cannot wait.

Onward to MIX! /LC

And I'm back... Some Refreshing Changes at Microsoft

It's been awhile since I last blogged, but I was reminded today after devChix gave me props for starting to plan a Women's Barcamp for this coming Fall in SF (thanks gals!) that I probably should start to re-engage here... plus, I miss telling you guys what's going on at Microsoft (if you're not reading between the lines of my twitter account, that is.. )

So, I'll just give you guys a quick update on what's been going on at Microsoft, and what my travel schedule looks like over the next few months so if you're traveling to the same shows we can try to meet up...that, and I'll have some more things to blog about a bit later this week, but I can't give away too much right now :)

MICROSOFT:

After a few changes over at Microsoft, my team has grown two-fold over the past few months. Not only are we driving product management, product marketing, and go-to-market for The Microsoft Web Platform, but we have several announcements coming down the pipeline in the next month or so... 
 

So, the Microsoft Web Platform - is this a re-branding of our current web products? Yes and no. It's the free web products that you're familiar with, including IIS/Windows Server,  SQL Server, ASP.NET, Visual Web Developer, MVC,  Silverlight, Ajax, and much more -  but we've packaged this all up into one product download called the Web Platform Installer or the WebPI as we call it. So now there's little hassle when you go to download this - just one click/pick/download/install process - and yes, it's that fast. And no, you don't need to download everything - we actually give you a choice. :)
 

Let's just say it's a new focus - something my team is calling the customer-focused Microsoft Web Platform- that we're working on. What else does this include? Well, packaged OS PHP and .NET apps that are optimized to run on Windows. Did I say PHP? Yes. And Open Source? Yep. Does that mean you can use either SQL Server OR MySQL to run with this? Yes. Seriously? Yes. And overall, what does this mean?  An increasingly developer, community, and customer centric focus that you *may* be surprised to see from Microsoft - and let me tell you - there will be MUCH more to come.

 

With that, onto TRAVEL:

- MIX09, Las Vegas: March 18-20th. Come on, you know you want to go. I've actually never been to a MSFT conference so this will be my first - and the rumor has it this is by far the most fun (or from what people can actually remember about it)

- Web 2.0 Expo, San Francisco: April 1-3rd

So, hit me up if you're traveling to either show, or if you have feedback on the platform. We're open for business.. /LC