There have been changes to commercial API as Steve Clayton points out.

• For basic usage, the API will always be free
• Usage up to one million unique users is free, except for:
• Windows Live Search is free up to 750,000 searches per months
• Virtual Earth (Live Maps) is free up to 3 million map tiles per month
• Silverlight video streaming is free up to 4 gig, with free unlimited streaming, and no limits on users
• Above one million unique users, sites will have to pay 25 cents per user per year
• For Search and Virtual Earth, sites will need to negotiate a commercial agreement with Microsoft
• No beta services will charge for usage of the API. You will only have to pay after it leaves beta
• Users will be averaged out per quarter, so if you have a big spike one month, you won’t have to pay for it

Source Inside Microsoft

Related posts:

1. Microsoft Launches Killer RIA Say Goodbye to Flash
2. Microsoft and Facebook Announce Partnership
3. Microsoft We Screwed Up Windows Mobile, iPhone Competitor Silverlight Mobile 2010
4. Internet Explorer 9 and SilverLight 4 Announced Breaking News
5. Prism and XUL Could Have Been A Silverlight And Adobe AIR Killer

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Microsoft, Software, Technology Tags: .NET, Microsoft, Programming, Silverlight

Here’s a brief run down from Liveside if you don’t want to visit and read the whole article.

The Mix07 keynote introduced a whole new Silverlight, turning the product from an also ran to an eye-opener. Just look at what was announced yesterday:

• Silverlight is cross-platform, running equally well on Safari or Firefox on a Mac as Firefox on a PC, and of course on IE.
• A single 4mb download that installs in less than 20 seconds is all you need to run Silverlight content.
• Silverlight is a .Net technology, meaning that developers can
  write web applications in C#, VB.Net, Python, Ruby, or other languages
  of choice.
• Since it’s .Net and compiled, Silverlight will run somewhere between “300 to 1000 times faster” than an AJAX web application.
• Silverlight is tightly integrated with Visual Studio and
  Expression Studio, and while it’s not necessary to write Silverlight
  apps in these products, doing so means big gains in productivity, in
  end-to-end application development, and ultimately in creativity.
• Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live offers free or low cost hosting of video content, with all the advantages of scale that Microsoft hosting can provide.

Ryan Stewart from znet has a great article on what Silverlight means for developers. I especially like Dare’s Post on why Ajax is now a endangered species. Lets face it AJAX has its limitation and we have pushed to the limit.

The Silverlight website looks really great(I am bit biased towards the color Blue) ironically it looks horrible in IE 6, but looks great on Firefox and IE7.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft and Facebook Announce Partnership
2. The SilverLight Poster and more on Silverlight and Microsoft
3. Prism and XUL Could Have Been A Silverlight And Adobe AIR Killer
4. Microsoft We Screwed Up Windows Mobile, iPhone Competitor Silverlight Mobile 2010
5. Gee, And I thought Microsoft Was dead?

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Microsoft, Software, Technology Tags: .NET, Microsoft, Programming