Weekly #WhyMSFT Round-Up 5/20/2011

Welcome to the Why Microsoft Weekly Roundup!  The roundup is a collection of news items from around the web this week. Our goal is to share a variety of conversations about Microsoft products in the community…Enjoy!

Top 5 Picks for This Week:

 San Francisco Unveils Huge Cloud Services Contract

San Francisco had apparently considered Lotus Notes and Google as possible email providers, but ultimately went with Microsoft, in part, because it provided interoperability with other software, including Windows Azure applications and Office products such as Word and PowerPoint.

Chromebooks Won’t Push Microsoft Out of Businesses

The pricing for the consumer version is way too high. --It seems weird to pay MORE than a Windows netbook for a computer that (so far) does less. --The subscription pricing for businesses is at least a new wrinkle.

Bing & Facebook Deepen Ties, Threaten Google +1

Microsoft has unveiled a deeper conglomerate of Bing and Facebook that harvests the power of the social Web, one year after forming a partnership to take "social search" to the next level.

Microsoft: Google’s Cloud Productivity Play is ‘One Size Fits None’ 

Microsoft is fanning the competitive flames as the software giant preps for the official release of Microsoft Office 365, its cloud productivity suite, which is currently in public beta and receiving high praise from cloud-conscious customers and industry insiders. Microsoft expects Office 365 to be commercially available this year.

Microsoft’s Lync Online: What’s Coming When?

Lync is the successor to Microsoft’s Online Communications Server product. The on-premises version of Lync includes enterprise instant messaging, audio and video conferencing, support for presence and voice-over-IP. 

Have a blog post or article you want to see in next week's round-up? Tweet a link to us at @whymicrosoft or post it in the comments below!