Skype has a very large user base, and I am sure a lot of them were happy to use the video sharing feature. They "were happy", but now, they have to limit themselves to linking to YouTube or other sites, because Skype turned off the built-in video sharing feature for an undetermined period of time. Why? Unfortunately, the reason is a flaw that can lead to serious security problems, so until that one gets fixed, no more video sharing with your friends, co-workers or even business partners(I don't think virtual business presentations sound like something out of this world)...

Yesterday, security researchers said that the video-sharing feature in Skype allowed launching a self-copying worm attack against the program's users, which doesn't sound good at all, in my opinion. The feature disabled with this occasion allowed users to share videos from Dailymotion.com and Metacafe.com, at the same time as they were chatting with their friends, but due to the fact that this feature uses an Internet Explorer component for rendering HTML pages, attackers could easily run unauthorized software on computers using Skype's video-sharing feature.

At this time, Skype officials didn't make any comments, but Metacafe officials said that Metacafe videos should become available once again to Skype users by Wednesday morning.

Unfortunately, it seems Skype needs some serious changes to its code, because the Internet Explorer components can always have bad security settings, and I wouldn't trust using them in a thousand years.

Anyway, I am sure that a day or two without this feature won't kill anyone. If you are really addict to Skype's video sharing feature, maybe this is the right time for you to go out, get some fresh air, meet new people, stare at the sky...are you cursing me already? Well, as soon as I hear something new about this problem, be sure I'll get here and write a report!

If I would be someone in Microsoft's top management team, I wouldn't sleep well these days. Contrary to my belief, the guys at Microsoft are very confident in the future. Well, maybe they have some ace up the sleeve, but if this is true, only time shall tell. For now, let's see why analysts consider Microsoft's profit should have risen in the last quarter of 2007, data that is expected to become public this week...

Despite the global economic cool down, computer sales are speeding up in every corner of the world, and this helped Microsoft get back on track, after some concerns generated by the financial results of 2007's first quarter. Anyway, if we look a bit further into the future, we should notice that customer satisfaction offered by Vista is not as good as expected, and 2008 may not be as bright as analysts say now...

Andy Miedler, a technology analyst at Edward Jones, said "We're looking for Microsoft to continue to have positive results. Last quarter was one of the best we've seen from it in a very long time and we think the company is certainly headed in the right direction."

I am not going to give you figures regarding Microsoft's growth, because if you really are interested in those, you already know them. What I want to say is that, for now, Microsoft has to choose the direction, and also they have to think well about discontinuing Windows XP in June or not. Just as a final thought, the number of people that signed the petition to save XP is over 60,000 already...

For large companies as Microsoft, Google or Yahoo, the only chance to keep growing is to enter new markets and pursue projects completely different from what they've done so far. Obviously, this is only going to happen between certain boundaries, because I can't imagine Google producing and selling eco food, for example. Anyway, today it's not about Google, because they seem to be on the right path, and we didn't have any interesting news about them in the last weeks. This one is just as big, because Microsoft just decided to enter South Korea's Internet TV market!

Baiscally, Microsoft agreed to become partner with two South Korean companies and take advantage together of the fast-growing Internet TV market. These two companies are Daum Communications Corp, second largest Web portal in South Korea, and the local set-top box maker Celrun, according to Daum's spokeswoman, Park Hyun-Jung.

While Daum will provide content, know-how and access to a wide range of people that are already using its services, Microsoft will throw its own IPTV solutions into the pot, as well as focusing on the marketing part. At last, Celrun will come with the hardware part required for the mix to be complete.

The result? That's what remains to be seen, because at this time, only the basics of the recipe are known. If the consumers will consider this Internet TV effort to have tasty results or not, that's a bit too early to estimate, so let's leave Microsoft and their South Korean partners to cook the cake properly...