As far back as 1999, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer looked ahead enthusiastically to the rise of Web services as "more significant than the development of the browser." In typical Microsoft fashion, the world's largest software manufacturer dived headlong into the trend with a rush of marketing hyperbole. Also in character, at least according to critics, the company created much buzz about the new technology before fully developing its concept, let alone any actual products or services. As Microsoft prepares to launch the first trials of .Net My Services this fall, key details of the plan are still "not figured out," said Jim Allchin, Microsoft's group vice president in charge of Windows and server software development. "I think we just got ahead of ourselves and didn't get clear enough thinking," he said, echoing similar concerns voiced last August.
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