Microsoft says it will use the company's software, people and intellectual property to accelerate the delivery of its unified communications vision, a vision bringing together various technologies including e-mail, instant messaging, short message service, telephony, and Web conferencing.

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Although it is coy about details, the company says it will use software to filter out objectionable material and human reviewers to decide borderline cases.

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It will use software written just for the purpose to ease the transfer of e-mail addresses, datebook appointments and stored messages.

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The obvious ones are already being discussed extensively online, including how Facebook will make use of even more data, how it will interactive with their facial recognition software, and the lowering of tolerances to sharing everything with a huge online data warehouse.

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Under a system to be introduced later this year, media groups that want to continue to use their own hardware and software will have to order it from approved suppliers, and have it shipped directly to the department and installed by its own IT people.

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