the noise from Gears woke the sleeping giant, pipes.yahoo.com oeksmd em out, and Zoho definitely damned Dynamics. One could have said Microsoft was definitely not leading the Web 2.0 Revolution And although we understand that businesses do go through cycles, insatiable Internetters have become savvy social beings. Microsoft WAS missing out on key growth from the social netwokring and web application sector. One could say Microsoft got it's SecondLight during the 4 day Professional Developers Conference. (So I was told) Microsoft was abuzz for Azure, Live was the life of the party, services like mesh.com or foldershare.com highlighted the direction Microsoft was going with webware and I am sure a developer (or two) reached for his inhaler after Microsoft gave out a copy of the next version of their operating system, Windows 7. Microsoft was ready to take on the competition. With new ideas , technology and services, Microsoft definitely paved the path to a whole new level of WoW Start with windowslive.com , if you are a Developer, check out Codeplex, Microsoft's open source project hosting web site.Want to start a business? office.live.comcreate games and mashups with popfly.com Yes, the sleeping giant has been woke, but the competition will continue fighting back. Consumers are the great benefactor of a countless number of web goodies.Are you ready for what’s next? So am I.