PaidContent has a nice roundup of Microsoft’s eighth annual Strategic Account Summit. In the Strategic Account Summit, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said that he plans on spending the last remaining months of his Microsoft tenure focusing on “search, buyers and sellers.”

Gates will be working full-time at Microsoft through mid-2008. He said online and advertising services will be his “biggest thing,” while he rounds out his full-time career at Microsoft.

PaidContent also highlights coverage that Microsoft’s online media business will undergo some changes. Microsoft has deals with both Volvo and Chivas Brothers for two web-only video series.

Meanwhile, other articles that PaidContent summarizes poke at adCenter and Microsoft’s search efforts in general being seen as slow to grow or disappointing.

John Battelle has posted about seeing some things he found interesting from Gary Flake, Microsoft’s technical fellow. But that’s about all the details shared, since this was under NDA.

The Seattle Times Blog drills more into something Flake focused on at the conference, Microsoft’s Photosynth software that turns photos into 3D representations.

Postscript: Gates makes case for Microsoft’s ad business from News.com has good commentary on Microsoft’s push into the online ad business.

Related Topics: Microsoft: General

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz