New Microsoft photo site spends first day offline (AP) -- Microsoft…

New Microsoft photo site spends first day
offline
(AP) -- Microsoft Corp.'s new digital photo sharing site spent most of its first day offline as its
servers strained to handle a flood of traffic.


The site, called Photosynth, stitches together a set of related digital photos into a presentation that allows
viewers to zoom and pan across the scene.

Microsoft employees and partners including National Geographic had been tinkering with a private beta
version of the technology. Microsoft was set to open Photosynth to the public late Wednesday, but on
Thursday morning the working site had already been replaced by a page that displayed an apology.

On the Photosynth blog, a team member wrote that engineers were "hard at work adding capacity and
getting the full site back online." At 1:50 p.m. Pacific, the blogger added that the site would be back up
"shortly."

During a preview of the final product on Tuesday, David Gedye, a group manager for Microsoft's Live
Labs, said the team had been beating on the site to simulate the rush of new users expected after launch. But
when asked, he sounded less than confident that the technology could withstand the pressure.

"We're very nervous," he said during an interview.

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On the Net:

http://www.photosynth.com

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Original story at www.physorg.com/news138592399.html                                                      Page 1/1