Web 2.0: Microsoft Releases Beta of Popfly Mashup Tool

Microsoft Corp.'s CEO Steve Ballmer announced the public beta availability of Popfly, the company's mashup creation tool for non-technical users introduced in alpha form in May.

During Ballmer's appearance on Thursday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, a Microsoft staffer gave a demo of Popfly in which he showed how the tool can be used to create applications for sites like Facebook's social network and Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces without the need to write code.

Popfly is built on Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering video and interactive applications. Silverlight is Microsoft's answer to Adobe's ubiquitous Flash technology.

While acknowledging that Adobe Systems Inc. has done "a good job in rich media" with Flash, Ballmer nonetheless said there are plenty of opportunities for Microsoft to innovate as Web applications "continue to get richer and richer."