Microsoft news recap: Skype calling coming to Amazon Echo, Bing begins showing AMP websites on mobile search, and more

Microsoft news recap is a weekly feature highlighting the top Microsoft news stories of the past week. Sit back, grab some coffee, and enjoy the read!

Amazon announces new Echo and Skype integration

This week, Amazon announced it is opening up its communications APIs and Microsoft’s Skype service is the first to announce support. This will enable calling via Skype on Amazon Echo devices, including support for Skype’s call packages.

Microsoft acquires 332 acres of land in Loudoun County for $73 million, expected to be used for a data centre

Following in the lead of Amazon and Google, Microsoft has invested $73 million to purchase 332 acres of land in Loudoun County, near Chantilly and Leesbourg. It is expected that Microsoft could use this land to create a new data centre.

By popular request, Skype will be revamping its Presence model once again

Microsoft is still working on the best way to handle activeness statuses on Skype. The company has now said that Skype will not mark you as “Last active…” if the app is minimised, instead it will show you as active as long as you’re actively using your computer.

Bing starts showing AMP-enabled websites on mobile

Bing will now show and load AMP-enabled websites directly on mobile searches. AMP offers ultra-fast, cut-down versions of websites, an initiative by Google, that aims to load websites as fast as possible.

That’s it for this week. We’ll be back next week with more Microsoft news.