(pics Satya Nadella pics are at the bottom of this page: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/ceo/index.html ) THE INTERNET COLUMN By Giles Turnbull [Standfirst] Microsoft has a new boss. A 46-year-old cricket fan from India, Satya Nadella takes over at a difficult time. MICROSOFT'S NEW MAN Satya Nadella's email to all staff on his first day as Microsoft CEO was blunt: "We must zero in on what Microsoft can uniquely contribute to the world," he said. Nadella is only the third CEO in the company's history. He steps in as Steve Balmer retires, and as Microsoft struggles to keep pace with innovation elsewhere. Since the early 2000s, competitors old and new have grabbed great chunks of Microsoft's business. Apple products are everywhere you look. Google dominates on the web. Samsung and Amazon are innovating with new hardware ideas. Microsoft was ready for the desktop PC world of the 80s and 90s, but not for the mobile world of today. That's where it needs to focus. So what's on Satya Nadella's todo list? Maybe something like this: 1. Fix Surface. Microsoft's tablet is more expensive than rivals, with fewer features and much less storage space. It needs rapid and radical improvement. 2. Fix Windows. Microsoft's flagship software, Windows 8, introduced new interface features that left long-term users flummoxed. Innovation is good, but not at the expense of confusing loyal customers. 3. Invest in design. There's already a better logo and corporate identity, but Microsoft needs to apply the same logic to its products. Luckily, Nadella won't be working alone. Microsoft has always been good at investing in people, and has a team of fine minds in place to tackle these problems. And Nadella has already been in touch with another guy, a man from Microsoft's early days, to get him to come and help out. You might have heard of him too. His name? Bill Gates. FIND A HOLIDAY APARTMENT Apartum is a nicely designed site for finding holiday apartments to rent. Tell it where you want to go and when, and it shows you search results on a clear map. Click on each one to see more details from a variety of apartment exchange websites. Apartum does a good job of bringing them all together and making it easy to compare deals. Start searching at www.apartum.com. ONE ROAD, ONE STORY In the city of Bristol there's a place called Gloucester Road, a busy little community just outside the city centre but humming with activity. The shops and cafes that line it today are only the most recent commercial tenants, as you can discover when you browse the Gloucester Road Story website (www.thegloucesterroadstory.org). Every single building on the street has been researched and catalogued and documented, so you can take a virtual stroll along the street and down the centuries. DUMPING TABS NAME NAME couldn't find the news site he wanted to read on the internet every day, so he set about making his own. The result is Tab Dump (tabdump.com), a daily round-up of a few dozen interesting links about technology and world news. It's an eclectic mix and a personal selection, but unlike anything else you've read on the internet recently. If you really like it, you can make a donation or pay for a sponsor's slot. BROWSING AROUND ... BUYING A DOMAIN NAME :: One www.one.com :: Hover www.hover.com :: Dreamhost www.dreamhost.com :: UK-based 34SP www.34sp.com :: Find a short domain shortdomainsearch.net :: Search for good domains www.domai.nr THING OF THE WEEK :: Free stuff to do in London londonist.com/freelondon Giles Turnbull has a website at gilest.org End