The announcement came at Microsoft Developer Forum in Tokyo where Ballmer said that Microsoft is "obviously hard at work on the next version of Windows."

He added, "As we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there's a whole lot more coming."

"As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors," he added.

“Like” pages will get top spot in search results

Social media is playing a very important role in influencing people’s opinion about many things and Microsoft has realized the potential of social media earlier than its competitors. Earlier Bing used to show the results “liked” by the user's friend on Facebook, but now it will be the determining factor in the page rank system.

Emphasis on HTML5 language

Though Internet Explorer 9 has been appreciated by critics for its improved interface, fast performance and enhanced security however; there’s no time for relaxation for a browser trying to build its place in a crowded market place.

Commenting on this, Microsoft corporate vice president Dean Hachamovitch posted on the IEBlog "We're about three weeks into development of IE10, and based on the progress we've made, we want to start engaging the development community now.”