<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Microsoft is launching tools for developers to give their users online experiences that work in partnership with Internet Explorer and mobile devices.\nThe Companion Web initiative, announced by Microsoft in a blog post Wednesday morning, will allow developers to create web apps that responsively work on any size screen, from a smartphone to a television.\nSee also: 5 Tech Trends That Will Change Gaming Forever\nThe idea isn't entirely new for Microsoft, which last year announced SmartGlass as a experience that would unite content on the Xbox 360 and any smartphone or tablet with the SmartGlass app installed. Microsoft is doubling down on SmartGlass on the upcoming Xbox One console, with more games and apps having tie-in second screen experiences that can be accessed via mobile.\n\"We're doing this because the web is ubiquitous no matter what devices you have,\" said Microsoft Senior Product Manager for IE Bryan Saftler. \"We know that 86% of smartphone owners use them while watching TV, so why not create companion web apps that enhance those experiences.\"\nTo demonstrate what a great Companion Web experience would look like, Microsoft has partnered with polling startup Polar to help it build an app that works between web-connected TVs or PCs and a smartphone or tablet.\nUsers will be able to create and take polls from their smartphone, while the overall poll responses and other questions are displayed on the side of the main screen. Users can search for content related to a show they are watching on their phone, and see it pop up on the side of the program as well. Polar created a video to demonstrate the process.\n\nPolar's founder Luke Wroblewski said he created Polar to fix a fundamental problem he saw in polling: that people didn't enjoy giving feedback, especially to companies.\n\"Think about the last time you took a survey \u2014 you hated seeing the radio buttons, page 1 of 5, and questions that never stopped,\" Wroblewski said. \"We want to make it something people enjoy and an entertainment experience.\"\nThus the decision to link polls around television. Wroblewski said he can see plenty of use cases for live television events, or also shows that have a huge following.\nWroblewski said it was important to note that the polls never took away or intruded in the viewing experience, so you could keep focusing on a show. Currently, the app centers around short urls or simple search to find content related to what the viewer is watching.\nMicrosoft's blog said the Polar app was the just the beginning, and it would roll out new Companion Web experiments in the future.\nImage: Polar"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/07/17/microsoft-companion-web/>