Microsoft's new ad target: Windows 7
Seizing what is perhaps its most valuable advertising real estate, Microsoft said on Friday it has launched a pilot program to sell ads on the Windows desktop.
Advertisers can buy the right to offer various themes that customize the desktop image and that promote various gadgets and even custom sounds for the Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft stressed, however, that users will choose which, if any, of the customizations they want to download.
The Windows Personalization Gallery offers a desktop branding experience for users throughout the operation of their Windows 7-based PC, including backgrounds, slide shows, borders, and application audio elements.
Microsoft's pitch is that the program will allow consumers to connect with brands they particularly like.
"The new Windows Theme Experience and Windows Personalization Gallery in Windows 7 allow consumers to customize their technology to reflect the things in life they are most passionate about," Microsoft vice president Darren Huston said in a statement. "These are great examples of Microsoft innovation and technology coming together to enable top global brands to reach audiences in new and interesting ways."
Microsoft said that the advertising program is a test that will run through October of next year. Early partners include Porsche, Infiniti, and Ducati, and Microsoft itself is participating.
"Microsoft is a key partner in our global advertising strategy; they constantly provide new ideas and opportunities which are tailored to our brand and exciting for our customers," Infiniti marketing director Jon Brancheau said in a statement. "The Windows Personalization Gallery and Windows Theme Experience are unique offerings that will provide Infiniti with a new set of tools to integrate our brand elements into the lives of consumers everywhere."
Twentieth Century Fox, another early advertiser, will use the Windows desktop to promote its movies.
"People connect emotionally with films and the stories they tell," vice president Bettina Sherick said in a statement. "These are the same people who personalize their digital experience. We are thrilled to be able to bring our film properties to consumers and let them engage more deeply with the stories that move them."
Microsoft said that the themes are available globally from Microsoft's Web site.
"We pride ourselves on listening to our clients and developing the most innovative, accessible and relevant products based on their feedback," said John Nicol, general manager, Last Mile Innovation, Microsoft Consumer & Online.
Although new to Windows, sponsored themes have been common in other PC experiences, such as instant-messaging programs.
So, Windows 7 users, what do you make of this?
In addition to the usual collection of pretty pictures, Microsoft is now selling businesses the option of offering sponsored desktop themes for Windows 7.
(Credit: CNET)
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
No body is forcing you to have the adds. Try this, go to the 'themes' page and take a look. You can get highly stylized 'Ferrari' or 'Porsche' themes. Some people are going to download those in a heartbeat.
Not me, but I am sure that a lot will.
Other OS's have given the ability to have background slideshows for many years, without having to give anything up.
At times, certainly, though most often those adverts are discreet at best. Then again, people don't have to stare at their own clothes to get something done, either. ;)
==
"Other OS's have given the ability to have background slideshows for many years, without having to give anything up."
To be fair, Windows 7 has this (minus the adverts) and it is set by default.
So if YOU really like a product, you can put their ad on your desktop, if not, then you don't have to anything different than you already are, except maybe read the articles before you comment.
Sounds vaguely _EVIL_
Wait until the political hacks on both parties get their hands on this concept.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10395980-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Uh, no they did not. That statement was made by an employee who had absolutely no involvement in the development of Windows and his comment has been officially disavowed. It would be akin to someone at Ford Motor Credit, for instance, stating that elements of the Lincoln Navigator were copied from the Chevy Suburban.
You don't have to "endure" anything unless someone is holding a gun to your hea and forcing you to navigate to the site, download a sponsored theme, and then install it.
No, I've used both, and Win 7 is the better of the two.
At least it won't delete your files...
And Sol, if you don't want the themes, don't download them.
No one is going to have to 'endure' anything. Only people that like and want a theme will have it.
Actually there is no such thing as an absolutely best operating system. What makes one the best is relative to the perception of the person using it.
You like Mac. Fine.
I like Windows 7. Deal with it.
Nice spin! If Windows's UI were some unseen creature that no one could verify, then maybe you would have a point. ;)
Since you say it's spin, could you please point to some evidence indicating that this employee was ever involved in the development the Windows UI. By virtue of his position, he wouldn't be privy to that which he claims.
And just to elucidate my order of preference is OS X, BSD, Ubuntu, Windows 7, but with a special spot in my heart for BeOS which I am now running as Haiku.
The article was actually good, but MS lost me when they called this innovation. Optional or not IMO this isn't even close to being innovative.
"Frankly it's not the OS that really does much, it's the apps you can get for it that makes the difference. The place you're going to find the widest variety of apps for any given need is Windows. Not that you can't find what you need on you're prefered OS, just saying."
Actually, you make the mistake most people do. It is not the number of applications that counts, rather it is the quality of those applications. Having a thousand different applications to perform a task is useless if none of them will actually do what you want to do. OSx, BSD and linux actually have access to the vast store of freely available programs many of which have been around for a long time. The sooner people get past the old "there are thousands of apps for Windows" and realize that quality is much more important than quantity the sooner we can move on. (iPhone users are just as bad with their touting the number of Apps for the iPhone and for the very same reason).
The main point I was making, however, was that the Windows fanatics are no different from the Mac or Linux fanatics. A computer is a tool. A real craftsman chooses the the tool that does his work best. Most people just use their choice of OS as a reason to tout their superiority. I have probably been guilty of that myself occasionally. :-) And I will admit to kidding my friends when they call me up to ask for my help fixing their computer problems. The OS in question shall not be named. :-)
Coming from Microsoft, I know it's not full of phishing programs, etc.
Plus, if Microsoft makes a couple of pennies when I download, good for them.
Finally, how many of you whiners actually paid for your Windows 7 software? My guess, very few.
As this currently stands, its a great idea. If MS ever forces me to have desktops themed by companies that i do NOT choose, then it is a problem.
Wait a minute, I thought you ****** thought market share equaled security? 7 is already far less secure than Linux or OS X.
YOU DONT HAVE TO DO IT! YOU ARE NOT FORCED!
my god. Those are the people who need to switch to a mac because its so much "easier". Like its hard to understand the concept of this article. Seriously, please leave and clean up the PC gene pool.
Yes it is optional, but history tells you that kind of thing is always the first step to commerical windows or what ever else.
I can hear it now "Many happy users haven chosen to put Ads on their screens, and we will now make it permanant in windows 8.0". After all isn't that how we got VISTA and Windows 7 in the first place? Judging from previous posts on CNet the majority of the resonders prefered XP (Now if that was a survay....).
NOTE THIS: I will bet that the hackers are going to find a million holes just in this area and we will see a lot of "patch Tuesdays" in the coming days.
In either case, the point you raise is valid, but I would see it more as evolving into a model where MS says "Ok, here's a FREE version of windows that's Ad-supported. If you don't want the ads, then buy the software." This type of business model has been used by websites for years, and it works pretty well for them. Maybe it could work for operating systems too.
The first line in your post applies perfectly to you. Look in the mirror.
These are downloadeable themes, not ads. They are themes that are sponsored by various third parties and made available to those who wish to download them for their own enjoyment.
Yeah, the hackers are going to find a million holes in themes, as if themes are something entirely new.
Also, Microsoft made the ability to customise the OS in Windows 95, themes and other extras, either free, sponsored, blatent advertising or more have always been available.
If it was exploitable, it would already have been exploited.
Also, since the option to customise has been around for over 14 years, it is unlikely we are about to see this beign the step to you HAVING to have adverts.
David
Where I can really see this take off, however, is in those settings where the computer owner does not equal the computer user: Internet cafes, public access points, libraries, and perhaps even the corporate world. Owners will see this as a revenue source, and there will potentially be a lot of captive eyeballs who will not have the access privileges to get these ads off the desktop while they're using the computer.
The one and only thing this means is that, since 22 Oct, third party themes which are sponsored by various companies have been available for download. If you like the video game Gears of War, you can download a theme for it. If you like Coca Cola, you can download their theme. If you love your Porsche, then you can download that theme. That's all it is, and nothing more- a simple concept that a few paranoid delusionals are getting up in arms over..
Personally, my standard theme is no theme, my desktop is it's usual blank. This was a good idea when our computers were much wimpier. Guess it just stayed with me, or maybe I'm lacxking creativity, who knows.
IF you go looking for new themes ONLINE (you are not promtped or told to do so) then some of them will be theses branded themes. If you don't go looking for new themes, you will never know they existed. I don't think of that as opt-in/out. I think of that as allowing people to customise the OS and some of the customisations have been done by commercial organisations.
If you want to see this at the extreme, go look at the wincustomize.com web site - not MS, been around for years and offers a wealth of extreme and sponsored options.
Thanks
David
- by WileySkier November 13, 2009 7:37 AM PST
- The comments from Ted are ridiculous. Why are you so confrontational? Is it your job to prevent everyone from trying something new?
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
-
- by KazikliBey November 13, 2009 7:59 AM PST
- So true.
- Like this
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (118 Comments)I downloaded the Bing theme. It really just adds nice artwork and there is a small bing watermark on the image. Microsoft seems to be doing a much better job at listening to customers. The article states that this is a trial program. If the themes are intrusive and customers hate it, I imagine they'll bag it.