Comments on: Microsoft's ad pitch underpins Net moves

The company is betting on its AdCenter tool to help it realize its grand ambition to deliver free software over the Internet.

[Earl Benser]

And the crucial question is....

.... how does the average user turn it off??? or delete it??? or
whatever???

[PurePacket]

You don't

Things that are ad-based are that way because you aren't paying for the software. The option to turn them off requires you to actually pay for the software, that's how it works with everything ad-based.

Opera, before it was free, had google ads across the top. Google ads are very nice to have, especially always on like that. They are context based so you could see a link to something related to what you are reading, that you otherwise might never see. The internet is huge, ads like these help bring it to you. If Microsoft can manage to get this working right, it will be a useful tool, not an annoyance. Plus it means you don't have to drop $500 on Office.

[timgreenwalton]

AD shmads

I use google and MSN all the me but I have never clicked on an AD ever!!! Do the adverizers no that this ad stuff does not work?

[PurePacket]

If it didn't work...

Then Google wouldn't be making over $4 billion a year from their ads alone. Maybe you should reread the article, it DOES work. Google ads are great.

I might be wrong

But wasnt the Dot com crash having partly to do with advertisers pulling out of free services that were supported by ads? Im just recalling back when i used to do web pages for gaming as a hobby for a group that played online games, and i remember alot of great free web hosting service's closed out their free ad supported service due to advertiser's claiming loss in revenue, same could be said about alot of the free email and messageboard services that were around also.

And well while ad supported software is nothing new, i developed a distrust in alot of them due to some companies using spyware, so im very leary towards that kind of stuff - free is nice but not to me if it comes at a cost of losing privacy and having problems with your machine.

[gundeephora]

So Wrong

It's funny how some of you don't have a clue about the world of advertising and brand recognization. Advertising is a critical part of sending across a message to a specific audience. If advertising didn't work, as one of you pointed out, then Dell, Intel, Sony etc. wouldn't be where they are today. It's because of advertising that the world recognizes these companies are technology leaders.

Yes, advertising is helpful. How would you find the next best MP3 player or digital camera without seeing an advert. for it? That's right, you wouldn't. Companies rely on advertising to generate sales and adverts. do work.

You do realize that advertising is a source of revenue for almost all media companies. If advertising dropped, pretty much all the media companies would die out and companies then would have no form of communication. So it's a catch-22 thing.


Bottom line: advertising will never ever die, nor would I want it to do because I like my news too much. Moreover, if more people start to block advertising, companies will find creative ways of surpassing that, and the battle between consumers and advert. agencies will continue.

So for those of you hoping to see the world without advertising one are in a disappointment of your life.

[t8]

Microsoft ads feel bad

An An ad supplied by Microsoft is the worst kind of ad. A Google ad gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.
The point is that if you do not like a company, it doesn't matter what they do, it always feels bad coming from them. We also know that a lot of people hate Microsoft for one reason or another and rightly so. But no one hates Google as they have done a lot for the Internet and big and small businesses alike. They have so far been a good force in the IT world.

The push for online services with the Web as the platform gives Google the advantage because the Web gives us choice and we choose who we like. Microsoft has been force feeding people on their stuff for years with Windows, but they cannot force feed anyone on the Web. As the saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink". Traditionally people have only used Microsoft because they had to. On the Web that will not be the case.

That said the Justice Dept will have to keep an eye out for illegal business practices from Microsoft. Microsoft may resort to breaking the law again when they realise they cannot win by fair competition.