Slashdot Mirror
Ballmer On Microsoft's Search Goofs
An anonymous reader writes "AP reports on CEO Steve Ballmer's regret over Microsoft's failure to get into the search market early on. Best quote? 'I want to make sure (a user) can't get through ... an online experience without hitting a Microsoft ad.' Nice to see they're still user-oriented."
Sounds like my kind of search engine!
I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
from ballmer on microsoft's goofs, to balmer acting like a goof
I can counter that by saying, "I will make sure I never have an online experience again!"
Suckers.
Billy Mac, of Mac trucks, had this to say:
... a busy highway without getting hit by a Mac truck."
"I want to make sure (Steve Ballmer) can't get through
Setec Astronomy
I can pretty much guarantee that I'll see one on Slashdot every other story.
don't you think Ballmer kinda looks like an evil Dr. Phil?
'I want to make sure (a user) can't get through ... an online experience without hitting a Microsoft ad.'
That's gotta be a mood killer for people surfing pr0n.
If you click Microsoft's ads does Microsoft have to pay more?
This will solve more problems than one. Really. If Microsoft makes everyone's online experience the digital equivalent of being pestered by sales calls 24 times a day, on the hour, every hour, then maybe people like myself will turn off the computer, get up, go outside, and get some more exercise, loose weight, defeat the obesity scare, live longer and have a social life! ...or, realistically, develop better ad-blocking software.
Who am I kidding.
Though it would be funny to see what ads would pop up when searching for "Windows XP 2004 Server Keygen"
Search: Linux
i d= kb;en-us;314458
/ un ix/tco.asp
m l
........"
results 4
1.)http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?sc
"How to remove Linux and install WindowsXP
2.)http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/migrate
"Linux more expensive to operate then Windows"
3.)http://www.sco.com/scosource/linuxlicense.ht
"Linux contains SCO Unix intellectual property
4.)http://www.linuxsucks.com"
"Boy those guys at Microsoft sure know how to make great products
http://saveie6.com/
I want to make sure Steve Balmer can't get through a doctor's visit/border crossing/stop light without getting a full rectal exam.
BlackNova Traders
REDMOND, Wash. - When Microsoft Corp. entered the Internet browser war in the 1990s, Netscape Navigator was the early leader and Microsoft's Internet Explorer the late-blooming upstart.
Now, Microsoft is gearing up for a similar brutal and pointless battle in search technology.
Chief executive Steve Ballmer conceded Thursday that one big misstep by Microsoft over the past few years is that the company did not put resources toward the 'embrace and extend' - Microsoft's term for wholesale copying and stealing - of search technology.
"That's probably the thing I feel worst about over the last few years -- not destroying a small competitor in a wave of litigation and threats," Ballmer said at a conference for online advertisers held at Microsoft's Redmond campus, as sunlight bounced off his fat bald head.
Instead, he said, the company had kind of assumed that it would be fun to wait for a while to see what ideas others came up with, before stealing them. Joking that the pervasive software giant is often stereotyped as "a bunch of blood-sucking vampires" he said: "This is a case where we didn't destroy it all -- and I wish we had."
But Microsoft is now turning its considerable might toward catching up. It's a move that puts Microsoft head to head with Google, the world's most popular Web surfing vehicle, and Yahoo, the Internet's most popular destination, in what many see as the next depressing confirmation that there is nothing that can be achieved that Microsoft won't wreck with some awful code, a stack of ripped-off eyecandy and several billion dollars worth of marketing.
"I think you'll see some blood on the wheel in this area," Ballmer said.
Ballmer mentioned the European Union (news - web sites)'s ruling against Microsoft only in passing, when asked about rumors the company may be making some big acquisitions. He said he hadn't heard that; he'd been too busy paying attention to rumors coming out of Europe, as he made bunny ears with his fingers.
The European Commission (news - web sites) slapped Microsoft with a $613 million fine Wednesday for abusively wielding its near monopoly in desktop operating systems and ordered sanctions that go well beyond the company's antitrust settlement with the United States. The company has vowed to raise an army of the undead, to destroy the continent in a reign of fire, to sow its fields with salt and leave no stone atop another, pending an appeal by its lawyers.
Hell, even Bill Gates likes Apple.
http://saveie6.com/
> Note that both news services are currently in
> beta.
The difference being:
Google will take the beta label off their service when Google News is stable and usable.
Microsoft will take the beta label off their service when Google News is stable and usable.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
"The newest search results are coming soon! Get a subscription to Google and see them before everyone else!"
...if he considers bluescreens and error messages as ads.
I can't think of *any* technologies that Microsoft got into early on.
I believe that they are the leading innovators in the field of talking paperclip technology.
I tell you, buy a Microsoft penis enlargment kit, and you'll increase in size by this amount in one day.
One World, One Party, One Operating System
When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you
A lot of bad things can happen to a company using non-windows Operating Systems, you know. We wouldn't want that to happen now would we?
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, we've got a customer who doesn't want to renew their software licenses. What are we going to do?
AFAIK, they were groundbreaking leaders in bringing certain conveniences to email clients, such as double-clicking on an attachment, causing it to execute.
Prior to Microsoft, nobody had ever thought to do such [euphemisms coming up] .. inspired and visionary things. Indeed, most of their competitors still haven't dared to even try matching these features.
Another one: They got the brilliant idea of taking an Apple menu, moving it to the bottom the screen so that it's slightly slower to get to, and then moving it up by one or two pixels, so that if you slam your mouse pointer against the edge and then click, you will still manage to miss the menu, so you have to carefully adjust upwards a little, and then click, if you want to hit the hotspot. That tiny little offset of just a few pixels, is an innovation where Microsoft not only led for years, but most of their competition still hasn't matched them.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
...Windows 2003 Server?
sig mind freed